Cottage Vegetable Garden

Once removed, the greenhouse left a template of fertile beds in the ground. Using decking boards sourced from around our garden and donated from our neighbour, we fashioned some  raised beds to grow some vegetables, retaining a rustic feel.  

The central path provided good access to the beds from both sides, and the brickwork a solid boundary.  We made uprights and knocked them down into the earth for support and screwed the decking boards into them.

We grew strawberries, carrots, chives and courgettes among other things. Watched over by our resident hedgehog and robin.

The width of the bed also allowed us to use corrugated plastic sheets as cloches to protect the plants in spring.

Some of our strawberry crop fell foul to some pesky squirrels, so the following year we constructed some netting to keep them off.  The uprights were made from some small square timbers and we used some small branches from a tree that we'd pruned for the tops, these were screwed into the decking boards and to each other, with some butterfly netting over the top and secured at the bottom with hooks so we could still harvest our crops.