The Garden Design

The garden before I started:

 The snowy weather allowed me to spend some time designing 'my garden'.  I want to grow mainly veg - ones to eat both at home and at re-enacting events.  Having read Stuart Peachey's Cottage Garden Plants 1580 - 1660, I made a list of the veg I want to try growing.  Having carefully measured the plot I've used Adobe's Illustrator to plan the area.

The grey block at the bottom is the garage, the sky blue block is the lean-to (still to be built) and the black bit peeping out from this is the concrete slab Dad had put down years ago for his caravan.  At the top, the brown bits relate to the birds I want to keep (I won a coop on ebay last night)  eventually Red Dorkings, a very rare but old breed that were around and commented on by the Romans when the invaded.

Dorkings have 5 toes (most chickens have just 4) and can be clearly see in this painting of a Silver Dorking pair.

I would also like to keep some ducks - but I'll have to see if they can live together.

I've needed to plan the garden so I can begin to do what is needed this early in the year, yet know where every thing is going to be.  I've marked out the chicken space with string, and then put up the fruit cage so I have precise position to start in the garden.

This year I'm trying the 'no dig' system - as described in an organic gardening book because, 1) it'll save so much time, & 2) I don't think my back will stand up to too many digging days.  This doesn't mean I'm not doing any digging - just the bare essentials.

After putting up the fruit cage in the right place, Mum and I went to the local garden centre and picked out 6 early and 6 autumn raspberry canes, a gooseberry and a red current bush and a rhubarb crown and 8 strawberry plants.  I very efficiently managed to plant these the same day - and we've had sharp frosts every night since then!

I stripped off some turf to plant all these, and putting it down in the front garden to cover Mum's old flower bed - this will obviously reduce weeding.  While waiting for the lean-to bits to arrive I've cut back some bushes and tidied up the drive.

I ordered the bits for the lean-to ages ago, and have been chasing the delivery ever since, however, on Friday it all arrived. yipee!

Below are some pictures of how things are at present.

This is how it was until about a fortnight ago - since then BT has worked well to prevent me from keeping this updated - so although the next couple of posts are what should have been posted over the last week or so.