24 November 2007

Long time no visit!

After about a month of not managing to get down to the plot, I took advantage of the bright sunny (but bloody freezing!) day to get down there and plant my garlic. Things were looking very desolate, most of the tree has been chopped down (and still trying to decide whether the rest should go), the leaf basket had blown over, even the weeds have stopped growing and there was still ice in the bath at 2pm in the afternoon. Sadly the hedge between me and the neighbours is still going strong.

So ignoring all the advice I took a couple of bulbs of garlic I had grown this year, from the original Thermidrome from the Organic Garden Catalogue I'd ordered last year. Good sized cloves so hopefully get some good plants. Have planted slightly less than last year so should have a slightly more manageable crop, although I have been supplying most of the family in garlic and numerous other people in garlic to plant.

The recent manure supply was put to good use as well as I covered the potato bed with manure. It's been dug over some time ago and has a few bits of buckwheat growing on it, but I have decided to go with the plan that the worms will take the goodness into the soil for me instead of digging it in. Watch this space for results...

I managed to dig over a bit more ground and do some general clearing up. My 'gate' had disappeared (been destroyed by the hedge cutter in the yearly trim courtesy of the council) so I put a few twigs over the entrance. Took down the poles for the beans, the poor runner beans only got as far as the first couple of flowers before the frosts killed them off.

The next job is to reposition some of the plants (rhubarb, comfrey, globe artichokes to name a few) and carry on digging. The Brussels look fairly pathetic and I may get some marble sided sprouts if I'm lucky (probably cost a fortune as 'baby veg' in the supermarket!), but luckily the neighbours have plenty and gave me a pocket full! Need to move the 'sticks' I've been saving for beans, etc for about the 3rd time - this time they're going in the corner I've never going to use thanks to tree roots in the hope I don't have to move them yet again. Then I can get digging all the veg beds and hopefully use up the scaffolding boards to divide the beds up.

Blatant Advertising
Some Amazon ads have appeared at the side of the blog. These links are to our association account so that it earns commission on anything ordered via them for our Association.