Vegetable aspirations

I'm very excited about the idea of having parties in the summer, and being able to use vegetables and salads that I have grown in the garden. We visited our friends the Skinners at Eastgrove Cottage Garden for Easter Sunday, and I spent a long time grilling Carol about how to grow different types of veg and salads.

I've already mentioned the courgettes, peas and beans, but I'll also be growing a salad mix, some rocket and Chard in two varieties: the first is the "Perpetual Spinach" which we can either have as baby leaves, or let the plant grow (to about 2' tall), then get spinach to cook off it all the way through til next March!! The other is a mixture called "Bright Lights" which has brightly coloured stems in shades of red and yellow. This one isn't quite as hardy, but should still last through to do Christmas lunch!

I've ordered some nematodes from the Organic garden supply people at Ryton, so they should arrive soon. They feed on the slugs under the soil and will kill off (hopefully) all the baby slugs that are hiding and waiting to eat all my seedlings! I've also bought some compost activator which contains all the microbes needed to build me a hot heap.

Plans for today are to build a bamboo fence for the front of the compost area (which is all nicely layered up again now), to plant up my salad seeds and tidy up a bit more in the side by the wisteria, to prepare for my peas going in.