I’ve finally got around to adding some soil conditioner to my vegetable beds ready for spring planting.  The previous owners cleared the beds of all but the broad beans, but I wanted to make sure they were full of nutrients for the incoming seedlings.  To get started I asked Neil to pick up a couple of bags at the tip, each one contains 40L and they are £3.50 per bag.  The soil conditioner is made of all the garden and kitchen waste that is collected and recycled from the household collections.  It did occur to me that I am technically buying back my own rubbish , but it seems easier to buy compost ready for digging in, rather than waiting for mine  to mature.

I started the process by raking over the current soil and removing the few weeds that were starting to grow.  I then emptied the soil conditioner onto one corner of the vegetable patch and used the rake to spread it evenly out across the bed.  I noticed that some of the soil was harder than others, I think perhaps because the earth had become a little compounded by all the recent rain.

That wall behind the beds is hurting my eyes, with all it’s monstrous concrete starkness.  I’d like to paint it at some point, what colours do you think would look good?  I have some black paint, I might even consider painting some kind of black and white mural.  I thought these lovely black and white patterns would look cool.

The next job I decided to tackle was re-potting some of the mint.  (A tip I kindly took from Marks Veg Plot)  Until now it has been sitting relatively dormant in a small brick container outside the back door.  I imagined myself getting out my  spade and cutting into it, easily dividing it up into pots.  Instead I immediately battled with the roots, I could barely prize anything out of the pot, it was so bound up.  In the end I was forced to yank it out by hand and managed to leaver a few clumps from the corners.  It wasn’t ideal but I was able  get a few fresh shoots potted up in some plant pots I picked up at the scrapstore this week. This coming week I am planning to sow some seeds on the window sill inside and share some new purchases that I’m planting out today.  The first daffodil has finally opened but I’ll share that with you next week.

Want to feast your eyes on some more garden inspiration?  Take a look at the How Does Your Garden Grow Linky over at Mammasaurus.