More seed sowing

Too late to take a decent photo, but a seed patch with nothing up is rather a boring subject anyway.

After lots of false starts I finally was able to get round to sowing the bed which had the onions in. I decided to really go for the Square Foot Garden method on this bed so have marked it with string into 1 ft squares and sown them.
So...here is the list...
Carrots "Early French Frame"
French Beans, "Duel", "Senesta" and "Safari"
Fennel "Romanesco"
Coriander
American Land Cress
Spring Onions "White Lisbon"
Perpetual Spinach
Mixed Lettuce Leaves
Ditto....Oriental Mix
Basil "Sweet Genovese"
Pak Choi
Beetroot "Bikores"
Radish "Mooli"
Parcel
Parsley "Rosette"
Radish "French Breakfast"
"Ruby" Chard
This bed will mainly serve as a salad bed as I shall pick the chard and spinach as young leaves rather than leave them to grow into winter veg.

I am relieved to have done it.....at last!

Alas for the Mole!

Poor little thing. DH thinks perhaps he couldn't find anything to drink....it was very dry on my plot.

While I was weeding the beans I had a blackbird for company....then he followed me to the cabbage bed and kept nipping in and out under the netting. I didn't find any worms though....too dry!
I attended to my carrot bed first. As shown here I sowed them before checking the length of my environmesh. The two rows not under the mesh are tiny as yet, whereas the stuff under the mesh is huge...despite being dryer. They do say that water passes through the mesh, but when I soak with the hose some rolls off....so I bet the rain does too.


The beans that I sowed so late. All weeded now.

I decided to install pots in the ground to help get the water down to the roots as they seemed to be rather dry. As I arrived at the plots today there was a huge bag of plastic pots on the surplus seat. So I took some of them and here is where they ended up.

I had to encourage some of the beans to find the poles. It is very windy on my plot...so I have tied some of them closer to the poles to give them a hint.
The brassica bed. This is 20ft long, and I only managed half of it today.

The cabbage collars continually end up in one corner of the netting as they are easily blown off by the wind. I shan't buy this make again. They are the ones with copper in them to deter slugs. They are so soft and malleable that they are easy to put on....and easy for the wind to whip off. If I hadn't netted the bed I wouldn't have one left now.

As I replaced them I weighted them down with stones....hope it works!

Had enough for the day now. There is still plenty more to do at the plot, as there also is at home, and I hope to have caught up soon.........some hope! One day I might manage to get all the paths weeded too.....

Sweet Peas

Today's picking. These were just a cheap "fragrant mix". They smell divine, and have super long (12") stems. I am picking a bunch like this every other day.

At the plot this morning I decided to get to grips with the weeds around the raspberry canes, as it is time to start picking them. I did the far side of them a few weeks ago so that wasn't too bad, but the path between the raspberries and the gooseberry bush and the rhubarb was really overgrown and impassable with 4 ft high nettles. I pulled all these up....not difficult as it is so dry and they very easily gave in. Then to my great surprise I saw that not only was there a small picking of the raspberries to be had (Autumn Bliss) , but the gooseberry bush was laden with fruit. Last year it had not a single berry, but it was laden this year. Is that the power of the manure heap I stacked around its roots last autumn, or due to the nettles that were keeping the birds away? Who knows? But I was glad to pick them. They will brighten up our weekend!

After pulling up all the nettles and having a good go at the bindweed I hoed the paths, then gave the comfrey which grows along the back fence another haircut and mulched the base of the raspberries with the chopped leaves and stems. It makes a wonderful soil conditioner and feed.

I will be going back later as there is still so much to do there......everything needs weeding. I'm hoping to do the carrots and the cabbages. My back is a bit stiff from this morning's efforts but I will keep at it as long as I can. It needs it.

I was sorry to see a mole lying dead by my courgette. I have no idea why he died......very sad.

The Queen has an allotment....like us!!!!

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/news/news_topic.php?id=514&dm_i=4UO,18R6,JK0GT,44P8,1
Click the small picture of the gardener girl to see the video

At the plot today

After lunch I went to the plot. The weather seemed to be cool enough for me to work in the sun as there was plenty of intermittent cloud cover. However it was fearfully windy, which was creating dust storms as I worked as the soil is so dry ....so I stayed for an hour and then came home. (I checked with the IOW weather records and we were getting 25mph winds.) I was getting earache from the constant wind in the ears, my skirt kept flying over my head, and I was worried about the big tree. It is a beech and seems sturdy enough, but a branch came off a beech at my sister's house this week and a car was crushed flat! I decided to come again tomorrow instead!

I did do some tidying but there is still a mountain to do here.
I cleared the broad bean bed, and tidied the poor little courgette bed (late sown and only one came up. I think he will catch up as he seems healthy!)
I pulled out the cheeky tall weeds in the spud bed.

I harvested the volunteer spuds in last years spud bed. Enough for two weeks eating I think. The bed will be wanted for winter cabbage so I have a while yet before needing to tidy it completely.







A view of the Brussels sprout and other brassicas bed....netted against the dreaded butterflies. I really should weed that soon.
The bed in front is the last one at the plot still waiting to be cleared for this year. That too will be for winter cabbage....so no hurry.

In the tunnel

Onions , garlic and shallots drying in the tunnel .











The big LH bed in the tunnel. Lemon tree at the back.....a few small fruits on it. Next to that a little melon plant, and a cucumber. The big plant up the tunnel frame is a cucumber which is doing very well....a cue every two days at the moment.....just enough for us!
Also in this bed are the early courgettes.....I'm picking two a day from these. They are a self-fertile variety and are doing much better than the ones I tried in here last year.
There are also peppers and aubergines in this bed but they are a bit smothered by the courgettes....
As are the strawberries which edge the path. I think I won't bother with these next year....they haven't done very well this year. They are jut babies it is true as they were just runners last year, but I am re-doing the tunnel this autumn , details later, and I don't think they will fit in as edging plants.

