What a mess!

I've taken some pictures of said patch.  It's not a pretty sight at the moment.  Tommer and I attempted to build it together a couple of years ago when Jemima was just a twinkle in our black eye beans (I'm going to apologise in advance for the terrible horticultural puns that are no-doubt going to feature in this blog and also promise that they will continue long after the fruit has been harvested).  Anyway, so we're trying to build a patch, I - being an optimist - have insisted on it being as big as possible when realist Tommer advises that we should start small and see how we go.  We together try and construct the frame but ultimately end up locking horns as we both know best.  Tom tells me that it's getting dark and we should carry on with it tomorrow.  Little did I know the scheming little imp has a plan.  He gets up mega smega early the next morning and builds me a gloriously massive vegetable patch all on his own, very successfully, without my meddling.  He is a good eggplant.

With all the best intentions I planted onions, broccoli, pumpkins, raspberries, peas, carrots and courgettes.  I watered them every day (for about two weeks) then the weather turned bad, I lost interest and the rest is rotten vegetable history.

Here is what the patch looks like now, two years on.

So, this is what we have to work with.  It's a project and hopefully an ongoing one.  We'd like it to be as interactive as possible, if you have any requests or general gardening tips please do feel free to hosepipe up - man, they are getting worse.  Subscribe to the blog if you wish and please do comment to just say hi every now and again, if only to keep me motivated.

My first task is to move the poor compost bin and start again with it.  It's been very badly treated and has been filled with all kitchen food waste, including raw and cooked meats (I didn't really know what I was doing at first) so we need to revive that and get some good quality compost on the go.  So come on composters, what do I put in it?  Peelings and carrot tops I'm sure, untreated grass cuttings?  Egg shells? Newspaper?? What's good, what's bad?  Better do some research.