Its That Time of Year Again

For me there are two signals that I need to be starting on the vegetable patch. First good old Monty is back on the TV screens with Gardeners World. I drool in envy as he potters about in never ending garden. He even makes digging look effortless with not a bead of sweet to be seen. And I swear he has never had a weed in his garden. The other signal is spotting my elderly neighbours gardening gear on the washing line, all cleaned ready for the season. This is followed a few days later by him also pottering in his garden next to mine. His, like mine, is more postage stamp than acreage but still his is perfectly kept. Not a weed in sight and flowers start to bloom in carefully themed colours.

Mine on the other hand has weeds, no flowers unless you count the forget-me-knots and I am a lot less organised. This year I want to be more organised with the vegetable crops as last year I swear I nearly turned into a rabbit the amount of lettuces I had. Last year I attempted too many different vegetables and want to cut down and not try to be self sufficient. It’s impractical in my little postage stamp.

Last year…

• Strawberries – at least one puddings worth – would have been more if my teen didn’t keep eating them from the garden.
• Carrots – only one good crop of about two meals worth.
• Lettuce – too much
• Potatoes- only one meals worth and should have been a lot more.
• Tomatoes – absolute failure on all 5 plants. Did find out later that the teen had been eating them from the plant.
• Peppers – one pepper and that was rather odd shaped
• Cucumbers – about 3 cucumbers
• Melon Pears – lots but then discovered that they weren’t actually that nice. Not soft as I was expecting, more hard and crunchy and not that tasty.
• Leeks – plenty
• Parsnips – two roast dinners
• Turnips – a few but realised I’m not actually keen on them
• Beetroot – complete flop
• Onions – 2
• Peas – first planting produced lots, got a bit adventures and did a second planting which didn’t work
• Runner beans – lots but did tend to pick too late so were a bit tough.

So lesson learnt and this year I am only doing strawberries, lettuce, peas, runner beans …well that’s the plan so far and I bet I don’t stick to it. I will do cucumber and tomatoes again but these will be indoors this year as the plastic greenhouse took flight in the winter.

I always love using herbs and have moved the herb garden to the top patio. This sounds very grand but is actually 9 slabs I plonked on top of a mound of soil and debris. It’s rather wobbly and although I have a chair there I have to sit still and can’t fidget or I will end up arse over tit.

This year I am yearning for grown up girlyness and want more flowers. So far sunflowers of varying heights, night stock and honeysuckle for scent. Not really been a flower type before I need to read up more on what can work in my awkward positioning as half the garden only gets sun for half the day and that’s only half of the year.

Are you growing vegetables this year? If so what are you growing this year?