"Rod" wrote ...
Just took a few photos this morning while the ground was too wet for
any gardening - I want to dig the last of the new deep beds I've been
preparing. Photos at

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/Rod's%20plot01/page1.htm

No captions, they are mostly self explanatory. The big cage is a
legacy from when shoots were held on the Estate and pheasants were
reared just over the wall.

I cultivated this plot for 31 years as part of my work, running this
25 acre private garden but now I've retired the new head gardener is
scaling down the veg for the Hall so I've 'inherited' one of the
three veg plots. There were already 2 old deep beds and I'm converting
the rest of the plot so there will be 8 deep beds in all about 47 feet
long and 4 feet wide.

As you can see my wife and I are fond of veg ;-) and I'm enjoying
playing at seeing what the results can be with all the constraints
off.
To make things more interesting to yer average amateur I'm doing
without using any of the available greenhouse facilities.Anything
started indoors has been done on the window sill in my workshop and as
I said in an earlier post I've been experimenting with hardening off
the 'nearly hardy' or early season veg when the seedlings are barely
showing in the plugs. Peas are started in short lengths of plastic
guttering to avoid mouse damage and to give earlier cropping of the
early variety - rows across the bed. Some of the photos show the
succession given by making sowings at 2-3 week intervals. Onions are
heat treated 'Red Baron'. I've made room for some flowers for cutting,
especially border carnations and pinks which I haven't grown much
before and sweet peas that I've never had time to grow properly before.

Very impressive Rod, reminds me of some ironwork I've seen on some French
fruit farms near Toulouse. (to keep the hail stones off).
Why not use the Greenhouse as it's there? You are making thing more
difficult unnecessarily. I have a very small greenhouse attached to my
garage that I start all our veg seeds off in, well actually mostly in a
heated propagator, then they go onto the garage roof to grow on and harden
off.
I think we will also have to consider the gutter idea for our peas although
covering the seeds with fine wire mesh and covering the edges with soil
(they then try and dig through the mesh) seems to have stopped the mouse
onslaught such that we might actually get a reduced crop.
The Red Baron never grow that large for us and seem a bit more temperamental
than the normal onions.
The smell from Carnations and Pinks grown "hard" on the plot is wonderful,
even the none smelly ones from a florist get their full scent back if you
are able to propagate them.
Good luck and welcome to retirement.

--
Regards
Bob H
17mls W. of London.UK