It’s our second spring in the Vicarage and this year I am planning vegetables. I’ve been inspired by Alys Fowler and her Edible Garden series on BBC2 (tho’ I’ve not watched as much of it as I’d like due to a lack of tv licence and running out of broadband download). I would like her hair, dresses and funny little dog. And garden, obviously.
Only a few plants were munched by the evil slugs...
So far I have planted masses of seeds in a plastic greenhouse (see pics) and fended off a some evil slugs who had a chomp when the first rain arrived after planting. I have ordered the Vicar about with a spade and he has kindly dug up small parts of a couple of our massive herbaceous borders so I have veggie space. He also planted out the sweet pea plants I succumbed to in the garden centre.
Normally he is the gardener and has managed a couple of allotments in our time in Vicar college and in curacy. Now he is generally too busy to do much gardening and has said that I have to be in charge. This is a new experience for me (in the garden, at least).
Since I’m so bad at housework, gardening has always seemed like an excessive luxury. Why tidy the garden when the house is such a mess? But I’m desperate for home-grown veggies so am attempting to do some growing this year. Hopefully with some help from my husband, who actually enjoys gardening when he’s out there. The kids love it as well, the Queen in particular. She’s in the school ‘EcoClub’ and spends almost every lunchtime gardening in the school’s new allotment.
Waiting in the ‘greenhouse’ for planting out I currently have the following:
- Sweetcorn
- Radishes
- Mixed salad leaves
- Broad beans
- Runner beans
- Sugar snap peas
- Courgettes
- Sunflowers
- Er…I think that’s it just now
Our main veggie space for this season - starting small
Planting out is this weekend’s project. And fighting the slugs. Three little ones climbed into the greenhouse just after planting and sampled a good few of my germinating plants. Evil blighters. We moved the greenhouse out of the long grass and surrounded it with ash from the fire, which seems to have kept them off so far. The advice for planting out is used coffee grounds to keep them off. So I’m tanking myself up on caffeine for Saturday…
The Vicar's Wife 
Your veg sounds more exciting than ours! We had an odd shaped patch of lawn/dandelions/moss at the side of the vicarage when we moved in 2 years ago. Last year-it’s first season as veg patch-it didn’t do brilliantly, only french beans and beetroot really successful. 5 tiny carrots out of 4 rows – not even one serving for the three of us! Not a single courgette though lots of healthy leaves
This year we’re trying different types of the same veg, and rotating to new places. So far the onion sets are growing well and a few other things showing through.
We pop out each morning to encourage our raspberry canes and blackcurrants with a cheery word (new last autumn) and count the seedlings and plants…
Just off out to plant the second row of peas, carrots and lettuce. No greenhouse here – but a few things starting off on windowledges.
It’s such a pleasure, isn’t it!
We (well, Lesley) have planted things in the garden of our borrowed curatage, using last years seeds and because previous occupant created a veg patch we needed to do something with.
Courgettes need male and female thingies (not plants) so plant them and when they flower have a little tickle with a childs paint brush.
Strawberries along borders work well (slugs can be a problem). Blueberries look nice and taste nice as well.
Our onions, radishes and potatoes seem to be doing something. Courgettes have emerged as have some peas which have been started in pots.
Plastic greenhouse £14.99 from Hooties) is a wise investment
Mother in law has given me some tomato plants and some lettuces and herbs to see how we get on with them. Particularly pleased with the chives. Haven’t planted them out as our tomatos did so well in pots last year we had cherry tomatos all the way through the summer and into October! We were given a plastic greenhouse for christmas by some friends and are going to put it up soon which we hope will shelter the lettuces. Don’t seem to have problem here with slugs so much but when I had a flat in Bristol we found salt got rid of them pretty well!
Vicarage veg – now that takes me back. We were just about self sufficient on that front. Whole rooms in the attics were used for drying onions, storing spuds etc. Lots of hard work, blanching etc. I think your patch looks a tad more manageable. Good luck.
Hello all. Thanks for your comments. Have planted radishes out in the bed today, surrounded by slug repellant gel. Have also planted some rocket (in bed and separate trough) and a few beetroot seeds. Slowly working my way around. The Vicar dug up another bit of bed further down the garden for the runner bean tripods we’re planning to erect.
We use garden canes to make runner bean teepees. Living within two miles of Glastonbury festival site it seems wrong to do anything else.
Radishes are under a clear plastic lid thing that may have started life as a lid to something that was important at the time.
We are thinking of going into rabbit food sales due to the quantity of dandelions we have in the (what is called) lawn. The front garden can become a hanging basket lining production line as there is so much moss. Latest technique is to park a car on it.
Get some hens! They’ll eat the dandelions, make lovely compost, and provide your breakfast egg each day … such lovely companions, too!
Hi NAS and LB. Runner bean teepees coming up soon. But not sure about hens. They seem a lovely idea and we certainly have space. But a friend had them and she had awful trouble with rats, of which we already have enough in this neighbourhood…