Planning planting
The garden here is rather small, and dominated by the decking put in by the previous owners. Great for putting plants in pots on, or keeping the garden table out of the mud, and will provide a useful base for us to stand somesort of leanto on. But a large chunk of it will have to go if I'm to get anywhere near putting in enough variety of veg. to make a useful dent in the budget.
Add to which we have found that we have maybe 6 inches of soil, total. Discovered when the washing line spike wouldn't got far enough into the ground to hold up the rotary airer in all but the driest of weather (one short shower was enough to leave the soil totally waterlogged and not draining, and unable to hold up the airer even folded up and empty!). There hasn't been anything like the amount of rain we used to get in Sussex, so does this bode well or not?
I've had a lead on a good allotment plot a couple of miles away - and on a direct red route from here. Not the closest plots (I can't even get the parish clerk there to talk to me and put me on the waiting list) and we are currently 68 on the waiting list for our own parish plots (actually further away than the first set mentioned, but in the opposite direction) where there are around 30 plots total, all currently occupied and worked. From this pov I'm wondering if I've made a huge mistake in coming here. Originally we thought that we would be in this house for maybe five years, add a little value to it, and then sell on and go further out again to something with a larger garden or maybe an acre if we were lucky. But as life often goes, changes happen and DP is now working locally as well as commuting to London. So although he has sorted out the commuting job to enable working from home a couple of days a week, the new job (the ultimate plan for which is to dump the London job and become a salaried member of staff there instead) is very much based in the centre of MK, and is public facing so no way of remote working.
But on the planting? Well seeds have been bought for things like tomatoes, brocolli, and *lots* of leafy greens, plus courgettes. But I'd also like to get in some beans, and some things that will store into the winter like carrots or onions. Some beets would be great (yay to beet greens, two foods from one plant) and I'm wondering if I can replace the diddy conifers out the front with some sort of fruiting bushes instead - wondering is because the dog next door tends to urinate against one of the conifers so would that leave my fruit at risk? Blueberries would be nice, or Goji. Both quite compact plants as well, and something that we could do with eating more of, as we don't due to the seasonality and locality issues inherent in them most of the year round.
Ah well - off to the plant notebook and draw up a planting calender.
Add to which we have found that we have maybe 6 inches of soil, total. Discovered when the washing line spike wouldn't got far enough into the ground to hold up the rotary airer in all but the driest of weather (one short shower was enough to leave the soil totally waterlogged and not draining, and unable to hold up the airer even folded up and empty!). There hasn't been anything like the amount of rain we used to get in Sussex, so does this bode well or not?
I've had a lead on a good allotment plot a couple of miles away - and on a direct red route from here. Not the closest plots (I can't even get the parish clerk there to talk to me and put me on the waiting list) and we are currently 68 on the waiting list for our own parish plots (actually further away than the first set mentioned, but in the opposite direction) where there are around 30 plots total, all currently occupied and worked. From this pov I'm wondering if I've made a huge mistake in coming here. Originally we thought that we would be in this house for maybe five years, add a little value to it, and then sell on and go further out again to something with a larger garden or maybe an acre if we were lucky. But as life often goes, changes happen and DP is now working locally as well as commuting to London. So although he has sorted out the commuting job to enable working from home a couple of days a week, the new job (the ultimate plan for which is to dump the London job and become a salaried member of staff there instead) is very much based in the centre of MK, and is public facing so no way of remote working.
But on the planting? Well seeds have been bought for things like tomatoes, brocolli, and *lots* of leafy greens, plus courgettes. But I'd also like to get in some beans, and some things that will store into the winter like carrots or onions. Some beets would be great (yay to beet greens, two foods from one plant) and I'm wondering if I can replace the diddy conifers out the front with some sort of fruiting bushes instead - wondering is because the dog next door tends to urinate against one of the conifers so would that leave my fruit at risk? Blueberries would be nice, or Goji. Both quite compact plants as well, and something that we could do with eating more of, as we don't due to the seasonality and locality issues inherent in them most of the year round.
Ah well - off to the plant notebook and draw up a planting calender.
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