14 March 2008

Time on the plot!

Taking advantage of the system being down for maintenance at work AND a decent day, I spent several hours in a planting frenzy on plot no 1. Planted my first earlies (Orla) - OK a bit early but you've gotta take a gamble sometimes - couple of rows of broad beans (Masterpiece Green Longpod), half of the white onions (Jet Set), a short row of carrots (Early Nantes), some coriander (both under a mini polytunnel), a row of spinach and a short row of spring onions (White Lisbon). I also moved the globe artichokes to their new position (after digging over and weeding the bed - again!). The roots on the artichokes were huge, so fingers crossed for a decent crop there.

Previously all the four veg plots were dressed with rockdust and dug over to remove (yet more) weeds, the hedge has been attacked (again) to bring it down to an almost manageable level - although there's still some (!) work to be down there, the shallots have been planted, raspberries pruned, all (I hope!) the Jerusalem artichokes were dug up, eaten, given away to friends, family, fellow plot holders and replanted in a different position. Pause for breath.

Fortunately this time managed to take the camera down as well, so signs of life first:


The comfrey coming back to life


One of the rhubarb crowns




The tulips and daffodils - bit late with the daffs, but the ones at home aren't out either.



The view down the plot, mini polytunnel on the left with the carrots and coriander in and the start of the 'new' path in the middle - the plan being some of the soil will go into the raised beds, the rest will be levelled and re-covered with the weed suppressing fabric, then eventually covered in bark chippings. This will actually narrow the central path and give more room for the fruit bed (on the right)


This one being the view up the plot, with the work in progress for the path in the bottom left corner, the potato bed at the bottom, polytunnel further up. However, the main reason for this shot is the hedge at the top (left of the pic) and to the side. yes it's still too big, but it's getting there!

On plot number 2 (sadly no photos), life is so much easier. Firstly despite the plot being approximately the same size as plot number 1, there is only about half the growing space due to bizarre bed layouts and large amounts of space devoted to growing non-fruit trees and shrubs. Secondly, the plot has been much more recently cultivated so has FAR, FAR less weeds so it's far easier to get ready for planting. So another batch of shallots have been planted (Mrs D said she liked having them in - we cooked up a large batch and froze them in ice cube trays so we could just use a cube or two as and when needed for speed, and of course they tasted good! 3 of the 5 beds have been dug over already.

In the greenhouse, the salad leaves are through and growing (slowly). The sweet peas and broad beans on the other hand aren't looking so good - mainly because I've yet to see any sign of them. On further investigation, the broad beans have put down some roots but they've yet to show themselves above the soil.

In the seeding sowing, I've invested in a heated propagator - which is great! Seeds germinate far quicker, the main problem now is I have pots of seeds everywhere, which isn't going down so well... Hopefully some of these will be able to go to the greenhouse soon, then of course I can plant more seeds! At the moment I have cauliflower, broccoli, celeriac, celery, two different types of tomatoes, carnations.

1 comment:

JD said...

Hi Rob, good to see you're back on the plot although it looks like you've got a lot of work ahead of you this year.