January 2025 Small Garden Project

January 2025 -  Back Garden Revamp Stage 1

Project Time (8 hours approximately) 

Rising air temperatures over recent days means thawed out soil. However a recent storm & the continuous rainfall of the last couple of days has added to already boggy conditions in the gardens.

This gardener gardens in all weathers so my first project for 2025 is to clear the eastern side of our very small back garden, at present a potential growing space of about 9 x 6m. This begins at the north end of the garden, running alongside the eastern fence, up to the studio at the southern end. The area used to contain a climbing frame for grandchildren, who 'grew faster' than flowers and then no longer used it!

We moved here just over 6 years ago, (2019), and needed some raised beds for a planned vegetable and herb garden. After positioning the 3 beds, they were filled with a mix of loamy soil, horticultural grit and several bags of peat free compost. The existing garden soil profile was mainly clay. A clay soil isn't good for drainage, can be hard to work with & in my experience, isn't ideal for a productive vegetable garden! Raised beds offered a solution & using this method, we successfully grew about 15 different types of vegetables & herbs in three raised beds, based on a 'square foot' gardening technique. Square foot gardening is an amazing idea, when growing space is limited.

 A couple of years ago, an opportunity came up for us to utilise a new 'growing space' at the other end of the village, for growing organic flowers, fruit & veg. This opportunity began to take shape in April 2024. Last autumn the raised beds here in the back garden were moved to the new fruit, flower and vegetable garden so now have a bit more growing space here, behind the house, to create something new for 2025.

To begin with I'm removing three or four fruit bushes, (planted temporarily, a couple of years ago), from a small border in front of the studio. The fruit bushes have established good root systems & are ready to be transplanted into the new flower, fruit and vegetable garden. Late winter is a good time to transplant them as this is their dormancy period, (November to March). Remaining plants in the small border are shade tolerant plants, Primula, (Primula vulgaris), & False Goat's Beard, (Astilbe). The border receives some early morning sunlight but generally this part of the garden has low light levels, so I'll be mindful of this when selecting new shrubs & plants to go in. More shade tolerant plants & shrubs planted here should do well. 

Jobs

• Turning over existing grassed area in front of studio, ensuring turf is laid upside down.
• Removal of any remaining weeds.
• Several large sheets of cardboard will be laid flat, directly onto the turned soil, (I get these free from my local garden centre!). They'll then be pegged down for wind proofing. 
• I'll be using home made organic compost, (still a bit left), and plan to invest in a few bags of commercial peat-free general compost, to cover the cardboard sheets. Using a mix of the two, I'll cover the cardboard with a layer of about 6 inches of compost mix. If you're having a go at this, try not to walk on the compost layer. In a few months time, thanks to the elements, earthworm activity & soil borne bacteria, the cardboard will rot down into the soil, creating a healthy growing medium. This'll be then ready for spring seed sowing, planting new shrubs or transplanting existing shrubs from other parts of the garden.