Well, not so much of a big intro, but the start of hopefully many blogs about growing things in our garden!!
THE STORY SO FAR!!
This is effectively the second completed season of growing in our garden, in a house we bought back in July 2007.
Year 1
Our first year we started with a little patch of bordered garden come raised bed, which had housed 3 different lots of evergreen ferns for the previous 10 years. Two of them got repotted and now sit in pots either side of our front door, the other got cut up and went up a treat on the bonfire!
The first year of growing albeit a little late, we put in hap hasardly about 8 runner beans plants, and grew some nice beans, and some squash, so we deemed it as being a good start!
Year 2
Got very ambitious, converted a corner of our garden into a Big Veggie Patch, dug up the grass, replaced the old fence with a nice new 6ft fence, installed another fence to close in the Veggies, and keep out the Rabbits, as we live next to a nature reserve, and the problem is, rabbits dig under the fence and come in for a munch of our grass at night, and didn't want them eating our lovely veggies, so measures were taken to enclose it all!!! Dug down under all fences, and put in broken bricks and rocks, and also mesh, so unless they found a way to jump about 1.5metres, there was no way they would be getting in! And thankfully it looks like it worked, as no rabbits got into the Veggies!!!
So once Old Fence replaced, New fence and gate built, and all the area dug over several hundred times by both me and the wife, it meant that it was time to build the raised beds, just to tidy it up, so soil didn't spill out! So I made out of rough sawn wood, bought from the timber merchants, 4 raised beds that are 4 metres x 4 metres in size. Painted them, and installed them in the ground. on the areas around the raised beds inside the sectioned off Veggie area, I then rammed hardcore into the ground to give it stability, and then covered it with weed matting, before covering the area in 20mm stones. Around the raised beds, I then attached 30mm copper adhesive slug tape to keep out the little blighters!!! Which suprisingly, worked a treat!!
Dug them over again a couple of times, and they were now ready for planting!! So we started off in half of the one raised bed by putting in asperagus seed, which in hindsight would of been better putting in the roots, to save having to wait 3 years before getting any come up. In the other half, we put in lots of lettuce seeds, but made the mistake of putting all in at the same time, which of course meant that they all came up at the same time, and no matter how much I felt like being a rabbit, trying to eat 300 lettuces, is impossible!! The other bed has divided into 2, and we planted Mange Tout seeds, which all grew up, and gave us 100's of Mange Tout, pictures all to follow! And with my wife being Chinese we also planted lots and lots of Pak Choi seeds, 2 different varieties, which are dead easy to grow, and taste lovely.
On the two remaining plots we started off in the propergator, and in the small makeshirt temp green house, 45runner bean plants, and 16 sweetcorn plants, 8 courgette plants. And thank god, sweetcorns all grew, we are stick picking the runner beans as of 29th October and now all the courgettes have gone, but have a very nice crop.
Here is a small example of some of the Pak Choi that we gre in 2009, wil do more for 2010, but spread them out more, so they dont all come at the same time! 
We have also planted out Ginger, and 76 Pepper plants, which are still in the ground, but not producing and fruit, so I think I will try overwintering about 10-15plants, as an experiment to see what happens, some in the house, some in the shed, some in pots outside, and some in the ground.
And finally in the old make shift raised bed from year 1, we grow 11 garlic plants, lots and lots and lots of spring onions, normal onions, and potatoes. and as of last weekend, cleared all, dug over, and have now planted about 80 garlic cloves, so will be a bumper crop if those all come up!! 
Now for year 3, we need to sit down and work out carefully, what we want to plant, what grew well, what didn't, what we want to eat, and what we dont, and also start work on the self built wooden 14ft x 9ft greenhouse, build an area for a herb garden, and create a nice big fruit garden, as the wife LOVES fruits, espec Summerfruits.
THE STORY SO FAR!!
This is effectively the second completed season of growing in our garden, in a house we bought back in July 2007.
Year 1
Our first year we started with a little patch of bordered garden come raised bed, which had housed 3 different lots of evergreen ferns for the previous 10 years. Two of them got repotted and now sit in pots either side of our front door, the other got cut up and went up a treat on the bonfire!
The first year of growing albeit a little late, we put in hap hasardly about 8 runner beans plants, and grew some nice beans, and some squash, so we deemed it as being a good start!
Year 2
Got very ambitious, converted a corner of our garden into a Big Veggie Patch, dug up the grass, replaced the old fence with a nice new 6ft fence, installed another fence to close in the Veggies, and keep out the Rabbits, as we live next to a nature reserve, and the problem is, rabbits dig under the fence and come in for a munch of our grass at night, and didn't want them eating our lovely veggies, so measures were taken to enclose it all!!! Dug down under all fences, and put in broken bricks and rocks, and also mesh, so unless they found a way to jump about 1.5metres, there was no way they would be getting in! And thankfully it looks like it worked, as no rabbits got into the Veggies!!!
So once Old Fence replaced, New fence and gate built, and all the area dug over several hundred times by both me and the wife, it meant that it was time to build the raised beds, just to tidy it up, so soil didn't spill out! So I made out of rough sawn wood, bought from the timber merchants, 4 raised beds that are 4 metres x 4 metres in size. Painted them, and installed them in the ground. on the areas around the raised beds inside the sectioned off Veggie area, I then rammed hardcore into the ground to give it stability, and then covered it with weed matting, before covering the area in 20mm stones. Around the raised beds, I then attached 30mm copper adhesive slug tape to keep out the little blighters!!! Which suprisingly, worked a treat!! Dug them over again a couple of times, and they were now ready for planting!! So we started off in half of the one raised bed by putting in asperagus seed, which in hindsight would of been better putting in the roots, to save having to wait 3 years before getting any come up. In the other half, we put in lots of lettuce seeds, but made the mistake of putting all in at the same time, which of course meant that they all came up at the same time, and no matter how much I felt like being a rabbit, trying to eat 300 lettuces, is impossible!! The other bed has divided into 2, and we planted Mange Tout seeds, which all grew up, and gave us 100's of Mange Tout, pictures all to follow! And with my wife being Chinese we also planted lots and lots of Pak Choi seeds, 2 different varieties, which are dead easy to grow, and taste lovely. On the two remaining plots we started off in the propergator, and in the small makeshirt temp green house, 45runner bean plants, and 16 sweetcorn plants, 8 courgette plants. And thank god, sweetcorns all grew, we are stick picking the runner beans as of 29th October and now all the courgettes have gone, but have a very nice crop.Here is a small example of some of the Pak Choi that we gre in 2009, wil do more for 2010, but spread them out more, so they dont all come at the same time!We have also planted out Ginger, and 76 Pepper plants, which are still in the ground, but not producing and fruit, so I think I will try overwintering about 10-15plants, as an experiment to see what happens, some in the house, some in the shed, some in pots outside, and some in the ground.
And finally in the old make shift raised bed from year 1, we grow 11 garlic plants, lots and lots and lots of spring onions, normal onions, and potatoes. and as of last weekend, cleared all, dug over, and have now planted about 80 garlic cloves, so will be a bumper crop if those all come up!! Now for year 3, we need to sit down and work out carefully, what we want to plant, what grew well, what didn't, what we want to eat, and what we dont, and also start work on the self built wooden 14ft x 9ft greenhouse, build an area for a herb garden, and create a nice big fruit garden, as the wife LOVES fruits, espec Summerfruits. 
