This year I thought it was about time I had a go at growing my own veg. Having never done this before I thought I’d share my experience here on GGG, for a few reasons. The first reason being that hopefully it will encourage others who, like me, have thought about doing this before but told themselves ‘I don’t have the time, the knowledge, the experience etc etc’. The second reason being that maybe readers who do know what their doing as far as veggie growing is concerned might offer a little advice and support. The third reason being that if I tell you that I’m doing this then it will motivate me to commit to it.

Although it’s not massive we have a large enough garden and a greenhouse which, since we moved here in 2001, has been mostly used to store empty plant pots, trays and a lawnmower .

One of the reasons that I fell for our house when we first came to view it was because of the garden. Its not neat, tidy and manicured, you won’t find any decking or a patio or fences painted in bright colours but it is pretty and full of plants loved by all kinds of wildlife. We have a tiny pond at the bottom of the garden where dragonflies hover and frogs cool off in the summer. When the sun is shining and everything is green it’s a tiny piece of heaven.

So, I thought it was about time I made the most of this garden and extend on the many things that it already gives us. We have grown tomatoes before and odd herbs here and there and found that quite easy and very rewarding so growing lots of our own veggies will be even better.

In February we attacked the greenhouse, completely emptied it and re-arranged it ready for trays of seedlings. A week or two later I sowed spinach, broccoli, cabbage, leeks, peppers, onions, radishes, tomatoes, jalapenos you name it. Every morning we eagerly visited the greenhouse like a couple of kids on Christmas morning hoping to be treated to a glimpse of seedlings poking through the compost. Sure enough they did, spinach and radish first then the cabbage then a little later the peppers and tomatoes.

The little plants seem to have grown faster and faster and time has flown by. I’ve been thinking I must transfer them to the garden, put them in larger pots and give them more space and before I knew it they were way overgrown for their trays and starting to look a little sad.

So, this is where I am today. The garden wasn’t ready for the vegetables yet, we have a lawn and flower beds but no actual vegetable patch. We also have LOTS of slugs for some reason and I really don’t want to use chemicals and so this morning I popped off to the garden centre and bought some granules and copper tape that apparently slugs cannot crawl across. All I had to do next was dig a section of the lawn up, put down some wood borders (I already have that left over from when we had our kitchen replaced a few years ago), apply the granules and tape and there we go, easy!

It seems its not so easy to dig up a lawn, especially in the pouring rain. Why does the weather always do this on your one day off work, the only day we have a chance to catch up with the rest of our lives and just when my little vegetable plants are flagging? OK, I can’t totally blame the weather, I should have simply done this before, made time for it, but its too late for “told you so” now.

I did dig up half of the vegetable patch but despite my determination and saying “its only a bit of drizzle, it’ll pass” the rain got faster and faster and finally beat me.

Over the coming week, on the days that the weather is dry, I’ve promised the little plants that I will finish work at 5 (ish) and get the garden prepared for them. And now I’ve shared it here on GGG I’ll have to do it. I’ll let you know how it goes.