In December we started a huge remodel on the bottom of the garden. It already had some raised beds where we grew vegetables (on a small scale!) that were put in the year after we moved into the house.  Back then I had another blog which can be found here.  It was mainly about gardening, the house being made over and the chickens!  Back then, can you believe it – I couldn’t crochet!!!!

We made them out of wood, and they’ve lasted well, but they needed replacing.

So, not doing things by halves.  We’ve completely redone the bottom of the garden!

We’ve pulled down the greenhouse.

And the old shed!

It was a huge amount of work, and we did it all over the Christmas break.  I went from  six 3ft x 6ft beds, to three 18inch x 6ft, and one triangle bed.

Do you want to see it?

Do you see the new shed and the beginnings of the greenhouse too?

These look pretty empty, but we did get planting in time you’ll be pleased to hear!

When we still had Dhylis and Sherbert.  The little girls enjoying the new soil!

But this is very early on……

I have to give credit for the ingenuous way to grow climbing beans to my friend Penny.   Rather than do a wigwam shape in a bed.  You can get arches from Wilkinson, then put the feet in one bed and grow over the path way to another bed.

We’ve planted climbing beans, runner beans, peas, tomatoes, a trombochino, and some mini cucumbers.  One thing we’ve done differently this year is to plant lots of flowers too – to entice the beans and pollinators in!  The blue one went a littel crazy planting sunflowers, and they are huge but lovely now and currently some of the only colour in the garden.

See the cheery tomatoes in the hanging baskets?

A baby trombochino

The sweet peas didn’t turn out as I’d hoped.  Only about 3 ft tall and not many flowers, when I had planned for them to grow over the archway making it smell amazing to walk through.

 

Minicucumbers – the best harvest ever.  We made a metal frame with chicken wire that could lean against the outside of the greenhouse, and they would climb up and the fruit drop through the holes.  We are definitely using this again. This is what it looks like now…….

The signs were made by my friend Penny too for my garden opening a couple of years ago!  I love them!

Cucamelons.  I’ve been trying to grow these for years….. Finally I have some!   The trick – John Innes number 2, and plant in the greenhouse, and water every couple of days
The Cucamelon plant.

So, thats the vegetable garden as it currently is.  We’ve harvested copious tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans along with 3 huge trombochinos which I’ll share with you soon what we’ve done with one of them!

The kids love being able to run up the end of the garden and pick things.  Not only do they learn where things come from, how they grow, but they have great fun doing it too!!