The RH side of the tunnel has the tomatoes , some strawberries along the path, marigolds (french to deter the white fly...it works!), a physallis, 2 tomatilloes, some very sorry for themselves luffas (shan't bother with them again) and some chillies.
The tomatoes were late going in and have a lot of fruit on them, but are slow to ripen. We have had a few, but there are lots to come.
All in all I don't seem to be as far behind as I had feared. I have worked out here for many hours this last few days and am beginning to catch up at last.

Today in my kitchen garden

Photos to show the state of play in my back garden vegetable plot.
Here are the bed I cleared this morning that had the peas, beetroot and carrots in sq ft sized areas. I have weeded it and taken out the seeded spinach and radishes. I am ready to re-sow with other stuff now.
The RH front bed is a bean and sweet pea bed. There are also some marigolds that have volunteered their efforts, as well as what I assume to be a self sown pumpkin or squash. I always leave volunteers and am curious to see what this one is. The sweet peas are just a fragrant mix, and they have super long stems. We are getting a huge bunch every two days. I love this time of year....!
The back RH bed is also beans and some sweet peas. There are also onions in there as companions.
The back LH bed is the outdoor tomatoes that my good friend in Kent gave me.....type unknown. They are growing well in spite of having been watered with tap water for some weeks now (we haven't had nearly enough rain!)
The other 4 of the 8'x3'6" beds are shown here. Front LH bed is just cabbages at the moment as the Broad beans and peas which were in there have finished. I have laid today's harvest of onions (gone to seed so for early consumption) and Eschalotte Grise shallots. These latter look very good and I am sure they will taste spectacular!

The front LH bed has the sweetcorn in it.....doing well, and some Hestia runner beans that just grow low (I don't hold with sowing sweetcorn and runner beans together no matter what Carol Klein says....the beans wrap their tendrils round and round the cobs so you can't harvest them without sacrificing the bean stems....the low growing ones are my compromise idea.)
Right at the front of the bed is a huge cabbage (see next photo) which still hasn't hearted up so I am leaving the lovely thing to fill out.
The back LH bed is planted with red cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli, fennel and leeks. All liking each other's company and looking very healthy.
Here is the aforementioned cabbage. The only one of a set I planted out last Autumn. The others just sat there reproaching me and refuse to stop sulking and grow....so out they went to make way for the sweetcorn. Can someone tell me why some plants sulk and others just want to please?
The asparagus bed is being left now til next year to re-coup its reserves. And the empty bed is the one where the bulk of my onion, garlic and shallots which I harvested this week were growing. The bed is now ready for re-sowing....Square foot method ....with salads etc I think. But I am letting it have a week or two to settle and perhaps show some weeds (bindweed was in evidence....I weeded it out but may have missed a bit) and then I'll re-weed it and sow seeds. The weather is a bit hot for salad sowing at the moment...I don't want them to bolt.

Long Time No Post!!!

Here I am! The last month has been sooooo busy that I have failed to record my progress here. I have been generally watering everything because of the hot weather, and harvesting what is ready to eat, and enjoying what I have done.....but there was no time for photos and posting.

This morning I thought I ought to have a look at the Square Foot bed I sowed a couple of months ago. The beetroot are ready to pull, and will be eaten in the next couple of days. The sugar snap peas....."Super Sweet" from Kings Seeds...were all of a tangle because I had forgotten to stake them. They were absolutely loaded. I had to pull them up to get at the peas.....which was a shame as I think I could have left them and had a few more. Next year I'll make a wigwam for them....

Some of the other seeds I planted in that bed either never showed or were only sparse.....I should have gone back and re-sown....but life wasn't like that last month. I caught some kind of summer flu that wiped me out for a fortnight, and then we had visitors.....! (DH believes it was Swine Flu, and I am inclined to think he was right. Two days before it came out I was in Coventry.....which is right next door to one of the the hotbeds, Birmingham.)

We harvested one of the bags of potatoes two weeks ago....very sparse results. We decided they needed a bit longer and a lot more water. I harvested another bag yesterday and that was a bit better....still nothing like the results they show in the adverts.......but I reckon there were 10 spuds from each seed potato.....which I suppose isn't bad. This bag was damper than the first so I think we are getting the watering right at last. Next year I will stand each of the bags in an old washing up bowl so that the water doesn't run away before it has a chance to soak in.

The onion bed has been harvested. These (onions, garlic and shallots) were planted last Autumn and have made a middling crop. The shallots are terrific, the onions are so-so....some large (huge actually....5" diameter), some small, and some were trying to flower so we must eat them soon as they won't keep! The garlic was also so-so....some beautiful....some rotted away under the soil.
The bed was very dry and rock solid (the soil at home here is not spectacular...unlike my wonderful allotment. But I had to do the onion crops at home this year as my whole crop got white rot last year and most had to be thrown away. The crop at home was fine.....so that seems to be the way to go. I have started to give the deep beds at home a wetting solution dose once a month so that the water actually goes into the soil and spreads rather than the soil setting like concrete.

Later today I am off to the plot....the weather is dull and damp today so I can cope. There was just too much sun there last week for me to be comfortable....
Pictures later.

Lovely Rain!

My...... did it rain last night? I woke at 1.57am precisely to hear it thundering down, monsoon-like, on the roof (we are a chalet bungalow so there is a lot of roof in direct contact with the ceiling!) and I was still kept awake by the noise 25 minutes later. I wasn't sorry because my plot sorely needs it.
I took this photo on Friday after sowing some bean (actually "pea bean") seeds and installing the poles and watering the bed copiously.

