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I planted the gooseberry bush and blueberry bush which were previously in pots, at the south end of the plot, next to the shed and next to one of the rhubarb crowns, all in an east-west row. They will get lots of sun there, from mid-late morning for the rest of the day. These are all straight into the soil, not in beds but with good soil and compost added to the stoney mess of the original ground.
Blueberry is not looking very happy – it needs ericaceous fertilizer asap.
Rhubarb already has shoots appearing ! Must resist urge for rhubarb crumble – they need to be left alone this year to help the new crown establish.

Steve and I made up the 2 new linkabord raised beds, 2m x 1m each.
Steve dug pits 6-8” deep, so we can put sharp sand and compost into the bottom, before adding the raised bed sides and filling with topsoil. End result will be about 12” deep beds of which 6” will be raised. These run north-south along the western edge of the plot. Lots of sun but also lots of wind so we plan to put a windbreak screen up along the wire fence.
These beds are for the 3 varieties of asparagus crowns which arrive end March/April. Asparagus fern gets to about 5’ tall !

Received a large rhubarb crown from Uncle Tommy, variety unknown. Divided it into 3 parts, rather unscientifically with a spade, but making sure each segment had some shoots. Planted one in each southern corner of plot, 3rd one is for mum. Put lots of home-made compost into the hole first and backfilled with growbag soil from last years tomatoes.
They need a FYM mulch when the leaves die back later in the year and poss some nitrogen before then.

I am going to document our work to transform a patch of former agricultural land into a working fruit and vegetable garden, providing the majority of our produce, hopefully within about 12 months.

When we took ownership, the good thing was that it had been grazed by both cows and sheep so was well manured and not too out of control. The bad bit was the soil level varied by about 6 feet with a big ‘basin’ in the centre of it, and the only thing slowing down the couch grass was the rocks.

The basin has now been levelled but with fairly low grade filler – lots more rocks, just a bit of soil, not good enough to grow anything except more couch grass.

The fence is up, so we are now taking control and starting to lay out the raised bed areas. A little bit later than I would have liked for this season, but we should have time to get a good range of crops in, even if its not everything – like we probably wont have a greenhouse until next year.