Our Vegetable Patch

I can wait no longer. Despite the continuing cold weather I’ve decided to plant my first ever vegetable seeds. I’m going for the traditional sprouts and tomatoes as well as some chilly peppers and sweet peppers. Because i like them as much as anything. I’ve bought some seeding compost, which I feel a little guilty about, as I’m trying to be as self sufficient as possible. But my home made compost just didn’t look fine and crumbly enough. So the ‘root training’ box bought for my at Christmas (not quite the Playstation3 I was hopeing for) is now pride of place on the kitchen window sill. I can almost taste those sprouts already.

Another project I’ve started over the winter is an attempt at growing some of our own vegetables. To this end I’ve built two raised beds using some old scaffolding planks nailed together with a baton at each corner. I persuaded the JCB driver working on my parent’s house to clear the topsoil from a small patch of field next to the house before placing the frames in place. I backfilled them with some of the cleared topsoil before covering the surrounding ground with some local slate chippings. Which I think looks really nice. I think my biggest problem will be keeping the sheep out if I ever get anything to grow.