_Saturday 14 Febuary 2015._ WHAT HAPPENED: Wore wellington boots. Prepared the garden by digging and turning over soil using a spade. Spread compost on top beforehand and also after, using a pitch fork. Washed tools. Oiled tools. NOTES: Compost was dug into a wheelbarrow and transported by another person. Took approximately 4 and a half hours. ~1800 ml of water drunk. This is very hard work. FURTHER RESEARCH: It may be worth investigating no-dig gardening due to the great amount of manual labour involved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-dig_gardening Maximising distance between plants for maximum crop size is a good idea. It may be worth investigating.DONE Need to work out greenhouse times. Need to measure area dug. Date between day 2 and day 3. Rotevated the ground again. _Saturday 14th March._ Raked mud lots to break it up. This apparently should be done when the mud is 'half' dry. Once raked, used back of rake to smooth surface. Drew small ditches in the mud using a stick, approximately 5x the seed size deep. Sowed 2 seeds (a little bit apart so they could be seperated), then measured the appropiate distance then sowed 2 more, down the ditch. The very small seeds needed sprinkling instead. (carrot and spring onion) Then watered each ditch. Used the rake, the right way round to gently rake along the ditch (not across the ditch), which ligthly covers the seed. Planted like this the following: Chard Carrot Beetroot Spring onion Spinich I then decided to sow some in the polytunnel. Mixed very dry compost with water. Filled trays. Made holes 5x seed size with dibber in each. Sowed 2 seeds per hole. Gently covered hole. Planted like this for the following: Parsely Lettuce Rocket Leaks Found two pots for Chamomile and St. Johns Wort Mixed very dry compost with water Sprinkled a pinch of seed on top Then sprinkled some dirt on top of that. Date between day 3 and day 4. Checked on plants in polytunnel every 1-2 days to see if they needed watering, watered them if so. This needs to be repeated from now until they are transplanted. Day 4 - 4th of April 2015 _________________________ outside; made a 3inch trench using the hoe for the peas. planted the seeds, two at a time. planted beetroot, more broadbeans, two at a time for the beetroot, one at a time for the broad beans. sprinkled cress, radish, turnip and flax. sprinkled chives at the end of the bed. inside; sowed spearmint into a round pot by sprinkling. sowed brussel sprouts into round pot by making 1&1/2 cm holes 1 inch apart. Day 5 - 5th April 2015 ______________________ transplanted small saint johns wort plants with 1 ft gaps ___Day 6____18th April 2015__ Used hoe to get rid of many of the weeds. By scraping between the rows (large hoe) and inbetween plants (small hoe). Sowed outside rocket, brocolli, kale and more lettuce by making line(s) in the ground with stick, sprinking, gently raking along the line and watering (because dry). Day 7__Friday 24th April__ Planted potatoes in a line, using a hand plough. Bought some tomato plants from garden centre and put in polytunnel. Day_8_-_Monday_4th_May planted beetroot, carrots using stick/line in ground transplanted some rocket and lettuce outside as a test to see if they'd survive planted some flax and chives seeds in two different pots in polytunnel as they were not growing outdoors at all. planted 8x runnerbeans and 8x corgette seeds, one in each little pot. Day_9__10th_May_2015 Transplanted Rocket Parsely and Lettuce outside. Sowed some spring onions from seed. Day_10__Sunday_17th_May_2015 Transplanted chamomile outside. Transplanted tomato plants that we got from garden centre 3 weeks ago (~Day 7) from polytunnel, to outside. Day_11__Thursday_24th_May Harvested spinach by picking biggest leaves from plant(s). This can then be repeated. Future picking of spinach won't be documented, so long as they dont go to seed, they should be eadible. Day_12__Thursday_25th_May Made a mound around the potato plants, used grass clippings too. Saturday_6th_June transplanted brussel sprouts, kale, corgette, broccoli, and runner beans outdoors. Sunday_7th_June Picked rocket, picked a lettuce, picked radish. Note that the radish plant had gone to seed and also the radishes wern't very big. The rocket almost went to seed but we picked off where the seed grows to get the leaves to grow bigger instead and to prevent it going bad. Future picking of remaining rocket and lettuce won't be documented. So long as they don't go to seed, they are ready to eat. Day_15__21st_June_2015 Removed spinach plants and composted because they were going to seed and were turning bad to eat. Started picking chard. Day_16__Friday_10_July Pulled up flowering rocket which was going to seed. Punched holes in the ground 6 inches deep and planted the leeks outside 6 inches apart (where the rocket was). Picked chamomile. Day_17__Monday_13_July Picked peas, these can continue to be picked from now on Day_18__Thursday_6th_August Picked shallots, and left in the poly tunnel for the mud and outer layers to dry. Picked St. Johns wort (cut off at base with a knife), and left in the poly tunnel to dry. Put spearmint and chives and flax outside. (These should have been planted in ground (bar spearmint because invasive), they did not get enough water, as on holiday). Picked some courgettes, these can be picked from now on or continue to grow into marrows. Dug up some potatoes (by gently putting fork in below the potatoes and lifting, collecting ALL potatoes, not leaving any so they don't grow again). Day_19__Sunday_16th_August_2015 Did some weeding. Made small mounds around the leeks so more of the leek would be edible. Day_20__Thursday_20th_August Picked runner beans. Picked flax seeds (were pods). __Notes__ Day_21__Thursday_3rd_September Picked dried pea pods for seeds, this should have been ideally picked a little earlier. We had to cover some plants from birds. The peas had to grow up sticks. The radishes partly got eaten by flea beetle. Deer ate some of the beans, so we put up a fence around them with CDs tied on to reflect and scare them. Slugs ate some of the plants a bit, almost had to put down traps. The lettuces went to seed quickly and as of such we didn't eat as many as we could/should have done. The spinach got pulled up before we let it go to seed, so we couldn't harvest any seeds. The rocket grown in the greenhouse first, and then transplanted outside went to seed to quickly, and quicker than the rocket planted straight outside. Plants need lots of water to make nice big leaves. The tops can be picked off if they go to seed to early, to encourage the growth of leaves. Had to make a wigwam for the runnerbeans to climb up. The flax dried up a bit as not enough water (so did some other plants). And the flax blew over once put outside. The brocolli got catepillars from butterflies laying eggs. We did not leave enough pods to go to seed on the broad beans for next year.