I had also wanted to sow some peas in the next bed away fom the camera. I cleared and tilled that bed also on Friday, so it was ready (if a bit lumpy), but the peas looked so shrivelled in the packet, and they were in the last month of their "sow before" date, so I brought them home and soaked them til today. I actually sowed them at twice the density recommended on the packet. If they all come up, which I doubt, I will take every other one to have in salad as pea shoots.....yummy!!!The soil was so soft this afternoon that it was a doddle to put them in (anointed with petrol to foil the mice...!)

Early in the week I must go and net them because so many plotters have lost all their newly emerging pea and bean shoots to the rabbbits. Some said it was mice....! I can net against rabbits but if it is mice then I haven't a hope.

I think I forgot to note on here that I sowed some French beans for the freezer in the next bed behind the broad beans.

I am nearly ready to sigh with relief at having caught up. There is one more bed to clear, and then a load of weeding to do around the raspberries, gooseberry, and globe artichokes. I also want to clear all the weedy between-bed paths and restore them to bare earth. They are so much easier to cope with when I can just hoe them once a week, when I hoe the beds.

Everything at the plot looks happy to have had a soaking last night.

A beautiful morning

Perfect weather for me this morning. Not too hot, a slight NE wind, and the lovely shade afforded by the giant beech tree alongside my plot. I worked from 9.30 til Noon and as you can see by the pictures I took just before leaving, the plot was still in deep shade.

I decided to tackle the double width bed where I had spuds last year. As you can see there are lots of volunteers there. I always miss a few when digging up the crop. I haven't the heart to pull them out so I've left them. I pulled out most of the 18" tall weeds and then tilled it with my Wolf tiller, then raked all the weed debris around the plants in lieu of earthing up. In a day or two I will hoe again then put in some courgettes.
These are the last areas to tackle....then I'll feel like I've caught up. I've pulled out the tallest weeds, and am now loosening with a fork and pulling out the others. We are due some rain in the next day or so which will facilitate this!!!
These beds are destined for peas for the freezer.

In the backgroubd you can see Malcolm's new shed. It is a very sturdy biggish one (his B&Q one was a bit small and flimsy). He has stained it black and it has a beautiful red door now.
Another view of the same beds. Still lots to do....

My next stint at the plot looks like it'll be Sunday afternoon or Monday morning..

Evening work

I don't cope very well with the heat, so this morning I fiddled about in the back garden for a while til it got hot, then spent the afternoon in our north facing back guestroom quilting. It is the coolest room in the house in summer but looks out across my back garden.
Then this evening I went to the plot when it became bearable. I have dripped and melted but done some useful work.

Here you can see the brassica bed which I planted up one day last week. After the fierce winds have had to keep replacing the cabbage collars everytime I have been near the plot. Today there were two missing.

This evening they looked as though they are all happy and growing away.

The bed next to it is still awaiting attention this year.
I did these beds this evening. After yesterday evening's thunderstorm and torrential rain (felt like a monsoon......very heavy and not at all cold) the soil was a dream to work. The bed in the background which is freshly cleared looks tiny but is in fact 9' x 3'6" . i have a new pack of French beans to put in there when I have a minute.








I also hoed the beds seen here....the beetroot are looking good, and the courgette bed (back right) isn't showing any sign of life yet, but it is early days. The carrots under the environmesh are doing well.

Evening work continued

All the comfrey which I cut and put round the little pumpkin has wilted and gone brown, and the little pumpkin has grown since I put him in. I gave him a load of water.
The spuds look good.

I picked a huge bag of broad beans....yummy!
The back of the garden. The comfrey was all along here. I have put it here because I heard that it is good as a weed root barrier around a plot. Actually it is probably holding them my side at the moment...!!!
The raspberries are flourishing but could do with a good weeding soon.

So....I am still behind but am getting there. At home the kitchen garden looks better every day, and the front garden is next on the list. The dandelions in the front border are embarrassing!!!!

Time to water the tunnel...

A fine day for plotting!

My husband went and strimmed off the weedy bank by the fence at the plot this morning and after that I went to sort out my new bed for the pumpkin. This is the spot directly beneath the huge beech tree. The soil has small roots from the tree right under the surface, and any attempt at digging is very hard work. The soil here is fertile.....growing copious amounts of nettles and comfrey.

I have wanted to tame the bank ever since I got the plot and having amassed a lot of compost and fibrous stuff I decided to use it as a sheet mulch, and make a huge bed for the pumpkin this year.
We had some cardboard from when we got our new settee from Ikea recently, so I covered an area of about 10 foot square. It looks smaller in the photo but it is 10 ft at least.
First I raked up all the grass he'd strimmed from around the plot. Then I barrowed the contents of one of the compost bays....fibrous stem stuff as well....and spread it about a
foot thick all over the cardboard. Then when my back had had enough I stood and watered it with a hose for half an hour to make sure it was good and wet. Tomorrow I'll put my little pumpkin plant in the middle of it....and watch it fill the space over the course of the summer. When it is in I will cover the mound with comfrey cuttings and other weed tops. This will form even more sheet compost and will also inhibit any weeds that may sprout on the heap.

Before I went home I picked a basket of broad beans, and started weeding one of the still untidy beds which are such a disgrace. The weeds resulting are now in the second compost bay which has now been started off. The first one now houses all the bags of manure I am keeping until Autumn.

In the back Kitchen Garden at home I planted out lots this afternoon. Tomatoes (large Italian beefsteak tom plants from a friend), cucumbers (Crystal Lemon), sweetcorn,
leeks, fennel, and Dwarf Runner Beans Hestia. The back garden in filling up at last and I feel much better about it all now. Tomorrow I have some more to do....netting against cats and birds, and other tidying up jobs.

On Tuesday on my trip to Kent I dropped in at Wisley as usual and visited the veg garden. It was interesting to see how far they are behind our gardens here on the Isle of Wight, and also to see how very patchy their germination was this year. Whole long rows of beetroot with some gaps in germination of at least a foot. I heartens me when I see that it isn't just me....although my beetroots seem to have all germinated....but they were so late going in..!

