The Story So Far

We bought The Corner House at the end of April 2006. We jumped from 3 bedrooms to 5 but more importantly, from a postage stamp garden to one that is quite substantial for uphill Lincoln. I took it upon myself to dig over a small corner of the garden in our first few weeks here in order to at least get something growing for the table.

I always knew that I had a secret hankering for growing veg but even I was surprised by my passion and enthusiasm once unleashed on a bit of green space! Jane, my MIL, has had a lovely kitchen garden for many years and she was a great help delivering an assortment of baby veg plants - courgettes, runner beans, french beans, dwarf beans, tomatoes, chard and cabbages. What a great start!

This is the only photo I have of last year's rushed efforts, taken with my mobile phone so please excuse the lack of quality.

Difficult to see what is growing I know! Our new neighbour also allowed me to attach a downpipe to her guttering which solved my water supply problems early on. In a flash storm, those two butts can fill from empty in under an hour! 454 litres! Her house is now on the market and I fear that any solicitor worth his/her salt will not allow me to pilfer this water - there being rules about disposing of your own surface water on site etc. I do have 3 other butts on site but watering would involve a lot more walking if these two were to go! Watch this space.

Milly trampling the marigolds in her "bean tunnel"!

So last year was a bit of a rush, we shoved a few bits in the ground and hoped for the best. We are blessed with great soil, quite loamy, and everything we planted grew very well. I could have looked after the tomatoes better and been more consistent in my watering of them but apart from that, no major disasters. We of course had courgettes and runner beans coming out of our ears but were just so chuffed to be growing something, it didn't matter a jot.

Plans for expansion, growing from seed and proper organisation were never far from my thoughts whilst I pottered. I have spent the winter reading, learning, digging, reading, learning, digging and in my next post, I'll bring you up to date on how the Organic City Garden looks now and what I plan to grow this year.