Finished raised beds

The raised beds where I plan to grow (mostly) vegetables are finally ready! ¡Por fin terminamos las jardineras donde voy a poner la huerta!

The topsoil got delivered in this big bag. We carried it all to the garden at the back of the house in buckets between the two of us, and it only took a few hours. 

La tierra nos la dejaron asi delante de casa, y entre los dos la transportamos en calderos al jardin (sarna con gusto no pica).

These are the beds with anti weed mat, ready for the buckets of soil. Las jardineras con membrana anti-raices, esperando la tierra.

And this is how they look now. It's still work in progress (it's always work in progress, you never finish gardening) bit looking a lot more finished now. I had trays of little plants I sowed 4 weeks ago, with which I've filled the beds on the right: three types of lettuce, spinach, rocket, parsley, sowed spring onions, and some flowers: calendula, cornflower and sunflowers. With green netting because there are lots of pigeons around, and local cats in search of a toilet.

To the left I've got two cane structures for peas and French beans. In the middle I've got two trays where I keep pots of stuff I'm propagating. Still to fill are two black planters (in the middle) and the bed in the front left. Still to plant are the courgettes, cucumbers, radishes, carrots and parsnips.

We won't be self-sufficient (maybe lettuce, but nothing else) but I'm having fun and we'll get a few special meals out of it.

De momento he plantado: a la derecha, lechugas de tres tipos, espinacas, perejil, rucula, cebolletas, y flores: girasoles, centaurea y calendula. Las sembre en el invernadero hace cuatro semanas y ahora ya estaban listas para el transplante. Les he puesto red encima para que no me las piquen los pajaros, ni vayan los gatos del vecindario a usarlo de retrete.

Atras a la izquierda tengo dos conos de cañas, uno con guisantes y otro con judias. En el medio tengo plantitas creciendo en macetas para transplantar mas adelante. Aun me queda por llenar las dos macetas negras grandes del medio y la jardinera de la izquierda delante. Y por plantar me quedan: calabacines, pepinos, zanahorias, chirivias y rabanitos.

La produccion sera pequeña porque el sitio es limitado, pero por lo menos ¡para un par de comidas especiales so que dara!

The 2014 tomatoes are out

I planted my tomato plants this week. And because it's still quite chilly at night and could even frost (which kills the plants) I've protected them with these screens improvised with plastic bags. My greenhouse is too small for anything bigger than seedlings and these plants were all squashed there. 

I bought them from my new local garden centre last weekend, and I was very pleased to see they had a big choice (at least 9 varieties of tomato that I could see!). I'm not bothering with growing tomatoes from seed anymore: I only need a few plants, and I'd rather buy one of each variety, for less than a packet of seed, than end up with too many of the same type. This year I'm growing: yellow, plum, big boy, sweet cherry and gardeners delight tomatoes.

Mis plantas de tomates ya estan fuera. Aqui aun puede helar por las noches, asi que los he protegido con estos plasticos por un par de semanas mas. Los compre en mi nuevo vivero/garden centre, que por suerte tenia gran variedad. En otras cosas ahorras dinero sembrando directamente, pero con tomates yo creo que no compensa. Solo necesito unas pocas plantas y prefiero comprar distintas variedades - un paquete de semillas cuesta mas.

In the smaller pots I'm going to plant marigolds and basil (currently in a seed tray in the greenhouse). En las macetas pequeñas voy a poner tagetes y albahaca, que tengo en el invernadero en semillero.

Raised beds ready for topsoil

Today is a very special day, for we finished building the raised beds! All the woodwork is done, the only things left to do now are: lay down the rest of the weed membrane, buy topsoil to fill them in, and plant them up!

La huerta ya esta casi lista! Hoy acabamos de constrir las paredes divisorias entre las cuatro paneles en las esquinas, que es donde va a ir la tierra. Me falta por acabar de poner la membrana anti raices de los arboles, comprar tierra para rellenar, y plantar!

The narrower strip in the middle is going to be the access path. The purple tray with plastic on top is my improvised cloche, with my lettuce seedlings underneath.

La bandeja morada tiene mi semillero de lechugas, cubiertas con plastico de momento porque aun hace frio por la noche. Esa parte central va a ser el camino de acceso.