The Gardeners

Mabel and Wilf.   

Wilf''s good at the big stuff.  He likes nothing better than to plug in his MP3 and getting digging and clearing.  He has a personal vendetta against dandelions and anything else with a deep tap root and can spot a sleeping slug at 50 paces.  He doesn't like the fiddly bits and hasn't ever deadheaded a flower in his life.

And me?  Well, really I'm in charge.  I have lots of the ideas, decide what we're going to grow and am keeper of the Garden Notebook.  I like the fiddly stuff, will potter around deadheading and hate gardening with gloves on.

We've been gardening together for 10 years now and we're coming into our fifth season in this garden.

The Garden

Well.  How do I describe it?  The back garden is typical of its age (1950s) - rectangular and a good size, about 85ft long and 25ft wide.  It faces due east and gets a good amount of sun.  The soil was fairly grim - though it's gradually getting better.



Getting as much veg and salad from the garden is our main objective this year - well, and a new fence!  We've got four 5ft square beds starting to be planted up with this year's seeds, with the final crops from last year (chard and PSB) still going strongly.  There's a 6x8 permanent greenhouse and a temporary greenhouse.



 A herb bed by the house provides us with plenty of pickings.



The latest addition is a small fruit bed - nothing adventurous yet, just rhubarb, raspberries and strawberries.  



Salad leaves are starting to sprout in pots on the patio and there'll be hanging baskets at the front for the cherry toms.  For the first time we've got a proper successional sowing plan, so fingers crossed for some bumper crops.