Brassicas

This afternoon was fine and sunny and I had set it aside for planting out my cabbage bed. This is the one I prepared a day or two ago. The bottom end was dug too deeply for cabbages as they prefer firm ground. These will have to be pressed hard home when I next go to the plot. They were too soggy to do it today as I always puddle new stuff in.
The bed now has 6 caulis in the foreground, then 12 brussels (I think 6 of these are cabbages but have lost the label. Whatever they are will be most welcome so no real disasster there!) Behind them are 12 kohlrabi. All netted against pigeons and butterflies.
Between the plants I have sowed rows of herbs and marigolds. This should make for a good looking bed and help ward off pests.
After I took this picture I soaked the whole bed with a hose. The soil was like dust....so it'll pan. I'll have to go and hoe it again pretty soon.

I also sowed some courgettes (Jermor and Midnight) in one of the small beds. I have lost all but three of those I sowed in the tunnel in pots to that pesky mouse, but I'm sure these'll catch up anyway.

The spuds and carrots and beetroot beds are looking fine and were also soaked. This was an easy job once my back was screaming at me to go home.

This morning I spent in the back garden planting out beans started in the tunnel and watering everything. We had a little rain this morning, but not nearly enough. So, as I needed to empty one of my 5 water butts in order to raise it higher, I decided to do it using the Hozelok pump and my sprinkler hose end and it was soon done. The beds are now well watered and hopefully everything I planted out will flourish.

We are now picking outdoor strawberries, and harvesting asparagus and broad beans. Some of the onions are also ready (they are putting up flower spikes so I think they are ready!) There are lettuces ready which volunteered them selves from self-sown seeds from last year. In the tunnel the lemon tree is covered in blossom so I hope that means we'll have a good harvest. Also the fig has 10 or more fruits on it.

Getting there

On Friday I found a slot where my back strength and the time available coincided and went to start getting to grips with the plot. I'm about 3/4 of the way there with the beds, but need to spend a lot of time on the bank too.....so it looks like I'll never catch up this year.

I have a load of brassicas hardening off and want them at the plot, so I prepared the long bed at the top ready for them. I'll put them in on Monday when they should be ready to face the great outdoors. It is going to be a warm week with nights when the temperature won't drop too far.

I also should be sowing some squash and pumpkins as the ones I sowed in the tunnel were eaten by mice. I hope it isn't too late for that.

I think I will give up on the sweetcorn this year as the mice had all of them too. I knew they had but didn't have a chance to get any more seed and now I think it is too late.

The spuds are flourishing, the broad beans are being harvested now and there are plenty there for the next few weeks. The carrots are showing (under the micromesh) and I hoed and tidied them. The beetroot are all up and I hoed them too.

Everywhere that I used the hoe the soil was like dust. And digging the top bed was a dream. In the end I went all over it with the Wolf cultivator and the tilth was fine in no time.

I have vast amounts of comfrey growing tall along the fence at the back of the plot. This needs cutting to add to the compost heap and to use as mulch everywhere. I also took a huge builders rubble bag half full of mowings to the plot to mulch the spuds.

I feel a bit better about my plot now but I still have a long long way to go to get it looking like I want it to. We have had a difficult spring with my back "going" and a lot of our secular work coming in all at once....as well as a wedding we were involved in and other projects. I am hoping that life will quieten down somewhat so that I can get back to my big love.

I went to the Chelsea Flower Show last Wednesday. I had a good but exhausting day. I have a lot of pictures which I will sort out and post on here in the coming weeks. The show was much more low key than the last two years, but I liked the fact that the designers were more in tune with how most of us garden. There was less of the expensive marble and other paving that we all look at but can't afford. There was good use of more attainable path materials such as builders' "clunch" (for want of a better word.....sand and other gritty stuff packed down) and old bricks. Also plenty of great ideas for green gardeners....for example a bug hotel to beat all others I have ever seen.

There was also the totally silly, but amusing. The plasticene garden was garish, and manned by some girls who were a bit "slow"! I asked one of them for a plant list and she just looked at me vacantly. Either she was thick, or had no sense of humour. I can't believe that a thousand others hadn't asked the same thing...! Ah! Perhaps that was it....she was bored! Well anyway, it got a laugh from the other visitors around me.

Bally mice!!!

Bally mice have dug up and eaten my peas and beans. I have now laid a trap and will resow tomorrow!!!!
I have a new camera and am experimenting to see just how much better the pictures look with a lot more pixels!!! Am quite pleased with what I have learned about it so far but hate the software that came with it....prefer Picasa...


And I spent time at the plot today sowing carrots and beetroot.....now sitting to rest my back. It was glorious at the plot but is chilly here at home where we are feeling the east wind.

Back Garden Progress this week

A lot has been done this week. I have managed to sort out a number of the beds which were getting very untidy. And I have set out some of the plants which had been too long in the tunnel. Here is the projected bean bed. Also the one behind for beans and peas. I have installed an irrigation hose in both beds and also put in the sweet peas to start their climb. This year I followed advice and pinched off the top growth.....so far they are sulking!!!

You can still see some leeks and some fennel in the further bed. As the beans are not even showing in their pots in the tunnel yet I have time to eat them before preparing the bed.
The bed in the background here still needs some attention, but the one in the front has been sown with square feet (actually about 16"x13") blocks of various seed...parsnips, beetroots, carrots, peas, spring onions, spinach etc. At one end is a stand of late broccoli, and at the other some parcel from last year.















In the background here is the strawberry/leek bed. The strawberries are covered in flowers so we can expect to be eating some of them next month.
The bed in the foreground is now planted up with some peas, up the middle with the supports, some broad beans to follow those at the plot, and some pointed cabbage...with cardboard collars as I forgot to get any...!

