The Veg Plot.

[redtrummy]

Bit of a project there Gary

[garynortheast]

Originally Posted by redtrummy

Bit of a project there Gary

It's going to keep me busy for some time RT!

[garynortheast]

A bit more done in the veg garden this afternoon. The first raised bed is now backfilled and ready for planting. The last of the slabs that were sat under the decking I removed, have now been lifted and stacked for re-using somewhere else. Lifting the slabs revealed two old rat nests full of shredded plastic. It's going to take some time to clean it all up before I can start building the next raised bed.

If the weather gets a tad warmer next week I'll plant the garlic in the first bed.

[Sir Trev]

Good luck on the weather front Gary - looks like we're in for a very cold week here before it gets milder again by next weekend. It's been sub zero here for several, days and the bed with the parsnips in it gets no sun at this time of year, so getting a root or two out for dinner tonight will be a bit of a fight!

[garynortheast]

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

Good luck on the weather front Gary - looks like we're in for a very cold week here before it gets milder again by next weekend. It's been sub zero here for several, days and the bed with the parsnips in it gets no sun at this time of year, so getting a root or two out for dinner tonight will be a bit of a fight!

Yep, sub zero temps here too for several days Trevor. Ideally, I should have had the garlic in several weeks back, but there has been so much to do to get an area ready to plant it, that it's only now I can put it in.

Like you, I get little or no sun on the back garden at this time of the year. I shall have to choose carefully what goes in the back garden and what goes in the front.

[garynortheast]

No gardening for the next week or so I think. The ground is like iron!

[redtrummy]

Dug a parsnip up it was 171/4 inch in circumference, Such expectation, unfortunately it only managed 51/4 inch before it split into several roots - Oh well perhaps the next one will be better

[Sir Trev]

The small multi-roots can be sweet and nice to eat, as long as they're not too small to bother with.

[garynortheast]

I want to plant a native, mixed species hedge around the front garden here, so I'm off to a tree nursery/garden centre to look at bare root hedging plants this morning. Looking at a long list of plants but I'm going to have to whittle the list down a bit I think as I won't have room for all of them. Hawthorn will definitely go in, possibly some Blackthorn, guelder rose, holly, some dog rose, and maybe wayfaring tree, spindle, dogwood and hazel. I need to go and measure up before I go so I know how many plants I need to buy.

The front garden is on a slope and in places the soil level is higher than the pavement on the other side of the fence so the hedge will have a dual purpose. As well as providing food and shelter for wildlife, it'll help to prevent the soil from running down on to the adjacent pathway.

[Sir Trev]

I got all my hedge plants as bare root. Trouble is the very well stocked nursery I used is near Buckingham, so a bit of a treck for you Gary. Hope your local one has what you need.

We're in for another few days of sub-zero it seems. Getting parsnips out of the ground is quite a struggle but I now have my seed potatoes chitting in a cool place and my onion sets arrived yesterday. Seems I ordered the wrong sized net of them so half went off to work with Lady Poppy this morning as her colleague has an allotment and was happy to take them off my hands.

If it thaws enough I will empty a couple of my compost bins out and rough dig the beds this weekend. I can feel the ache in my shoulders already...