A year in a tiny garden

Last year I was loaned a small part of a garden to use for vegetables (thanks Viv!) It's about 2m by 1.5m, is on clay soil and gets some shade from the apple tree, shrubs, and a fence. Last year I took a photo of the plot most months.
This is the first year of my new little plot. (Okay, first year and a month - I just want to show you how amazing April was!)

Mid-March 2009. Plot just dug over; perennial plants removed, new edging popped in. My original blog post here.

Mid-April. Herbs planted in the corner and at the back, 'May Queen' lettuces under recycled yogurt pots, radishes under propagator lid. Three bricks placed in the middle so I can reach the centre of the plot. I decided to go for an informal layout rather than a formal, allotment-style one.

Late April. More lettuces, still under cover - you can't be too careful! Onions doing well on the right-hand side, interplanted with carrots. Original blog post here.

Late May. What a difference! 'May Queen' living up to its name, huge radishes (leaves rather than roots, unfortunately) and most things, including the weeds, doing pretty well. Peas and sorrel sown in the centre. More here.

Late June: Oregano blooming all over (seems to cope admirably with the clay, some grit was dug in). Onions small but perfectly formed. Sorrel - in the middle - where did that come from? Beetroot at the back, patch of home-grown leeks on the left. And more about them here.

Early September. All doing well - especially those big perennials at the back! At last the Marigolds are really getting going. Onions all harvested - the carrots were a no-show. Not surprising as it's the wrong soil really, but it's useful to give things a try. August's Garden Diary is here.

Mid-September. Even more verdant than ever. Winter salad crops - Mizuna, Cornsalad, American Land Cress and red Mustard - planted out with yogurt-pot slug-barriers around them. More here.

Early January. A big jump to the big freeze. I thought, more than once, "I must cover everything with fleece", but never got round to it. Maybe it was too late already...

Early March 2010. The leeks surived, looking blue. The mint, oregano and chives look brown. the sorrel is barely visible. Under the fleece I planted out some winter salads I'd had in containers in a sheltered position all winter. Under the corrugated plastic are some garlic planted too late.

Mid-March. Those leeks are starting to grow - and look at the sorrel! Red Mustard appearing on the right hand side. Currant cuttings lined out at the back, with three Raspberry canes donated by a friend.

Early April. Lots more winter salad planted out, Leeks and Sorrel going fantastically.

Mid April. It was well worth leaving the Leeks in for so long, but I think I'll leave growing them again till I've an allotment. This year the emphasis is going to be on salads. Starting with Sorrel and Red Mustard by the looks of it. Cornsalad and Land cress doing almost too well - they've all bolted. I'm leaving them to self-seed. And you can catch up with my most recent garden blog here. The idea is that all my garden posts will appear here, on 'It's the gardening lady...' from now on.