Starting a vegetable patch

I have wanted a veg patch or an allotment for so long. 

I think the real reason I haven't done one before is because I am a little lazy truth be told and I know that they require constant work and attention (much like myself).

So when Mr Poachie offered to build me one in the garden I was super excited and wrote a list of all the things I wanted to grow and he ordered in the supplies.

Being a little late to the party with this, I soon realised that this is the wrong time of the year to plant  most of the flowers and veg I wanted to grow.  Most things need to be sown late autumn or early spring.

But not to be defeated (and as the 1 tonne of compost had already been delivered) we went to our favourite garden centre and chose whatever was left that we could quickly plant now.

Which, isn't a lot!  But we chose carrots, French beans and lettuce. I also didn't want to grow things just for the sake of it, so these are things we are going to eat or give to friends and family, if the rabbits don't get there first..

Whilst Mr Poachie dug up the ground and bolted together railway sleepers I drank wine and swotted up on green fingered knowledge. I didn't watch Game of Thrones but apparently I am going to be like Tyrion Laninster who "drinks wine and knows things", which is fine by me.

What I had wanted to grow was pumpkins, as last year I dread to think how much money we spent on them at the local farm shops. I want to grow sweet peas, dahlias, sunflowers, tomatoes, strawbs and potatoes.

Like I said, just things that we will definitely eat as I don't want to waste food and this is very much a learning process for us both so it might be that all our attempts fail!

It might be that the patch isn't big enough for all of that and I know you have to rotate the plants/veg so the soil doesn't get depleted. 

We have also had to put a covering on the patch in the day to protect it from the sun and we put up an electric fence as we have a lot of deer and wildlife where we live.

Thank god Mr Poachie is practical like that as my head is too full of rhubarb enforcers ( we aren't going to grow rhubarb but I love the look of the clay pots!). I also have a wonderful veg basket for collecting if anything does grow,

Magic beans.

So there it is! Hopefully the start of something wonderful! I read the other day that there has been a massive increase in seed sales as a lot of people are trying to grow their own during lockdown. I think it is such a great idea and I am hoping it is going to be a therapeutic process? I always talk to my plants so I will be talking to my vegetables daily as well.

I have also got some herbs on the go as I use them so often for cooking and get fed up of throwing it away as I didn't need the amount that came in the food shop. They are currently happily potted in the window sill but ideally I would like to grow more outside and have a little herb garden.

Lets see how it goes...