Looking back, it is a year today that we redid the beds in the garden, split them into two and put the path down the middle. I’m pleased that they are still working for us, and while the paving down the middle received no sunlight for six months and so went all green; it didn’t take much effort to clean them up again.

The winter has taken it’s toll on the soil, everything is still very wet. This is not helped by it raining every other day for the last month or so. In the gaps between some of the onions I planted out the lettuce with the hope that they will have had done their things before the onions really want to do theirs. I mulched the top with some coconut coir, this might even help draw up some of the moisture and try it out a bit underneath (I doubt it).

The coconut coir, we bought two big blocks of it as it was cheap at the supermarket. It suggested it would make 75lt once you add the water. Hard to believe I thought, I added the water and left it while I did something else, on my return it had expanded and was everywhere! I thought it would fill one bucket but it filled two, both overflowing. I then had to add more water, as I used bits of it I encountered dry bits yet to expand. I added more water and it grew a bit more.

It’s cheap, and it’s not that nutrient rich, so I’m giving it a go with seedlings and as mulch, and an experiment with potatoes in buckets.

On the taller bed, it was not so wet (it starts to get the sun sooner) and with the sun it felt moist and warm. The composted manure had had a all winter to sort itself out. I sowed a row of peas and a row of carrots. I don’t really have room for peas, but I sowed them right at the edge so hopefully that will help with them fitting. One of the joys of the growing in the garden is picking peas.