Winter jobs in the garden...

It hardly seems possible that it was 11 years ago that we laid out the vegetable garden and installed the raised beds in them. For a little while now the wooden sides have started to rot where they had contact with the soil, and so it was time for them to be replaced. This is a job best tackled when the beds are for the most part empty... Having put it off "until after Christmas", I finally got down to dealing with it in February when we had some clear dry days. To avoid disturbing the beds too much, we decided to add the new timbers around the old ones, a bit like collars, which we hope might help protect the new timber too. Once finished and given a coat of dark oak wood preservative, they are now ready for this year's crops.

In the front left hand bed we still have stacked last years tomato bags and the spent compost from last years baskets and peppers which we will spread on the raised beds shortly. And you can make out the remnants of the purple sprouting and leek crops which we are just finishing.