I still have to tend to the paths which are getting weedy. I suppose there is no such thing as a maintenance free path for a veg garden. I don't want concrete, and bark seemed to be less permanent than what we went for.....old carpet with gravel on top. We still get lost of weeds in it so I resort to killing them once a year.

Today I am having a rest from gardening other than the essential watering....my back is complaining...

Tunnel progress.

Help from my husband to get the beds ready in the tunnel for planting out, and re-installing the path has paid off and I have started planting out the veg. This bed shows our lemon tree by the back door.....covered in blossom which smells divine....

The indoor strawberries have settled in well. And also you can see the two courgette plants I like to have in the tunnel. This one doesn't need pollinating so should give a good yield. The next photo shows that one of them is already flowering!!!

In the pot in the foreground is the physallis from last year which has come through the winter in the tunnel beds. I am going to plant it out again in here soon.
Here is the already flowering courgette..... Parthenon F1
This is the other bed. I have already started off the tomatoes. I am using A-tom frames with grow bags this year as I feel sure that the soil must be getting a bit tired of tomatoes. I know I should do a big soil swap with one of the outdoor beds but the back wouldn't let me this year. So the toms are in fresh growbags and behind them are two tomatillo plants which I am trying for the first time this year. Also along the back wall are luffa plants, still very tiny, which I am growing for fun...

Close to the camera you can see the tops of the spuds growing in bags. I have 4 bags of these which I am trying for the first time this year. I am hoping that if these are a success then they might solve the problem of lack of space for root crops here at home. I have an allotment for the more space hungry stuff such as spuds, pickling supplies such as beetroot and shallots, fruit, pumpkins etc. If I can get less space hungry methods of growing these then I won't worry so much if I can't do the plot as well. My back being bad for so long this spring seems to be the writing on the wall for the plot. DH has agreed to help support me with my efforts at the plot this summer and if it proves too much then we will withdraw to just the back garden and look at ways to up the fruit production here. Fruit bushes instead of ornamental shrubs seems to be one way to go.

And more...

The fig in the tunnel is laden with fruit. The branches have got a bit leggy so I have bought a book which tells me how to prune it for fruit production...
And here is some of the staging just inside the door of the tunnel. Lots of stuff coming on here and on the opposite side of the tunnel.

Shed tidied, and other things.

Yesterday I tore myself away from the back garden and went to tidy the shed at the plot. I can actually get to the shelves at the back for my cup and drink when I need it now, and get my seat out and have a rest!
When I arrived at 12.30 the whole plot was still in shade, but by the time I went home just the bit under the tree was dark. As the raspberry canes are in that last spot to get the sun it isn't too much of a problem.
The bank needs strimming....DH went back this afternoon to do it.
This is a better view of the raspberry canes which are coming up nicely now. Also the comfrey along the fence is growing well. I shall soon cut it to add it to the compost bin.
After clearing out the shed I inspected the spud rows....there are two plants up.....

Then I prepared three further beds ready for seeds etc when I have a minute.

The broad beans are healthy and tall and covered in flowers. Should have a few meals off these......

I still have a third of the plot to clear of the winter weed layer, and the last bed has the green manure crop phacelia just about to flower....so that needs digging in soon. That bed is for french beans and for dwarf runner beans. I have decided not to grow stuff that needs tall stakes then I don't have to worry about the wind. I will have all that stuff at home instead.

I also have a lot to do around the globe artichokes and the rhubarb which are on the far part of the bank. Perhaps tomorrow...

I have been spending a lot of time in the tunnel and in the back garden veg area, and I will take piccys and blog all of that tomorrow..

Getting back in harness...

Had a tummy upset in the night so couldn't go far from home today. But I did feel like starting to tidy up the back garden.

A few weeks ago I decided to re-vamp the inside of the tunnel with raised beds either side and one down the middle. I had half done the job when my back went out. The tunnel has been a mess for the last few weeks and I was beginning to despair of ever getting it ready for the season.

DH sensed that I wasn't happy with the situation and thought that I ought to revert to a central pathway again for this season so he rotovated away all my hard work and we leveled the soil, and added a central path of spare slabs. I raked all smooth and added a 3 inch layer of manure to the LH side. After it has settled, and I have re-installed the irrigation system (that takes the ewater from the butts fed by the house roof) I can start planting up the beds. I have a number of plants that I have brought on in the tunnel that will fill the beds very soon....
Here you can see some plug plants that I have potted on til they are sturdier. I got them at Wisley yesterday. The ones I bought there 3 years ago did very well so I am hoping to repeat that success. There are 6 plants each of cabbage, cauliflower, calabrese, sprouts and kohlrabi.
Whilst DH was rotovating inside the tunnel I weeded and loosened the soil in the onion bed and the asparagus bed. I have now mulched the asparagus bed anew with fresh grass cuttings. I think the warmth they produce encourages an early crop. It also conserves the moisture.

Then later after a sit down I weeded and loosened the soil in the bed that was outdoor tomatoes and cucumbers last year (no photo). There are some Kale plants at the end of the bed that are still producing so I have left them alone. This bed will be beans or peas this year.

I have had enough now so am cooking dinner. When the football has finished I will sit and knit and watch the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency.......very relaxing.

Hoping to do a bit more gardening tomorrow...

Yesterday at Wisley

On my trip to Kent on Friday/Saturday I had two goes at visiting Wisley. It was pouring on Friday so I returned on Saturday. As it is spring I made for the fruit garden display area, and although I'd seen it before this particular one completely entranced me. It is a model allotment with fruit as the main feature.

Along the edge of the plot is this row of trained apple trees. The trunks are trained up for about two feet then along a wire for about 3 feet. They were laden with blossom, and had heaps of manure around their roots but not touching the trunk....lots of tips there.

