Raised beds finally arrived, we built them in the snow on Sunday, they’re now covered in snow, but I’m very pleased and can’t wait to start planting as soon as the weather improves.

Now proud owners of 2x 1.8m square, 30cm high raised beds full of snow – yay!

B

Cowjuice is being all sensible and restrained about this veg growing malarkey, saying things like “No, you can’t plant that just yet, it’s not meant to go in ’til March”. But maybe if we planted just a couple now AND took good care of them AND had a really mild spring, I might end up with some really early peas/beans/whatever. I realise that I’d most likely end up with a pot of dead plants, but what if I didn’t?! It has to be worth a try…

In the propagator we now have 6 cauliflowers and 2 or 3 garlic chives germinated. Unfortunately we found out today that the raised beds won’t be arriving until the end of the month, which, whilst annoying, isn’t too much of an issue as we weren’t planning on planting anything in them until after then anyway. All it means is that we will have to get them put together and filled with soil quite quickly once they do arrive.

We both keep having lots of great ideas for the veg plot, and can’t wait for the weather to start warming up now.

B

That was the time we were rudly awakened this morning by the postman. B was out of bed like a shot to answer the door and arrived back quite excited clutching an amazon package.

Amazon appear to be on a winner here with B. Friday the usual recommendations email comes from Amazon and within 5min 2 of the books had been ordered on express delivery:

• Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No.2
• Vegetable Growing Month-by-month: The Down-to-earth Guide That Takes You Through the Vegetable Year

Now I would appreciate it if Amazon would send such emails out earlier in the week thus not ruining my Saturday lie-ins.

The new books coupled with the cauliflowers germinating overnight means we’ve got one excited B (even if she does feel somewhat under the weather today).

Right time for dinner, muchos pig to be eaten.

Cowjuice

Here’s where we are:  We are two 26-year-olds, fed up with being marketed at and sold 2-for-£2 vegetables in the Asda/Tesco/etc supermarkets of this country which were grown a trillion miles away and flown here to serve our greedy needs, and have decided to try our best to grow our own instead.

Don’t get us wrong – we are not 2 dreadlocked hippies (no disrespect to dreadlocked hippes, mind…) who have decided to take over the world overnight, but we have an average end-of-terrace-sized back garden that we have decided to dedicate roughly half of to growing our own fruit and vegetables.  We don’t expect results overnight, but ultimately the less we have to buy the better.

B has grown spuds, beans, tomatoes and the odd green bean in pots on a patio before, but aside fron that, we are somewhat lacking in experience.  Cowjuice has never grown much apart from a beard until now!

Current plan is for 2x 1.8m squad raised beds, a few pots, and see how we go from there.  It’s very early days – the raised beds haven’t even arrived yet, the 5 raspberry canes and mushroom spawn which we planted last weekend look just as they did when we bought them, and the seeds (alpine strawberries, oregano, corriander, cauliflowers andgarlic chives) that we planted last Sunday haven’t yet germinated.

We have bought a few gardening books and magazines, so let’s see how this pans out.  Our plan is to try lots, maybe fail a little along the way, have fun, try new ideas, and hopefully be eating the fruits of our labour real soon.

Over the coming weeks we will post photographic updates and tales of our trials and tribulations to date.

Watch this space for all that is happening in the world of vegetables.

Big love,

Cowjuice and B

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