Well first off it looks a little different !

2022! Here we go again, another New Year! This is the first full year we will spend in our forever home! I am going to create a series of posts aimed at charting what our garden looks like during a twelve month period.

The first big change will be to create extra vegetable growing areas.

We had the tyres on our car replaced at the end of last year, so I brought a couple of the old tyres home. They’re now next to the greenhouse, stood on cardboard (reused from online orders being delivered).

Last year, I had some success growing potatoes in boxes in the greenhouse. The compost from that experiment is now nitrate rich, so I’m sifting it to create a finer nitrate rich compost. I’m adding organic compost and horticultural grit to create a compost to put into the tyres. INSTANT RAISED BORDERS! This year, I’ll be using bamboo canes to grow runner and borlotti beans in these old tyres.

The second additional vegetable patch will be in the bottom right hand side of the garden. The border that runs along the fence at the bottom of our garden is a little odd in terms of it not being remotely straight. Now that’s not such a bad thing, wobbly borders can be good, but this border looks odd. However, a spot of digging to get rid of an oblong patch of grass will create a great area to grow vegetables. The area gets a lot of sun and there is also a length of wire that extends along this section of fence. Using string, I can create a vertical growing grid to enable me to grow beans, pumpkins, sweet peas, etc.

Another big change for this year will be welcoming a black labrador retriever puppy to our home. We’ve chosen a Kennel Club registered breeder who we’ve taken some time to get to know. One of her breeding pairs has a litter due on January 23rd. I would like to state here that each bitch never has more that one litter a year, mummy gets lots of time to recover before she has another litter.

We’re very excited and are starting to puppy proof our home and garden, to get everything ready for our furbaby. I even have a doggy teepee so that furbaby can get shade in the garden during the hot months. I have also bought a doggy depth swimming pool.