It’s been a long weekend, but Chris and I managed to build a retaining wall with the railway sleepers we got from Wickes last weekend. The initial plan was to drill holes through the sleepers and then drive metre long steel rods through them, pinning them to the earth below. Chris quickly realized that the drill bit he had was the wrong size for the drill or bent or something, so we had to improvise. I admit I wasn’t much help while this was going on, but I was making a delicious Russian potato salad and taking photos

Luckily, we’re blessed with lovely neighbours who offered advice, spare tools, and barrels full of earth for our new terrace. Chris managed to get the bottom row of sleepers drilled through, but the top level he wedged in between the patio and the wall, then screwed them together with old door hinges.

Our friends / neighbours Mat & Sarah had a patch of grassy land that they were busy turning into a vegetable patch, so the grassy earth they didn’t want was loaded into bags and wheeled up the path to our garden. I then made sure all the grass was turned upside-down.

Saturday’s weather couldn’t have been better and many of our neighbours & cats were out and about enjoying the sunshine. We made sure to take a few breaks to play chase-me with the cats

Photo courtesy of our neighbour Andrew

At the end of Saturday, the garden looked like this:

Much better than last week, eh? Here’s what it looked like then:

And here’s what it looked like after we built the wall:

Which brings us to today.

After buying 8 big bags of compost from the recycling centre (only £8 for the lot!) in the pouring rain, hauling them down the flight of stairs from the car park and then digging them into the vegetable patch, I am finally sitting with a well-earned glass of merlot and enjoying the view from our kitchen window.

Here are the fruits of today’s labour:

As you can see, I also brought all the seed propagators outside. Our neighbour Mat made a good point that my seedlings were shooting really tall, a sign of not getting enough sunlight, so I brought them outside. Ideally, they’d be in a cold-frame, but I think the propagators will probably be fine (with the exception of my sweet peppers, which I don’t think will sprout *tear*). Ah well. I find growing things from seeds really fun, so if these babies fail, I can always get more seeds and try again.

We’ve got another wall to build next weekend and my potato tubers are already chitting (I hate the way that word sounds) so I might pop them in next Sunday before the soil is completely settled and hope for the best.

Now I’m off for a long shower in hopes of getting all the dirt out from under my fingernails…

I just love this time of year! Everything that looked dead is coming to life again and the drive to work is enhanced by yellow daffodils along the side of the road.

All of my neighbours love gardening and I am beyond excited to learn more from them this summer. Check out my neighbours’ houses and potted plants… so much colour!

I have been busy getting my seeds started in the loft, which has more than enough natural light streaming in through the skylights on the roof. Seven days after sowing and I’m already seeing sprouts!

Cherry tomatoes

Yesterday none of the cherry tomatoes had sprouted, but today they’ve already got leaves! These are the overpriced Jamie Oliver seeds and they seem to be doing really well. I am going to have to buy more pots!

Sunflowers

I planted six in total and three have sprouted! Not bad, not bad. These are going to be huge, but I might stick them in my neighbour’s garden (they only visit at Christmas so it’s not like they’ll notice!).

Leeks

These leeks were the first to pop up and I hope I’ll have a good success rate. There are three rows of coriander marked by the blue tape, but they haven’t done anything yet. Neither have the dill, pumpkin, or green pepper seeds. I think the peppers will sprout tomorrow or Friday, though.

While I’m at it, I might as well show you the outdoor garden! Here’s my spring basket. I have two of these that flank the entrance to our proper patio / soon-to-be vegetable garden.

By soon-to-be vegetable patch, I am referring to this:

Soon-to-be Vegetable Patch

This weekend we’re *hopefully* going to terrace it to match the patio. Last year I kept complaining that the patio seemed so aesthetically disconnected from the garden because of that dropoff beside the stairs, so we’re going to set it right.

We bought some railway sleepers from Leekes and Chris says he knows how to connect them with some steel stakes. Fingers crossed, I can get a load of topsoil in there and start my potatoes, carrots and spring onions before it’s too late!

Previously occupying this part of the garden was the turf we planted last year (side note: British people call it turf instead of sod because sod means something else!). The grass was nice, until it grew and seeded itself, then grew some more and all the while we didn’t cut it. Heh. Right, so here’s what it looked like last year:

Oh, and just for fun… Here’s what it looked like the first time I saw it:

That picture doesn’t even do it justice. All those weeds had sharp thorns in them! It took several weekends with lots of help from Chris’s dad.

Hibiscus Tree

In the photo above, you’ll see a bright green tree. It’s pretty much the only thing I haven’t gutted from this garden and it produces the most lovely fuchsia flowers. It blooms mid-late summer and receives many compliments. I haven’t got a photo of it in bloom yet, but it’s started to bud!

Sweet Peas

For someone usually so clued-in, I actually didn’t realize last year that you can eat sweet peas. I just kept snipping the flowers for the kitchen and never even thought to try the peas. Anyways, I had some seeds leftover from last year and haphazardly chucked them in the soil a few weeks ago. Fingers crossed the slugs don’t get to them first!

I won’t muck about with the unimpressive photos of the rest of the garden until it comes to life in a few months, but that’s what our garden looks like so far!