Digging, horse poo and proper gardening

Oh dear, a bit overdue for an update...

Got back after Easter trip to find lots of Sprouting Things on the windowsill, all v exciting. In fact I think some may be a bit oversprouty - the lettuce seedlings are a bit leggy but we'll see how they do. I also had beetroot, spring onion, sweet william and sweet peas coming up.

So, yesterday it was time to do some Proper Gardening. I'd got a bag of "well-rotted manure" from Auntie Annie and Leasa (who have a livery yard), and my own Mum came round to help - she's been veg gardening ever since ever so is Fount Of All Knowledge. We dug over the little triangle and the big one, and dug in the horse poo, and Mum proclaimed it good soil as there are still lots of worms and a robin came and sat on one of the markers a couple of feet from us, which we took as a good omen.

We've made a bit of a plan now for what's going where - the strawberry plants have gone in the pointy bit of the smaller triangle, with the leggy lettuce seedlings in a row behind, and the beetroots behind them, which pretty much takes up the space back to the wall. In a couple of weeks I have to remember to put another row of each in so (theoretically) I'll be able to harvest for longer.

In the big triangle, we've decided to put runner beans up the "trellis" I made a couple of weeks ago to cover the end of the garage, so have built a cane wigwam for the sweet peas to climb up with a sort of cat's-cradle of string around to help them up. We've planted leeks along the back as they're winter, carrots in front of them, and put the lavender plant on the corner into the bed so it'll smell nice when brushed against. We've also planted the chives and mint (still in its pot) in the pointy corner, and put the rest of the free-from-Lakeland salad leaves in a pot against the wall.

I think that's everything, must try to take some pictures. My Dad has made me some beautiful markers (as in the things you write "carrots" on and stick in the end of the row) out of split twigs (only way I can think of to describe them!) so I've put those in and they look great. There's still a bit of a space in the big triangle that I'm not sure about but will see in inspiration strikes. Might put the sweet william in there - the seedlings are too teeny to go out yet. The sweet peas are sprouting in the kitchen - one variety (patio) are about 2" high but the other sort aren't really doing much yet.

Jobs for this week are to take some pictures of the triangles, and to get some runner beans to plant under the trellis. And to keep an eye out for slugs. :)