The plot is divided into quarters by by three cross paths, lined with various herbs and flowers. At one end of the plot are 5 raised beds for vegetables. Nearest the camera is asparagus (already showing, like mine at home) to the left, manure to the right. The next bed was rows of carrots under the fleece, radish, lettuce, and spinach (from memory). The next bed was strawberries, five different varieties. This bed had fixed irrigation hoses. The next two beds are manured and waiting.
Behind the raised beds is a path with fruit bushes trained up and over, making an arch over the path. There were no labels on these plants so I shall have to visit this area regularly to see what they are.

Behind the path is a fruit cage, missing its side netting, with all sorts of fruit bushes within.
Beyond the next path is another fruit area....but I can't remember any more about that bit.
Here is the blurb....click on it to enlarge.

Wisley continued

The polytunnel has been used for cabbages and salads all winter, and the other side is waiting for tomatoes etc. It has a goodly layer of manure on it.
In front of the greenhouse are two clumps of rhubarb, one being forced.
Another view up the plot.

All in all a perfect allotment plot. There is no shed, and I can't see that they'd have all the vegetables they would need, but I think they'd probably get enough fruit from these trees and bushes.
Something to aim for...

Spuds in at last.....

Sunshine from dawn to dusk (we hope) today and very warm outside, and my spuds were reproaching me from their egg boxes on the sunroom windowsill and I felt sorry for them.
So DH made the holes with the long bulb planter, I ripped up comfrey leaves to put in the bottom of the hole and placed the spud in carefully, sprouts upwards, and DH put back the plug. After all was finished I earthed up the rows a bit.......and stood back and admired our handiwork.
The first two rows are Charlotte, the next two are Desiree.

There is still a lot to do there. The grass path along the plot edges needs strimming; the bank needs strimming; the globe artichokes need weeding underneath....likewise the rhubarb. The top beds need a bit of hoeing and the very top bed needs the phacelia digging in ready for planting up later.
Next door have been and "tidied" up a bit; but there is still lots of carpet everywhere and no soil has been turned yet. Early days I know....
And....as you can see....the shed needs a good spring tidy up. I can't find anything!!! I shal,l do this tomorrow....

Anyway....I feeel relieved to have got the year off to a sort of start. Lots of seeds to sow soonish...tomorrow some and more next week. The soil has warmed up a lot so there is hope that they'll come up if sown now.

At last.........................

My back feels great (but still stiff so am using it warily) and the weather was blissful....so we took the Mantis and went to the plot to turn over the beds that had manure on, under tarps, all winter. And the bed that was spuds last year. We are now ready to plant this years spuds when the soil settles a little.

It is warming up a lot at the plot and I really must get some carrots sown, and the broad beans transplanted as soon as possible. The most knowledgeable plotter still hasn't sown his parsnips so I have a little while yet before they become urgent.

Forgot to take the camera so no pics today. Tomorrow I'll have a round up photo taking spree here and at the plot to show the state of play and the mountain of work left to do...

Well I never!

It is 30th March and I have just picked two asparagus spears! This is the first year we can harvest these (crowns 3 years old now.....grown at home from seed). I have never had my own before so I don't know whether this is early or usual.
They are outdoors but mulched well with grass mowings.

They are now picked an will be steamed with our other veg tonight to see just how toothsome they are!

First two spears of many many more.....I hope!

Slowly getting there.....

My back is slowly recovering. I have spent some time today clearing up the back garden and DH has mowed. The whole thing looks much more cared for now even though there is still loads to do.
We are hoping for some fine days this week and if we get them we'll go and plant the spuds. Also we could do with sowing some carrots and other roots, and I have some broad beans that I started in rootrainers that really need to go out......perhaps later this week.

Carrot fly!

I was reading my April issue of Kitchen Garden magazine and they suggest strategies for minimising the attacks from these beasties......
They suggest that we time our sowing, weeding and harvesting to coincide with the lowest levels of carrot fly egg laying and gave this helpful link to the Carrot fly forecast that will be made this year
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/whri/hdcpestbulletin

So I will definitely be checking in there when the forecasting starts in April.....

Digressing....

I know this is nothing to do with gardening but Mrs Nesbitt ( http://mrsnesbittsplace.blogspot.com/2009/03/g-is-for-girly-things.html ) posted about her dolls and I couldn't resist showing this photo (I can't do any gardening at the moment....so why not?!!!)

My sister Gillian and I are in the back garden at 4 Manor Road, London Colney, Hertfordshire in summer 1958. We had just been given our new dolls.... Rosebud teenage dolls. Bigger than Sindy dolls; but I don't think Sindys were out just yet although I may be wrong. Mine was called Rosamund....I've forgotten what Gill's was called....Marguerite comes to mind but that may be fanciful.

We lived on a large council estate and loved it. We were there from when it was built in 1952 (I remember clearly the day we moved in although I was only 2.)

Before getting this house we had been living in one room in Napsbury not far away, in the downstairs front room of a semi-detached house. I remember the room with its double bed for Mum and Dad, and three cots for us kids; me, Gillian and Paul, who was born when I was 2 years 3 months old. It was very very crowded.

In 1959 we moved away from here to a house in St Albans that Dad bought (with a mortgage) to get on the property ladder.

In this picture we are wearing dresses that Mum made for us. She used to buy whole bolts of cloth at the market and make our dresses and for our cousin too. So we had a sort of uniform!!! Actually all the dresses (including the gingham ones for school) were made from this simple pattern.....just a bodice, with a gathered skirt, and with bias binding around the neck and armholes. They were buttoned up the back and she sewed all the buttonholes by hand. She was not a skilled seamstress but these were perfectly adequate. This fabric was a lawn, which felt wonderful. These were our best dresses....the rocking horse fabric! I used to sew the hems and hem the binding on with her. I was always pretty useful with a needle, even at that age. When they were let down in length a piece of rick-rack braid was sewn around the worn mark where the old hem was.

