Monday 11 May 2009

Meanwhile, in the garden

I live in a Victorian terraced house, and my garden is a typical London 20 foot by 20 foot plot. I have three borders, two of which house roses, so most of my veg are in containers of one kind or another. First up are the window boxes, currently holding a mustard mix, a lettuce mix, rocket and Bull's Blood beet, grown for its leaf.
This is my mini greenhouse - a very successful purchase from Thompson and Morgan early in the year. In here I've got chillis, toms, cucumbers and squash, plus leeks and peas.

This is the herb garden. A few of my herbs are supermarket herb pots that I've liberated - coriander and basil does well treated this way. Then there's a tiny bay bush - a present from cousin Jane, chives, four types of thyme, several mints, oregano, tarragon, marjoram, parsley. At the back are my wild garlic seedlings, a cucumber and a tom. My lemon verbena is now putting on leaves - every year it looks like a dead stick before finally bursting into life.

My small patch of lawn had got very straggly and brown, so this year I've covered up the lot with membrane so that I can returf next year. This gives me room for more veg - potatoes, peas, beans, radish. The potatoes look like triffids - I hope the green growth isn't too fleshy and weak.
One bed has my fruit bushes, new to me this year. After tasting loganberries at Jane's last year, I bagged myself a bush at the Burford garden centre, when Big Bro and I were driving over to Gloucestershire. I'll plant a squash in the front of the border.

Here I've got more peas, my Jekka curly mint and buddlia mint, and jerusalem artichokes - I thought the slugs had got these, but they've bounced back.
I've grown veg in containers for about 15 years, and it felt very odd last year when I took on my allotment and had to start learning how to grow in real earth. The only thing that doesn't do well for me in pots are brassicas - bagged compost is too friable.

Mouse enjoys a wander in the garden, but she's not mad about the slate chippings which are too sharp for tender paws.

3 comments:

Michele said...

Everything looks so beautiful and healthy! I have the exact same greenhouse!

franmouse39 said...

It's great, isn't it, Michele! Very easy to put together. Some of my toms will be moving in once I remove seedlings and shelves.

Shaheen said...

Wow!
Your growing so much in the space you have. I am so glad to read about your lemon verbena. I only got my lemon verbena last year and thought it was dead, it looks like a twig, just as you described. You have given me comfort by stating that yours has started to spurt leaves, mine is still sulking. Maybe when I gt back from Paris I will start to see some leaf shoots coming through.