Rain stopped play...

..but still managed to have a very productive bank holiday weekend. We went up to the plot on Friday night after work but sod's law the heavens opened just as we were getting the tools out of the shed.....!

However Saturday dawned fine and sunny so we managd a full day's pottering and got the following done (long boring list I'm afraid).

• planted the reamining broad bean plants
• dug and weeeded another small bed
• sowed 3 types of carrots - Giant Red, Large ????, Large 1/2 Long into the small bed
• sowed 2 types of beetroot - White and Bolthardy in to the small bed
• MJC started digging another large bed and put woodchips on the paths - very professional looking!!
• planted the horseradish next to the artichokes
• weeded what was the strawberry bed and rescued another 3 plants from the clutches of the couch grass
• cleared around the artichokes and one of the blackcurrant bushes
• mulched the new red gooseberry plant and the cleared blackcurrant bushes
• installed the 'Greencone'

On Sunday it was too wet to do any digging so instead I did some sowing at home and managed to finally sow some other beans - 12 borlotti (Lingua di Fuoco), 12 purple climbing french (name?) and once I find the rest of my supply of toilet rolls, 12 yellow dwarf french. Also sowed 18 sweetcorn (Golden Nugget) and most of the winter squash varieties - 3 each of Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato Squash, Buttercup XXX, XXX Acorn Squash but still got Baby Bear Pumpkin to do.

Monday we went up for a visit with our next door neighbours to show them our vegetable 'kingdom' but we didn't really have time for any serious digging.

Just wish I had the rest of the week off as the weather's supposed to be lovely....sigh!

The Growing Season starts here...

At last the weather's warming up and it feels like Spring.

Did a solo digging session last night and managed to clear an area about 6 metres squared of weeds ready to plant out the broad beans when I get back next week. Found some very large but chewed-by-slugs potatoes that I missed when digging last year's crop up. Oh well at least the soil is nice and crumbly.

On Sunday we managed to plant the rest of the potatoes - the maincrops, Pink Fir Apple and Cara (2 rows each of 20 tubers). MJC planted the last of the onions (hope they're not too late in!).


Monday, I transplanted the rest of the tomato seedlings and tranferred them upstairs out of the way of the kitties.

First March Digging Weekend

It was good to be able to devote a whole two days to digging and tending the plots. Now that other DIY related tasks can be sidelined for awhile the plots and all things vegetable-growing can take precedence.

MJC starting to dig last year's now weed infested broad bean bed on Plot 85a.






We finally dug the trench for the french beans in Plot 86.

• Dug down two spades deep and pile the earth onto one side.
• Added a layer of shredded paper along the bottom, watered it down and covered with a thin layer of soil to stop it blowing all over the place.
  Then started filling it at one end (on the right of the pic) with the contents of our compost caddy and covered that with soil too.

We'll continue filling the trench with our green kitchen waste and then hopefully when it comes to planting out the beans it'll be all rotted down and provide them with plenty of water retaining mulchy goodness. Might try something similar for the celeriac...

A view of the 3 finished 'raised' beds in Plot 85a. The nearset one is planted up with garlic, then there is the shallot bed and the end one (which looks like a really comfy bed!) is covered to warm it up for an early sowing of carrots.

We also lifetd all the remaining strawberry plants to pot up for the summer and planted a red goosberry bush in their place.

February Digging Weekend

Bed 1 - garlic and Bed 2 - shallots on Plot 85a.

The ramsons seem to taking well to the clayey soil. Fingers crossed that they'll survive and multiply!

Progress so far in 2008

MJC digging the top half of Plot 86. Luckily under the carpet that we put down in the autumn and the weeds was another layer of old carpet so the only weeds we have to deal with are some very tough, gnarly dandelions and docks.

This area will be for the potatoes and a big courgette, squash and pumpkin bed at the top.

In the foreground on the right is one of the gooseberry bushes (which needs clearing of grass) and the transplanted offshoot of Bramhope rhubarb.


View from the other side of the apple tree. We've cleared (hacked down) all the raspberrys that were under the tree and I'd found another currant (don't know what flavour yet!) in amongst them, so left that intact. We also gave the tree a haircut.

Going to rellocate some ramsons from Stone and plant them under the tree to develop our own source of the tasty greens.

(The timber posts are for swinging a hammock between in summer.)


Panoramic of both plots - 85a on the right with freshly dug beds, and the long view of 86.