Monday, June 04, 2007
Phew, yesterday morning was actually quite hot so I was quite enthusiastic down at the allotment. At one point I was sweating so much that I actually had drops of sweat running down my face which is highly unusual for me.
I managed to dig over two plots, one of which filled with aubergines, some straggly tomatoes that may possibly die, we will see, and another melon plant, a Charentais this time. I put in some compost as I dug so the soil might be rich enough. I had been to the nursery Saturday morning where I spent 20 euros on those plants, leeks, brussel sprouts, a rhubarb and some fancy organic fertiliser which hopefully will help me grow some better root veg in the next few weeks.
The sprouts went in next and the rhubarb. I realised that my plans to plant my green bean seeds were fanciful so I gave that up as a bad joke. Next weekend,it won't be too late then.
So there I was on me hands and knees planting 50 leeks and my neighbour comes over "you're planting leeks then are you?" He is a pleasant chap so I refrained from answering "No no I am using them for bizarre sexual gratification". I was pleased though because he showed me his plot and it's worse than mine!!!! His peas are useless too, he has even less than me, and his veg were very weedy. Nice lettuces though, and some great red onions. I said to him, "that patch there is getting overrun, why don't you cover it?" and he answered, "Oh you're quite right, but when I saw the aggro that you got for that, I thought I wouldn't bother!" And he went on to say that my idea of mulching and covering seemed to work very well. I felt so vindicated!!! I replied that I didn't give a monkey's nuts what anyone (meaning the "supervisor") thought of my gardening techniques, that's not the point of having a veg garden!!! So victory to those persistent enough to tell fools to p**s off!
Anyway, here is this week's roundup of life in the garden:
I managed to dig over two plots, one of which filled with aubergines, some straggly tomatoes that may possibly die, we will see, and another melon plant, a Charentais this time. I put in some compost as I dug so the soil might be rich enough. I had been to the nursery Saturday morning where I spent 20 euros on those plants, leeks, brussel sprouts, a rhubarb and some fancy organic fertiliser which hopefully will help me grow some better root veg in the next few weeks.
The sprouts went in next and the rhubarb. I realised that my plans to plant my green bean seeds were fanciful so I gave that up as a bad joke. Next weekend,it won't be too late then.
So there I was on me hands and knees planting 50 leeks and my neighbour comes over "you're planting leeks then are you?" He is a pleasant chap so I refrained from answering "No no I am using them for bizarre sexual gratification". I was pleased though because he showed me his plot and it's worse than mine!!!! His peas are useless too, he has even less than me, and his veg were very weedy. Nice lettuces though, and some great red onions. I said to him, "that patch there is getting overrun, why don't you cover it?" and he answered, "Oh you're quite right, but when I saw the aggro that you got for that, I thought I wouldn't bother!" And he went on to say that my idea of mulching and covering seemed to work very well. I felt so vindicated!!! I replied that I didn't give a monkey's nuts what anyone (meaning the "supervisor") thought of my gardening techniques, that's not the point of having a veg garden!!! So victory to those persistent enough to tell fools to p**s off!
Anyway, here is this week's roundup of life in the garden:
- Fruit: still tiny gooseberries on the bush, but they seem hard for now. Strawberries were still giving, there is unripe fruit on them and plenty of flowers, and the Mara are starting now. I pulled off a load of runners and ripped out some bindweed :-( I did a very cursory weed around the fruit patch but it needs doing more thoroughly.
- Tomatoes/squash. Seem to be perking up, I scratched some compost around them and finished mulching that patch. The courgettes are growing now, there is even a flower, and the potimarron seems especially happy with life.
- Peas: The ones I planted recently are starting to come up, but the others are still small, (maybe they are actually meant to be that size??) still they have some flowers now, which I guess means I will get some peas?
- Beans: Well, the ones already in are starting to get some new leaves, I feel that they were not happy with that cold wet period, but they seem to be growing. Fingers crossed.
- Potatoes: OK I adnit that I screwed up the potato bin. I had not put holes in it :-S Realised this mistake when I saw it was filled with water and stinky. So I emptied the contents onto an empty patch, PHEW what a pong, but once it has dried I will just dig it in and grow something in it. The other spuds seem OK, a few more flowers.
- Garlic/onions: starting to yellow a bit, at least the garlic is, so it must be maturing.
- Herbs: Lemon balm, Verveine, mint, thyme OK, blackberry swirling all over the place, I will have to fence it in I think. Not much to show for Coriander or basil though, so I planted some more basil near the aubergines.
- Root veg: well, parsnip and beet seem OK, as does the fennel. Carrots still very slow but at least there are some seedlings. I will try again next time with a row that has a lot of compost emptied into it and try and get a decent row of carrot going. Some of the seed onion has appeared but not all of it??? Huh??
# posted by antipodesgirl @ 1:53 PM 
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