First things first, I better let you see my patch and the veg I've overwintered.
My patch is a good 'L' shape and gives me about 20m squared of growing space. It's not a lot, but it's enough for now. The patch gets a good amount of sunlight from 11-4 with some areas of shadow in the morning and late afternoon.
Photos to follow here, as I've not had a chance to take any yet!
I have a good patio space that has my coldframe, potato grow bags, 3 blueberry bushes (Duke, Bluecrop and Brigitta Blue) and my soon to arrive blackberry bush (Navaho Bigandearly).
My coldframe currently has 25 overwintered Sweet Peas and 10 Strawberry plants (Flamenco), which are awaiting to go into some hanging baskets in the Spring. I will be bringing on my seedlings in here and also using it to grow 2 tomato plants.
Photo to follow!
Back on the patch - I've overwintered some broad beans (Aquadulce) - planting them in October and planted 3 rows with 5 plants in each. I planted 2 seeds in each space and picked out the weaker seedling. I was a bit worried about all the snow but they all made it through and now they are doing really well. I think I need to get some stronger supports for them and I'm not too sure how tall they grow - we will see! Whatever happens I should get a good crop of broad beans nice and early - not quite sure when though - early June?
I also gave growing garlic a go - I didn't buy any special garlic to plant and just used a bulb that came from Waitrose. I've heard sometimes these supermarket garlics don't grow very well, but mine have been doing really well and the majority of the cloves have good strong stems sprouting from them. Only time will tell if they will be successful, but that's one of the things that I find exciting about growing your veg - you never quite know how its going to turn out.
Well that's about it for now - I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my seeds and blackberry bush. I'll update when they arrive and we will see what is the pipeline to fill the rest of the patch!
