Beki's 2009 garden and piglet diary

Beki · 29 January 2009 at 1:52PM

Seeing as i've been out in the garden this morning doing a few bits and bobs, i thought it'd be nice to start a diary here to record my progresses and failures throught the year!

I have a good sized garden, of which i've sectioned two areas off for veggies. I also have an 8ft by 6ft greenhouse which was kindly donated to me by my aunt. Outside my kitchen i have a herb bed.

And at the end of the drive is a nice big area which has lots of rhubarb, 1 raspberry cane (i'm planting 3 more at the weekend) and a gooseberry bush. I'm planning on putting this area to better use over the coming months. We have blackberry brambles EVERYWHERE

Last year was my first year at trying my hand at veggie-gardening, and i got well and truly bitten by the bug, especially when we actually started EATING what we'd produced :T

Over the wonter i've let it slip somewhat, and the veggie beds are looking very sorry for theirselves especially the tomato/squash beds and my herb garden

I've decided to make all the veg-beds in the garden into raised beds. I think it looks a lot tidier plus we have quite clay-ey soil so it should make it easier to grow stuff too. We started making the side for one of the raised beds this morning out of pallets which OH pulled apart, but we ran out of nails lol. So will be finishing them all off over the coming weeks.

I measured the beds this morning and here's the square footage i'll be planting in...

* 3 beds of 8ft x 4ft 6" = 108 square ft

* 1 bed of 8ft x 16ft = 128 square ft

* 1 triangle bed of 10ft x 12ft = 60 square ft (10x12 = 120, but as it's a triangle, i've halved it to make 60)

* the area at the end of the drive is 17ft x 14ft = 238 square ft

* herb bed is 2ft x 9ft = 18 square ft

So my actual veg/fruit planting area in total is = 534 square ft

Plus 18 square ft for herbs.

Some piccies!

OH starting our first raised bed

One of our veggie plots in the garden

The other veggie plot in the garden

Our herb bed

My first ever harvested cabbage from last year!!

notenoughcash · 29 January 2009 at 5:40PM

Wow, I wish I had that much space! I have been growing for a few years now and expand my growing space a little more each year! But decided enough is enough now and put in for an allotment before I take over the whole garden and leave the kids with nothing.

Good luck with it all, I have a diary of my own going at the moment but nothing on this scale yet!! I will be following with interest x x

gingerbeer · 29 January 2009 at 10:21PM

Wow love the pics & the size of your garden, i too dabbled a bit last year and am going to do it properly this year. last weekend i started digging to make some space for raised beds. keep posting pics as you go on. :T

Beki · 12 February 2009 at 2:48PM

Thanks guys!

I planted 70 garlic on saturday and tomorrow i'm going to be sowing my celeric seeds, and some chilli seeds, and various others. As soon as the garlic start poking their heads through i'll take some more photos

Oh, and i managed to get 3x raised beds from freecycle at the weekend!

My FIL picked them up for me and i'm getting them this afternoon. There's 18x 3ft plastic lengths.. so we'll be making 3x 6ft by 3ft beds! Sooooo pleased

Beki · 12 February 2009 at 3:06PM

We've finally bitten the bullet, and rather than waiting until we've moved (which at this rate could be another 2 years) we've decided to get two weaners NOW to rear for pork!

We want to get them between the end of march and the end of april, and luckily my BIL works on a rare-breeds farm, and we've arranged to buy our weaners from there! :beer:

We're paying £35 each for them, and we've got a choice of 3 breeds, which will have weaners ready at the time we wants them. We've got a choice of saddlebacks (1 week old already and ready to collect in 7 weeks), berkshires (due in 1 week and ready to collect in 9 weeks), or british lops (due in 1 week and ready to collect in 9 weeks).

I'm leaning towards to british lops... the more i read about them the better they sound

We've contacted the local abbatoir, who said they'll be happy to 'do the deed' when the time comes. So all that's left now is to visit the abbatoir sometime in the next few months, go and pick up the piglets from the farm, and.... er..... build them a run/pen :eek: :rotfl:

Yeah.. um... we haven't quite got around to doing that yet :rotfl:

We've got an area of our garden which sort of goes round the corner, back on itsself, and has been totally unused since we moved in 2 years ago. It's 16ft by 48ft (768 square feet) and we think it would be perfect for the piggies! :j

It's fenced on 3 sides, so we have to fence it on the 4th side, and put a gate in opposite our kitchen door, which will be really handy for feeding, and also for being able to go and see them during the day.

OH cut a tree down at the weekend to make an access way for a gate to be put in, and i took a photo of him while he was doing it.. (you can *just* see him near the top, between the trees :rotfl: )

More pics to follow at the weekend, when we'll be sorting the area out and start building the arc :j

Primrose · 12 February 2009 at 4:02PM

Gosh I really envy you all that growing space. I get continually frustrated trying to squeeze a quart out of a pint pot in my veggie patch. Good luck for this year and keep the photos flowing.

betterlife · 12 February 2009 at 8:48PM

oh, how exciting, i`d love to do that, please keep us informed of how everything is going.x

Penelope_Penguin · 13 February 2009 at 9:50AM

Beki wrote: »

We've finally bitten the bullet, and rather than waiting until we've moved (which at this rate could be another 2 years) we've decided to get two weaners NOW to rear for pork!

That's great! You mention an abbatoir; do you have a butcher lined up to covert the carcase

We went on a pig-rearing course last year, which was really useful. We're planning a smallholding in about 5 years, and hope to start with Gloucester old Stops. Here's me with a piglet (Oxford Sandy & Black):

Penny. x

cheerfulness4 · 13 February 2009 at 10:41AM

Oh that picture is just too cute for words! I'd be useless at raising pigs for food, despite liking the idea. They are so sweet.

Penelope_Penguin · 13 February 2009 at 11:06AM

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

Oh that picture is just too cute for words! I'd be useless at raising pigs for food, despite liking the idea. They are so sweet.

I'll be imagining mine like this

and will be out with a marker pen labelling the cuts if anyone thinks they're pets :rotfl:

Penny. x

Beki · 13 February 2009 at 11:22AM

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

That's great! You mention an abbatoir; do you have a butcher lined up to covert the carcase

Yeah... the abbatoir has an in-house butcher. It's a small place.. seems quite personal, and not like a big commercial place where the piggies are just a number

We might see if we can do it ourselves even, and have the pigs back in two halves :eek: I've had a look around and as long as you've got the right tools (basically a hacksaw, a cleaver and a sharp knife) it looks pretty do-able. They may not be the most perfect looking of joints.. but it's all practice, and it's only us and family that'll be eating it so... :rotfl:

Either that, or we'll get them cut into basic joints and do the rest ourselves.

Beki's 2009 garden and piglet diary

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