The Garden Vegetable Beds Project Resumes

This weekend, we spent some more time landscaping the ground around our new vegetable beds.  I'd bought some heavy duty weed suppressing fabric during the week at B&Q and on Saturday afternoon, I set about laying it, whilst OH levelled the paths and filled in any holes or uneven parts.

I managed to get most of the way round.  I'd bought a cheap value staple gun (also from B&Q) and this does a great job of attaching the fabric to the bed edges and border edges in super  quick time, ensuring that no weeds grow up the sides of the fabric.  I used the same method on my allotment beds and it worked well.

I got almost all of the way round, but ran out of fabric for the last small stretch in front of the gate and under the cherry tree.  I'm going to order a short roll on eBay early next week and use it to complete the task next week.

I'm thinking of putting a bench under the cherry tree, where I can sit with a cup of tea and look over my vegetable beds or take a rest between planting and tending to them.  I've always wanted a bench in the garden and it seems as good a place as any to put one.  I'll have to look out for an inexpensive one on eBay.

I did sow some salad seeds into one of the beds on Thursday this week, the one we partially filled from the compost bin. I'd bought one bale of compost whilst I was at B&Q and this just about filled it, not right to the top, but high enough to start sowing into it.  We will probably add more organic matter over the course of the year.

We still need to fill the other bed, but I've discovered that you can fill your own bags with manure at the local riding centre for 50p per bag, so a few bags of that should go a long way, plus a couple of bales of compost on top, and we should be just about there.

The total budget  to date has been £220  for the wood, £20 for the weed suppressant fabric, £7 for compost and £5 for the staple gun, which comes to £252 in total.

I need to spent £9 for some more fabric, £14 for more compost and maybe £3 for manure, bringing the total to £278 and it should be finished save for the bark chips, which we're hoping to get either tomorrow or next weekend.

Here's a picture of the garden as it now looks and I'll hopefully be back with a full reveal next week.