You may have read the first diary post last week, which basically showed the pre and post preparation of the main veg patch area and my challenges to get it protected from the local garden wildlife… including birds, squirrels, pheasants and cats!

My vegetables of choice to learn with and try growing from seed, started out as lettuce, carrots, beetroot, courgettes and dwarf beans. Plus, I had purchased two raspberry plants and two blueberry plants last year. One of the blueberry plants unfortunately died, but the other is doing well. We were also lucky enough to be given several more raspberry plants that were surplus from our neighbour.

I took the time to mark out the main veg patch into labelled rows. The first two for carrots, the next two, for carrots again… to sow in a months time. The next row for beetroot and again another for beetroot in a months time and the rest well spaced out for the dwarf beans. That was the whole main bed accounted for. As you can see from the following two images, the first lots of carrots and beetroot have been planted (yay).

Labelled rows of seeds that have been planted.

Labelled rows of seeds that have been planted.

The lettuce have their very own mini greenhouse, as you will have seen in the opening diary blog. The first two rows of salad leaves have also been planted and again, have marked out subsequent rows for ‘spaced out’ planting.

The courgette plants (assuming the seeds come up ok), will be planted in fairly large individual pots. I’ve started the courgettes and dwarf beans in smaller pots and these will be stored for a week or two indoors. I photographed this tray outside simply to get an even light on it… and you can see the courgette seeds have already started to show (result!).

Starter pots for Courgettes and Dwarf beans.

At the moment, I’m making use of everything I already have to hand… i.e. old pots, old cloche, handy tray, label stakes, wire.

Raspberries and blueberries.

The above area is a particularly sunny spot in the garden to organise and store the fruit containers. I have three blueberry plants and what appears to be numerous raspberry plants spread across six containers. To date… all the plants are alive and sprouting. How the heck I’m going to get these protected when they fruit is a challenge yet to be covered… watch this space.

Join me for progress in diary update 3 next week 🙂

This really is a first for me and I suspect several other people too, in these weeks of staying at home. 

I’ve grown potatoes for a couple of years, because they seemed reasonably easy and not too time consuming. But this year is something different and I felt inspired to blog my diary of failures and successes as I find my way with growing fruit and veg. Also decided to not get too adventurous, so more chance of some success!

As a professional photographer, I also thought it would  be an interesting exercise to record the diary completely on my phone and not using my pro camera… so here goes.

First off, this is what the veg patch looked like before I started… I was trying to capture our resident squirrel and is the only shot I have of a ‘pre-prepared’ veg bed:

Before we started…

So I dug the bed over, removed all the weeds, added some extra soil and compost and levelled it all out. However, here came the first challenge… how to keep off not only the birds, but one of our cats!

The first efforts of criss crossing string really didn’t work (sorry I don’t have an image)… ever seen a cat negotiating such a puzzle, it was like watching Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible!

So next effort nailed it! A roll of wire mesh cut into strips and made into a series of hoops to cover the bed in sections:

Keeping the cat off!

As I had another large wooden tray and an old cloche, decided to add a separate mini green house that would be for lettuce and salads leaves only:

A little lettuce house…

In the hope you will follow my journey (and learning curve) I’ll finish this diary entry here, but would add that the preparation all happened last month and lots more progress has been made since then. Not only will there be a selection of vegetables, there is also some fruit plants… and… the naming of the veg patch!

All that will come in the next diary blog… so do join me on this journey and I will include comments of the photography as we go along.