Sarah J's Page

I do wish I'd kept this blog a little more up to date as I need to re-do my lawn fertilizer/moss killer and need to leave 6 weeks between but can't remember when I last did it! Have finally finished digging over a long-abandoned bed along one side of my garden and am amazed how many brambles and young sycamore-type trees were in there. Will have to wait til the end of summer to kill the remaining stumps off but have planted bee-friendly seeds, lupins, calendulas and other flowers that will be go… Continue

Where am I up to? I have 3 beds in (roots, alium, legumes) and planted up with the 4th one (brassica/squash) well on it's way. My babies, carrots and beetroot are finally showing (I'd all but given up on them) so I've lifted the enviromesh onto upturned plan pots to give their little shoots a chance. I've added a row of radish and salad leaves to the end of the alium bed until I decide whether to plant leeks or not. The leek plants seem quite expensive to buy compared to the supermarket. I know… Continue

Much to my surprise, I have finished the second raised bed taking one of the forum gods' advise to just de-turf, put a good layer of sand on then waggle a fork around to create drainage holes then covered the whole lot with compost/sand mixture (v much more compost than sand).

I've planted onions red baron and...ummm...can't remember (it WAS yesterday!) leaving enough room for the leeks I intend to get in.

When my neighbour and I felled a tree last autumn, I kept all of the long straightish br… Continue

Where did I get to? Ah yes, digging. So I dug the whole thing out, ploughed in 4 big bags of sharp sand, mixed it up, put it all back then started on the sides of the raised bed; the raised portion as it were. That's a right game isn't it?

I had a search around for the cheapest practical option and that seemed to be wooden gravel boards. I bought those from Wickes (my little Punto is actually a tardis!) 5 x 2.4 x 0.15m boards for £11.74 and a length of 5 x 5cm for the corner posts. On Th… Continue

Was too busy socially whirring yesterday to get anything done in the garden except purchase a boot-load of compost and sand. The forum gods (thank you) said they recommend raised beds and that's all very well but with my little car, I'm not sure how to get 2.4m long gravel boards home. Mind you, having spent nearly all day our there, I'm still at the digging stage! I do NOT believe people do this for enjoyment! Me back's killing me and I must have turned over more mud than... it's funny that the… Continue