photo credit: Kuzeytac (OUT, till 20.08.09-see profile)

Potatoes

The ones in the bags grew much better than the ones I planted in the ground.
I have harvested two bags worth already, not a huge yield but enough to make a “profit”.
Next year, feed them more and bury them sooner when they are growing. I may also stake them to stop them keeling over.

Fruit Trees

No fruit, but this is the first year.
Apple and Cherry are looking nice and healthy.
Pear and Plum are dead, absolutely no greenery on them at all !

Strawberries

They started out well but one bunch, the leaves are all going red, the others are just not producing.
Something is getting to them, my neighbour has the same problem.

Raspberry

Lots of greenery but no sign of flowers or berries, not happy, I love rasps!

Tomato

These are looking VERY sorry.
I didn’t stake them when I planted them on, they are now all bent over and beyond straightening.
I have not been watering and feeding them regularly.
They are looking quite withered.
That said, there is fruit on them, lets see what happens.

Cucumber

Looking good here. have first small cucumbers forming.
They are planted very close together so looks messy.

Beans

Not sure on the variety, they were donated by 6yo girl next door after I gave her some of my spare tomatoes. Her beans are about 8ft tall, mine are only about 4 1/2. Bean envy!

Greens

Various greens, brussel sprouts, lettuce, spinnach have all been affected by slugs.

Carrots

I always thought that these were easy.
Only half of each of my rows germinated.

SweetCorn

Looking good so far, but I’m not sure what they should look like !
They are getting tall and they have feathery flowers on them, here’s hoping that’s a good sign!

Lessons Learned

1. If it will need a stake, stake it when you plant it.
2. Water regularly; EVEN in Scotland
3. Feed regularly
4. Follow the spacing guidelines, some of my rows were just too close together.
5. Thin out regularly, they DO need room to grow into

Whilst nowhere near as ambitious as J.D. and Kris’ project here I have decided to do some work in the garden this year. I’m a few weeks behind writing up my progress so I’ll try and summarise after the break.

You can track my progress in my Flickr gardening set.

Sunday March 29th 2009

Bought these nifty bags for growing the strawberries in.
Planted Tomato, Chilli and Pepper seeds into our new “greenhouse”.
Dug out the base for the path and dug out about half the length of my vegetable patch.

Sunday April 5th 2009

Planted my first early potatoes, “Charlotte” I think, I’ll double check.
Laid more of my path.
Dug out the base and laid slabs for underneath my new shed.
Gave the front and back grass it’s first cut of the season. Blades were set very high so only half a grass box of clippings. I managed to rake out two black bags of moss from the front grass alone.

Friday April 10th 2009

My new shed was delivered and built by Elite Fencing in Airdrie.
Got a 20yard skip and a 3 tonne digger to help clear the ground in the side “garden”.
Did most of the digging out.
Started filling in the vegetable patch.

Monday April 13th 2009

Finished the digging out for the new “lawn”.
Finished filling in the vegetable patch.

Tuesday April 14th 2009

Spent the day in the back garden.
This was “just” a tidy up session.
Removed a dead lavaterra.
Weeded all of the rear flower beds and dug them over.
This was probably the hardest task of the last few weeks, the soil is very clay, I dug some sand through to hopefully improve the consistency.