Beginning at the End

Before you say it, yes, I know this is probably the wrong time of year to be starting a gardening blog. And you might be right – the little patch of garden I had planted for the first time last year is now mostly bare, save for one lonely cabbage and a few herbs which are starting to go to seed.

But since it is the end of the season, and I have time to reflect on the successes and failures of my first year of growing veg, I wanted to document my thoughts now in order that I can take you through what I’ve done, and what I’m planning to do next year.

For reference (mostly mine), here is what part of my garden is looking like today.

A pretty blank canvas – I’m in two minds as to what to do with that pathetic little cabbage. It hasn’t had the best life, due to my lack of experience, I didn’t give it much in the way of protection, and it has continuously been nibbled by Very Hungry Caterpillars. It stands there as a lesson for next year, but I will probably end up throwing it away.

Since emptying the beds, I have just added a bit of blood fish and bone and some chicken manure pellets I had left over from the spring. I won’t be adding anything else, although I will probably top them up with some fresh compost.

Much of what I planted this year was done so in order to experiment – I love the idea that I can plant tiny little seeds and end up with some food on my plate for little or nothing. A lot of what I planted was unsuccessful, but there were also just enough triumphs to encourage me to do better next time.

As far as I can tell, veg gardening is all about trial and error, and requires a fair bit of luck and good judgement. From the very beginning, I learnt that one tiny error, getting the temperature wrong for little seedlings, can result in losing a whole batch of veg. I lost several cabbages, cauliflowers, and lettuces this way. Lesson learnt!

The other thing I will be doing differently next time is paying better attention to protecting my plants once they are outside. I did virtually nothing this time around, and paid dearly for it.

But the successes were well worth the effort. We are still working our way through the beautifully sweet cherry tomatoes which I grew from just three plants. I estimate that we got over 150 tomatoes in total. And an experiment with four shop bought potatoes in a large recycling bin produced over fifty potatoes! I will definitely be repeating that one!

My other less significant successes were spring onions, beetroot, carrots, strawberries, basil, and mint, all of which grew quite well. I also planted some mizuna, which was in the end so rampant that I ended up digging the whole thing up! Nice as it was to eat, we would have been having it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and still have some to spare!

This time around, I think better planning is required. I only have seven narrow raised beds in which to fit everything in, and the rest will have to be grown in pots on the patio. I think with a bit of thought, I should be able to have a decent harvest to keep us going throughout the year.

So what about next year? Well, the aforementioned potatoes and tomatoes will definitely be making an appearance again, as will the beetroots and carrots. I have also planted six shop bought garlic cloves into pots, to hopefully get established before the frost hits. As well as this, the pot in which I have my strawberry plants is looking quite tattered, so although it does still fruit, I have planted a runner from it into another pot, and am thinking about dividing up the healthiest bits to repot next spring. If anyone reading this knows how to best do that, I’d be grateful for your advice!

In order to maximise my yield, I will try to grow more in pots this time around. Space is limited, and I want to get the most out of what I’ve got. I don’t want to spend a huge amount of money, I think that rather defeats the object. So aside from the extra pots and compost, I will be using up seeds I already have, and taking care to be less wasteful with my resources.

I’ll stop this post there, and although in the beginning, my updates may be a little thin on the ground, at least until further planting begins, I will be trying to keep a log of everything, so that even if no-one else reads it, I will have a good running record of progress to refer to!

But if you do happen across this little space, please do take the time to say hello…