For the last few months I have been plotting and planning my kitchen garden and after a very slow spring it has just started to burst with colours. When we first moved into our house three years ago the back garden was completely over grown with weeds as high as my waist. After a lot of hacking, cutting and clearing we eventually made enough room to install a few raised vegetable beds and since then I've been growing veggies every year.
It all feels like it's just about to kick off, my chives are showing off with flowers a plenty, the pea bushes I've planted have just about started climbing, and the strawberries are plumping up a getting ready to start blushing. My big aim in the garden this year was to create a bit more height, which might explain the blair witch style constructions you can see dotted around the veggie beds. They may not look like much right now, but if you look closer you can see runner beans, french beans and sweet pea poking their heads out at the bases.
Although the garden didn't exactly provide much love when we first arrived after a little bit of hacking I've managed to save a great big old elder tree from being strangled by ivy and beautiful lilac bushes which come into bloom in late Spring/early Summer. I'm pretty pleased the elder tree is looking much healthier and I have plans for a major cordial making session in a few weeks once the flowers come out.
I'm feeling pretty proud to say all the veggie beds are now filled and in a couple of weeks, I have high hopes we'll be eating lots of homegrown vegetables. In the beds, there's squash, pumpkins, broad beans, purple sprouting brocolli, sugar snap peas, potatoes, kale, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, rainbow chard, cabbage, brussel sprouts and lots of different types of salad leaves. I'll take some more photo's later in the summer and keep you posted on how it's all growing!
