I think this is a wrap for the Garden 2022, long live Garden 2023... well, a year... I guess.
Enjoy this silly little video of the changes throughout the half-year it was in progress. Admittedly, we started it way too late and ran out of the time at the end of the year. It is not a secret that neither of us is particularly green-fingered or knows much about gardening, but hopefully we'll get the hang of it in 2023 and beyond.
Here's a few exciting shots of our produce and overall gardening experience.
Things to learn for this coming year:
Plant at the right time (as we are mostly growing from seed, that means germinating them at the right time and then taking time to transplant as the crop grows.
Give the plants the right conditions. Some of the plants probably could have done with better drained soil and others with slightly different pH. We also need to make sure the plants have enough space and correct levels of sunlight. This summer, we also had a particularly dry and sunny spell which meant that although we were trying to keep the beds well watered, some of the brassicas seem to have bolted and we had really tall stems but they became very top heavy and it certainly hasn't done a lot of good to the Brussels sprouts.
We are both keen on biodiversity and encouraging nature but this year quite a lot of our crop was enjoyed by some cheeky invertebrates. From what we've been reading about, it is possible to encourage natural "pest" control by inviting other invertebrates and birds that enjoy feeding on the "pests" but we're not quite sure how to do this yet. Perhaps we need to plant some "sacrificial" plants instead.
Try to figure out this "companion" planting thing to get the best results for each crop whilst maintaining top quality soil health.
Ok, maybe some of these goals will have to spill over to 2024 as we'll hopefully have our hands fairly full this year with conservation works.
Comments