Gardensharestirling

Andrew and I were on the Transition Stirling ‘Spokes and Spades’ cycle tour on Saturday and luckily we managed to dodge the worst of the rain showers. The tour was very interesting and a lot of gardening know-how was shared which is what it is all about!

First we visited a suburban permaculture garden where we learnt about sustainable land use design while eating lavender shortbread before moving on to see a garden growing lots of medicinal herbs and learnt about their uses. At this garden stop we drank homemade lemonbalm-ade and ate raspberry and white chocolate muffins and scones with homemade plum jam.

After it was a cycle up to the top of Stirlingto see our garden as one of the gardenshare gardens. Andy and I used this opportunity to quiz the more experienced gardeners and gain answers to some of our gardening questions.

The final stop was at a Wallace street tenement where we met Emily and the communal chickens that lived in the garden there.

 A good day out was had by all!

Hopefully the blog is now linked to the Facebook group and to the twitter account!

Exciting news in our garden this week- we’ve dug up the first of our early potatoes! I can’t wait to try them with some butter and home grown parsley.

This week we’ve (when I say we, I mean my husband) been having a tidy up in the garden to get it looking spick and span for the Spokes ‘n Spades cycle trail at the weekend which is taking in a handful of Stirling’s gardens (for more info go to http://www.cyclestirling.org.uk/events/spokes-and-spades).

 Other jobs in the garden this week are:

• Earthing up maincrop potatoes to keep light from the newly developing tubers;
• Cutting and drying herbs while they are at their best;
• Weeding round our brassicas and other plants- this seems like an endless task!;
• Checking if our tomato plant has produced 4 or 5 trusses (bunches) of fruit and if it has, need to pinch out the main growing point to stop the plant growing and encourage fruit ripening;
• Harvesting vegetables as soon as they are ready. This makes the vegetables taste better and we can plant another crop in its place, getting more out of the land.

 What are you up to in your garden this week?

My husband, Andrew, and I have just started helping Philippa to administer and promote the Gardenshare Stirling scheme and just thought we’d update the blog to introduce ourselves.

 We joined the Gardenshare Stirling scheme last September as we were looking for a garden. We were promptly matched and, in partnership with the garden owner, have set about clearing, digging and planting the garden. We are just beginning to harvest some salad leaves, cucumbers and strawberries with other things ripening fast in this lovely weather.

As we are new to gardening its been a steep learning curve, with lots of mistakes and lessons learnt along the way – with still lots more to learn!

This week our gardening jobs are as follows:

• Tying up the tomatoes which are beginning to break free of their restraints to ensure they are properly supported;
• Thinning the carrots, parsnips, beetroot and turnip seedlings, I’ve read that the best way to do this is to water the seedlings well the day before to make it easier to pull the seedlings from the ground, select the seedling you want to keep and put a finger and thumb either side of it to protect it, while pulling out the seedlings you don’t want to keep. It’s beneficial to water the seedlings straight after thinning as this should help prevent carrot root fly being attracted to them;
• Weeding round the brassicas to ensure they are not competing with weeds;
• Spraying the potatoes with Bordeaux solution which is supposed to protect from blight;
• Watering everything in the greenhouse regularly to encourage fruit growth and to stop tomatoes splitting.

 What are you up to in your garden this week?