welcome to our blog

I am writing this blog so you can follow my family as we aim to grow all our veg and some fruit in our own garden.
for the last 2 years, we have grown a few vegetables but in an effort to reduce our impact on the environment we want to grow most of what we need ourselves.

plums growing 2019

our two plum trees before the leaves grew 

fig tree after its prune in autumn 2019
 We are very lucky our garden has a fig tree and two plum trees so we have quite a good amount of fruit throughout the summer. I will include the maintenance of these trees as I go through the year. and things grow.

our courgette plants in a raised border

The first year of growing it was just courgettes and we did well had more courgettes than we could eat, we ended up sharing with our neighbours,







In the second year, we grew courgettes, runner beans, dwarf beans, and strawberries. we have used only natural methods to control pests as I don't want to use any chemicals that can go into the food we eat or effect the other creatures in our garden (like bees) I had aphids, ants, slugs and snails to deal with last year so no doubt I will have to deal with these again this year. 
front tyres contain runner beans rear has dwarf beans
dwarf beans growing and some ready to pick
I used a wooden raised border that was already in my garden for the courgettes.
a trug box for my strawberries in the hope that being higher up on legs it would stop the slugs eating all the fruit.
then my beans grew in raised planters made from stacked tyres.

This year my children and I want to grow more vegetables so at the end of the summer I got a second raised trug and made a larger raised border, (as the old one was rotten through at the sides and main posts) So this year we will be growing courgettes, dwarf beans, long beans, baby sweet corn, carrots, rainbow chard, and onions, maybe something else I have quite worked out where each thing will grow yet. 

currently, I have garlic growing which should be ready to come out in the late spring. I decided having put in the raised border in the autumn I should try and grow something over the winter. Next winter I plan on growing garlic, onions and carrots, possible parsnips too. 
garlic growing feb 2020

I also plan on taking a part of my garden and rewilding it for the bees. Not only will this help the bees but should help my garden by bringing the bees into my garden. We were lucky to have a bumblebee nest in our garden last year and the children enjoyed watching the bees come and go. So I will also share this part of my gardening too I plan to have a raspberry bush as part of the wild area too.

I will keep sharing each stage of the journey from sowing the seeds, preparing the beds, containers, planting the seedlings, pest control, maintenance/care, harvesting, and preparing for next crops. I'm hoping to reduce the veg I need to buy so we mainly use what we grow. My long term goal is to not need shops for our veg. So here goes and I hope my tips can help others along the way.

Good gardening everyone!













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