She used to do our frocks on a sewing machine that she "won". One day an advertising card dropped through the letter box saying that so many of the postcards that were returned would be entered into a draw for a brand new electric sewing machine. To her immense delight Mum's name was drawn. The machine was a Helvetia and was used from then on to make all the clothes for us girls that she could possibly manage.

Note the haircuts! We always had our hair cut in the week before the new school term (so just three times a year). We had "urchin" cuts at the local Barber's. This was very short, almost like a boy's cut (but they had crewcuts!) and then it grew until the next cut 4 months later. As it got too long we'd wear grips to keep it out of our eyes....! I longed for long hair and plaits but as I was the eldest of what became a family of seven there was no way Mum had time for all that plaiting each day. We just used to run a comb through it and that was that.

Looking back I am so glad we had a "childhood". We had very little in the way of toys compared with kids today, and what we did have merited a special photo! Dad used to go on trips for work. He was a designer who worked for Elliott Automation at Borehamwood, working on the guidance systems and automatic pilots for aircraft, and other technical stuff. He used to have to go to Leeds from Hertfordshire sometimes (to a special packaging firm I seem to recall, although that may have been at Huntingdon.... and something else at Leeds) and the petrol money he was given used to be spent on things for the home like furniture and occasionally on us kids.....as here. Mum still uses the melamine dining room table and chairs which were bought that same year.....goodness!...is it 50 years old now?!!!

Unfortunately I don't still have my doll. When you are the eldest of a lot of kids the toys pass down and are eventually broken and discarded. I have nothing from then except memories and photos....and some small ornaments (two Wade Whimsies ornaments of Disney dogs). This photo of myself and my wonderful sister is a favourite.

I have been smitten!

Getting dressed on Monday morning I put my back out! I have acute muscle spasm and the osteopath says it'll be 10 to 14 days before I can expect any real relief. So gardening activities are at a standstill.......
This is just the wrong time of year for this and I am very very fed up about it.....

More weeding

A beautiful afternoon and I'll be away for the next two days so I made sure to have some time with my hands in the soil this afternoon.
I weeded out the strawberry bed and put down the mulch mats. I bet they blow away the first time the wind blows! I put the leeks down the middle of the bed last Autumn because strawberries and leeks go well together according to Companion planting gurus Bob Flowerdew and Gertrud Franck.

The next bed along which has the broccoli still in it is also clean now, and I sowed spinach.....4 rows..in there. I have covered it up because the cats love newly turned soil.

I sowed the spinach rows 50cm apart going across the bed. I will try to do a mini Gertrud Franck method on this bed this year. The spinach rows become marker rows, and you plant the crops you want in between them. Then the spinach is mostly hoed down to form a mulch to suppress weeds and to keep the soil damp. Further greenstuff is added on top to form "sheet compost" and this should enrich the soil a lot. With this method it should become unnecessary to add manure. We'll see!
I also cleaned the other two beds along this row. In the distance you can see the bed with the irises in which I will soon be moving to the front garden. They all seem to be alive so I am heartened. It was a very wet winter and I feared they'd rot. There are also a few tiny onions which I grew from seed last year and forgot. I put them in here just to fill the bed up. They seem to be growing so will do for a meal whilst we are waiting for the main crop to come in.

The far bed still has some fennel (now recovered somewhat after the snow and all the deep frosts) and some leeks.

I must get round to spreading some of the manure. I have 8 bags left to spread here....as well as 20 more still full at the plot.

Onion bed.

My cold/sore throat is somewhat better today, and whilst DH had his back turned I snuck out and weeded this bed in the back garden. These are my Autumn sown onions, shallots and garlic.

The garlic (nearest the camera) didn't show for months but is away now. I think only two corms have failed....and I did put in everything, even the tiny ones. I seem to remember they were "Solent Wight", from the local Garlic Farm.

The onion sets...50 of "Senshyu Yellow", are also doing well; as are the Shallots "Jermor" (10 of them) at the far end of the bed.

Having pulled out all the chickweed and other weeds I tickled up the surface with the trowel and loosened all tha hardpan skin caused by all the rain we have had this winter.

I'm feeling a bit happier now that I've done some weeding.

It was sunny whilst I was working but the sun went in when I got the camera out.....!

Seed sowing at last!

The weather is milder and sunny and I am very very fed up with not being able to do the garden or the plot because I have been laid up with a cold/sore throat thingy. Today though DH "allowed" me to go into the polytunnel as it was very warm in there. So I took the opportunity to sow my February seeds.....!

It was beautifully warm in the tunnel and a pleasure to be out there....except that it still stinks of Jeyes Fluid.

(Top picture from right to left) I have now sowed

a whole rootrainer's worth of Sweet Peas (Spencer Mixed),

one of Broad Beans (Witkiem Manita, I have some already 1 ft high at the plot but these can be a following crop), and

one of Peas (Meteor).

Two small flats of onions....Walla Walla and Rjinsberger.

6 seeds of Sweet Pea "Knee High" (left over from last year)

3 modules of Dill

and I have potted on some plugs of Pulsatilla that came free with my spud order.

In the propagator which I will install indoors on the wndowsill are

Tomatoes (Auntie Madge from the Heritage Seed Library, Red Alert, Costuluto Fiorintino and randywine)

Aubergines (Calliope Hybrid, and Melanzana Violetta di Firenze.)

Tomatillo.

Luffas (loofahs)

Basil

Oregano

So I don't feel so bad about my new season now as I am not too far behind.

I still need to finish re-organising the beds in the tunnel, and setting up the irrigation system. And I am desperate to get to the plot with some pallets to make my bed edges. Next week perhaps.

