As the last of the late snow thaws, the tiny shoots of my recently sown garlic and shallots have reappeared, sodden, but hopefully not defeated.
I’m a couple of weeks behind schedule in embarking on the next phase of my ambitious 2018 garden plan. And there’s still quite a lot of heavy lifting to do – a lean-to glasshouse to install, fencing to put up, a couple of tonnes of soil to be sifted through, and countless jobs to improve the aesthetics of the garden. But, we have also made great progress in re-shaping the garden and getting it ready for this year’s planting.
The garden was an impassable jungle of thorny roses, ivy, overgrown shrubs, and countless weeds (including multiple fledgling sycamore trees) when we moved in in July 2016. We could neither see or access the shed at the back!
September 2016. The garden after its first major haircut. We uncovered the foundations of an old glasshouse, which I used as a raised bed for the 2017 crop. In this image it is covered with old carpet to rot down green waste and nourish the soil underneath over the winter of 2016 into early 2017.
The garden slowly taking shape in April 2017.
The garden in February 2018. We shifted the soil from the centre into three raised beds and a rockery. The rockery itself was made using bricks from the old glasshouse foundation and the coal bunker. As the house is terraced, we need to do as much as we can with what’s already in the garden, rather than trying to hump tonnes of soil, bricks and other waste through the house. Now we have a clear walkway through the garden and space for the dogs to run around.The dogs enjoying the early March snow
2018 is going to be an epic gardening year. I’m going to plant lots of new crops: potatoes, beans, peas, cucumber, courgette, squash, parsnips, sprouts, pak choi, spring onion… and try to stay productive throughout the year. Watch this space!
Chitting potatoes for imminent planting.Broccoli, lettuce, coriander and parsley seedlings starting on the windowsill. We’ll keep these inside for another while yet till things warm up a bit more out there…
Ballyer Backyard 