Garden Connect – Month 2

As you know I’m part of a growing community called Garden Connect.

The idea behind it being that if growers from all over the world grew the same types of vegetables, in the same way, at the same time of year it would be rather interesting to see how each person’s crops progressed and the harvest each country produced (or states and counties within each country).

The layout of the garden has been designed by Matt (the creator of Garden Connect) himself and while it was a slow start in my garden due to winter doing it’s thing, that has finally left us now, in the UK, and things are starting to pick up. and get busy.

Courtesy of Matt of Hiemstra Gardens

Month 2

I have five healthy looking lemon cucumbers that are now sitting in the grow house.
The bed design is fully in place for real, using canes to divide up eight of the areas.
I’ve also come up with a nifty plan to incorporate the eleventh planting scheme without taking up too much space. I’ve added a trough to the side of the raised bed, so you can’t see if from the house, or the patio area. It’s about 1 meter long by 25cm wide and in it I’ve added calendula seeds (as I didn’t have any nasturtiums) and I shall also be adding the chamomile plants I’ve just sown so that not only will it hopefully aid pollination to the raised bed but I shall also be able to hopefully make some of my favorite tea!
The sweet peppers are being replaced by hot chillies as I was growing these anyway but they will stay in the chilli house because it will just be too cold outside for them. That’s why I’ll only have 10 of the 12 areas actually in my raised bed.

With the bed now prepared it was time to start sowing.

I’m trying to be casual about the sowing, small quantities regularly rather than all at once will hopefully allow for a more continuous supply of veggies. That plan is no means tested and isn’t full proof. I’d love to hear how other growers are sowing their seeds? In batches or all at once?

So far I’ve added in the beets (Cheltenham Green Top), onions (Senshyu), parsnips (The Student) and carrots (Purple Dragon). I started the parsnips off last month in a pot but so far none have germinated. The seed packet does notify me that they are slow to germinate, I’m just not sure how slow is slow? So I thought I’d hedge my bets and sow some more in the bed.
I’ve also sown my tomatoes in a small pot and they are just this week starting to make an appearance which I am pleased about.

All the other areas need to be sown later on in the season.

Here are some photo’s of the progress in the garden so far.