Polytunnel clean-up

As it was foggy and damp first thing I decided it would be a good day to organise the inside of the tunnel ready for the new season. I continued with re-arranging the bed layout in the tunnel and worked myself to a standstill with more earth shifting, but still haven't finished it.

With a very sore back I decided I didn't really want to sit about, so a standing up job would be in order. I started washing down all the staging with a Jeyes Fluid solution....and one thing led to another and I ended up washing all the walls inside and out, and the roof (with a broom, up the step-ladder). I ended up soaked to the skin (good thing it was mild today) and stinking of Jeyes Fluid. But it is done.
So....tomorrow I will go and finish re-arranging the inside....!

I didn't take any photos as it was very very dull. (I heard the fog horns of the shipping in the Solent all day...)

Forgot to take my camera

I forgot to take my camera to the plot today so I can't show you that half the plot is now ready for planting up. There are still 7 beds which need a lot of attention. I started digging the (this year's) brassica bed, but given that I had trodden it down well when I planted out the little cabbages etc, and the amount of rain we had in January, it was much too sticky for proper weeding. I like to dig and weed when the soil crumbles and can be shaken off the weed roots...and it was far from that today.
So I did some grass cutting along the edge of the communal path, finger weeded the rest of the beetroot bed, and spread the muck on bed 1 which has had a pile of manure on it since November. When I'd loosened the soil and spread the muck I took the covering off the next bed up and transferred it to bed 1. The next bed had a huge amount of manure spread on it in November and it looks to be in really good heart now.
Beds 1 to 4 are for the spuds this year. Bed 4 still has leeks in...which I will move soon. (I will heel them in in an unwanted (til courgette time) bed as recommended here http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/jamie-oliver/jamie-at-home/series-2/episode-2-leeks_p_5.html

More bed cleaning

Before and after pictures of today's efforts. I took the top photo yesterday afternoon, the bottom one this afternoon. I managed to clear two beds completely, and to do 2/3 of another and to finish the beetroot bed I started yesterday. The soil was quite easy to work with my long-handled weeding fork, but when I used the proper fork it was a bit too heavy underground.

With the deep beds it is relatively easy to get the weeds out by just loosening them a little with the long-handled weeding fork, then bend and pick them out. For this reason I am thinking of changing my mind and not doing a complete Gertrude Frank Companion planting method, but to use the same system within the beds. But I think I need to edge the beds with timber first.

The plot slopes almost imperceptibly towards the north; and I don't get any sun 'til after lunch. I think this makes the small slope on the back of each bed rather chilly....the plants don't seem to thrive and seem to stay damp. So I am considering partial terracing. I will make plank surrounds (from pallets) to the back 3 sides of the beds and leave the front (south) open. As I dig or weed I will rake the soil towards the north "wall" of each bed. This should level the soil, or even tilt the slope slightly towards the south in each bed. This should help it warm up quicker. Any stones that get raked to the back will be dropped onto the pat behind the wall. The paths will be kept weed free by hoeing as I endeavoured to do this year...mostly successfully.

The potatoes I am chitting are Charlotte and Desiree. I think that the quantity I have of each (30 tubers) would make for 4 rows right across the plot....so 4 of my beds will do for spuds this year. I will take some tubers for using in potato bags starting them off in the polytunnel....for an early crop. The rest will go in the plot as described but I must hunt up some info on how to companion plant them as monoculture doesn't seem to work on my plot. I feel that mixing plants in each bed will be better for the plants.

I hope to spend two hours at the plot again tomorrow....and later in the week will go pallet hunting...

Raspberries

A good opportunity presented itself for an extended period at the plot today....the time available coincided with settled weather, and the ground had dried enough to be worked....so off I went. Two and a half hours later I could see where I'd been.

Firstly I cut down the raspberry canes (waving at us in the background on the first picture), weeded round them and spread manure. I also weeded towards the fence and cleared the area where I grow the comfrey for the compost heap . So the second photo shows the state this corner now.
You can see some leafy canes in the foreground part of the photo. These are canes that were escaping towards the fence. I have re-sited them to continue the row. I was going to buy more canes but this "frugal" way of increasing the crop will produce more fruit as early as next year....I hope....without any expense!

The beetroot bed (foreground first photo) seemed to have grown as much as it was going to so I pulled all of them up and weeded that out. I also harvested a load of leeks (right bed disappearing out of shot in first picture) to bring home. I think I am going to have to move the leeks that are left to a holding bed further up the plot as I want the first 10 feet for the spuds under the new Gertrud Frank Companion planting system that I am intending to implement this year. I hope to start at the shed end of the plot and convert that half of it to the new system this year. My husband has started looking at the Mantis Tiller ready for rotovating the parts that have been paths for the last two years.....they are somewhat compacted. The beds don't need rotovating as they are now so perfectly cultivated having not been walked on for two years. (I am beginning to wonder if I am daft considering conversion to the new system as the beds are so soft now. Perhaps I should try companion planting in the existing beds. If I keep them as they are I want to add restraining edges...which means I need pallets to pull apart...etc...etc. Decisions! Perhaps I'll sleep on it....!)

I hope that tomorrow I can go back and do some more....plenty needs doing.

I've been tagged

I've been tagged to produce a photo....4th photo in my 4th archive.....

Here it is!

Looking across the Solent towards Portsmouth, from Appley Park, Ryde, Isle of Wight

It has started!

At last!! The veg growing year starts all over again. My seed potatoes arrived yesterday from J. Parker's (best price by miles!) and I have set them to chit in the shady end of the sun room.
So we are in business. Now I am waiting for the weather to improve before I set foot on the plot or go near the back garden beds. It has been phenomenally wet the past week, and now is freezing.....so not a good time to be out in the garden, and it isn't good to mess about with soil when it is that cold.