Husband has been keeping himself busy, while I’ve been lounging with my feet up indoors, preparing the veggie patch for the 2018 crops. For the moment, he’s still in the prepping stage for most things, so the following pics aren’t going to have you drooling . . . it’s much too early in the season for anything exciting.
The hens are currently fenced in on approx 20m2 of pecking ground and, seeing the egg count, they’re happy enough.

Husband had the rotovator out yesterday, turning soil on a previous coop site. Hens were on this plot over the winter months, and everything had become hard, compressed mud. Now that it’s been turned over, it can be sowed with fresh grass seed so it should grass over in time for October.

Very soon, though, we’ll be moving hens to their summer residence in the orchard, where they’ll be able to enjoy the shade of the apple trees.

This little plot is all nicely rotovated, weeded and ready. Hubby is going to plant flowers on 2 strips, to attract bees and other pollinators, and then a couple of red pepper, chili and aubergine plants.

Two artichoke plants are already in, and behind, you can see the rather big, bushy, spikey cardoon plant which is thriving. I’m not a fan of cardoons but that doesn’t mean we can’t grow them. To the right, husband has prepared 2 strips where I’ll plant green beans.

A few rows of seedlings will need thinning out soon. Chard to the left and beetroot to the right.

What looks like a wooden coffin, is the husband’s 2018 trial for potato growing and in those sandy “trenches” . . . he is also trying asparagus this year. Asparagus won’t be ready to harvest this year, even though the first shoots are popping up.


Raspberry bushes, which were cut right back, are thriving . . . and we re-planted our strawberry patches with new plants in the autumn which are already starting to flower. We have 4 little patches, with 9 plants each.

We’re listening to the neighbours tihs year. They seem quite knowledgeable about the micro-climate we get here, and their advice is to wait until mid-May before any more planting. While weather has been very hot this past week (27°C) we’ve heard temps could drop dramatically early May. And since summer tends to last well into October, there will plenty of time to finish plantations in May and enjoy fresh produce as it ripens.

Last photo, an overall view of our veggie garden, which is approx 250m2. With the portable net fencing for hens, waiting to be moved and set up in the orchard. No photos of the orchard for now as I can’t hobble that far yet.