<\/a>The garden in it’s current state; still A LOT to be done.<\/p><\/div>\n
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the garden, there are some alterations to the veggie area. Firstly, due to security concerns, the large shed that dissects the triangular end to our land is now going to stay. It’s large and filled with wood at the moment, but over the coming months, I’ll be chopping some of that down. It’s good storage space and should allow for some chicken overflow too. What is does unfortunately mean is that we’ll have a small triangular patch of garden we can’t access. Losing this space seems really costly, but this is\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>the forever home, and it will take a lot of money to bring down the shed and then build up the walls to stop thieves coming in. Hence; it’s lost to us.<\/p>\nThe other plan had been to cut the conifer down – until we found out it was a yew. I don’t really want to remove it, so we’ve been hard pruning it upwards to create lollipop-like topiary. After the tree was gone, we were going to smash up all the concrete paving and turn it into a vegetable garden. This plan is NO MORE. Instead, we’re creating several large raised beds. The area gets quite a bit of sun, and with the tree pruned even higher, enough light should get through. In addition, even after all the work of lifting the concrete, we’d have been left with extremely poor soil that’s riddled with tree roots. With our new idea, I’ve literally built the beds on top of the concrete, lined with cardboard and filled with compost. It’s not ideal, but again, we only plan on being here between five and seven years, so as long as we keep enriching the soil in those beds, it should be fine. The brassicas, salad onions, radishes, leeks and lettuces are in, and I’ve a few more germinating seeds to pop in during coming weeks.<\/p>\n
Essex, as a whole,\u00a0desperately\u00a0<\/em>needs some rain. We had a full day’s downpour a couple of weeks ago and the difference in the garden was incredible – suddenly the plants all looked so nourished and happy. Now, with another heatwave, it’s back out with the watering can every evening – it takes me forever. However, with a wet, and hopefully cold, winter season ahead, I can’t wait to see the garden maturing next year!<\/p>\n\n