{"id":5973,"date":"2017-01-18T17:38:23","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T15:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/?p=5973"},"modified":"2018-02-21T15:45:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T13:45:40","slug":"the-garden-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/?p=5973","title":{"rendered":"The garden in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"permaculture<\/p>\n

Even though I still call our garden<\/a> \u2018the new garden\u2019, we have a full year of tending our dream plot behind us and it may be time to drop the ‘new’. I can’t wait for the 2017 season to start but as it is currently freezing and I have already pruned all my fruit trees, I thought I would give you a recap of our first season. Since I always feel like we’re running behind and doing just half of what needs doing and only about a tenth of what I would like to get done, it is great to go through these photos and think to myself ‘wow, look how far we’ve come!’. Thankfully, we’ve had awesome friends help with the two biggest jobs, fencing and pond construction. But there was also the unexpected and wonderful gift of our friends\u2019 teenage son Romeo who’s come to help almost every weekend. He’s not only strong and willing to tackle any job with enthusiasm but also great company. Obviously it is heartening to see there are teenagers who actually enjoy gardening but I’m also grateful for this connection we get to experience. I think it is important that children have more grown-ups in their lives than just their parents and I\u2019m glad we get to be someone\u2019s honorary uncle and aunt. But before I get too sentimental, let\u2019s have a look at the garden month by month!<\/p>\n

January<\/strong><\/p>\n

We started by making a rabbit-proof fence around the whole plot. It turned out to be successful, right until our neighbour had his plot ploughed and made several large holes in the wire mesh in the process. We\u2019re thinking of adding a second layer this year \u2013 hopefully it will be sufficient. We started moving our raised beds and filling them with compost that was left behind by the previous tenants in an overgrown heap with quite a lot of debris.<\/p>\n

\"january\" \"sized_IMG_7288\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

February<\/strong><\/p>\n

12 raised beds installed and filled with compost \u2013 6 to 7 wheelbarrows per bed. I planted the first tree \u2013 a walnut and also made a plan for the kitchen garden which is a job I tend to procrastinate.\"february\"\u00a0 \"sized_IMG_7411\"\"sized_FullSizeRender\" \"sized_IMG_7492\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

March<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tons of fruit trees and bushes planted during the Easter weekend plus an edible hedge along two sides of the plot. First vegetables planted and sown in the kitchen garden.<\/p>\n

\"sized_IMG_7767\" \"sized_IMG_7737\"\"sized_IMG_7732\" \"sized_IMG_7755\"\"march\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

April<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paths in the kitchen garden covered with wood chips which makes a lot of difference both for looks and maintenance. Daffodils flowering in the cottage garden.\"sized_IMG_7971\"<\/p>\n

\"april\"\u00a0 \"sized_IMG_7986\" \"sized_IMG_7992\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

May<\/strong><\/p>\n

Things looking greener by the day. We covered part of the plot with cardboard to kill perennial weeds and planted some winter squash through it.<\/p>\n

\"sized_may-004\"<\/p>\n

\"may\" \"sized_may-001\"\u00a0 \"sized_may-006\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

June<\/strong><\/p>\n

New pond! (there\u2019s a post about the construction here<\/a>).\u00a0 We\u2019ve also made a hugelbed using all kinds of left over woody materials and the soil excavated from the pond.<\/p>\n

\"sized_june-001\" \"sized_june-002\" \"sized_june-003\" \"sized_june-004\" \"sized_june-005\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

July<\/strong><\/p>\n

The cottage garden became a riot of colour, a source of nectar for the bees and beautiful bouquets for us.<\/p>\n

\"sized_july-005\"<\/p>\n

\"sized_july-001\" \"sized_july-002\" \"sized_july-003\"\u00a0 \"sized_july-006\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

August<\/strong><\/p>\n

We returned from our holidays to a garden full of beautiful produce and frogs and toads\u2013 yes, the pond had become a magnet for wildlife. Hopefully the frogs and toads keep slugs in check.<\/p>\n

\"sized_august-001\"\"august\" \"sized_august-003\" \"sized_august-004\"<\/p>\n

September<\/strong><\/p>\n

We filmed a tour of our kitchen garden<\/a> and picked tons of pears from our beautiful tree.<\/p>\n

\"sized_IMG_9980\"<\/p>\n

\"september\" \"sized_IMG_9832\" \"sized_IMG_9869a\"\u00a0 \"sized_sept\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

October<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lots of unusual and colourful vegetables came to their own this month: artichokes, sweet potatoes, chines kale\u2026\u00a0 Also seven varieties of winter squash (that we made a video about).<\/a><\/p>\n

\"articokes\"<\/p>\n

\"chinese \u00a0 \"sized_IMG_7343\" \"winter \"kitchen \"sweet<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

November<\/strong><\/p>\n

We had fun filming our \u2018Harvesting in November<\/a>\u2019 video \u2013 showing the variety of produce still available this month. I also planted hundreds of flower bulbs\u00a0 many of which unfortunately seem to have been eaten by mice.<\/p>\n

\"kitchen \"november\"spring<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

December<\/strong><\/p>\n

Things are winding down, some pruning to be done and empty beds to be mulched, but slowly the garden is going to sleep.<\/p>\n

\"kitchen<\/p>\n

I hope you enjoy this walk down the memory lane! I’m off to dream up a plan for 2017 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even though I still call our garden \u2018the new garden\u2019, we have a full year of tending our dream plot behind us and it may be time to drop the ‘new’. I can’t wait for the 2017 season to start…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardening"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1UM10-1yl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.growntocook.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/sized_IMG_9838a.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5973"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6481,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5973\/revisions\/6481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}