Pushing up the daisies

As I took the afternoon off yesterday I spent a good couple of hours working, in the warm sun. Fantastic.
It's difficult time of year though, even if the weather is near summer, as it is currently (well over 20 deg), it is still impossible to sow many things. So I had to be content with quite a bit of digging and tidying, sowing a few bits - more peas, including some seed swap ones - Goodlife from A4A sent me Champion of England climbers, and some Scandinavian peas (Skansk Margart, also climbers) - parsnips from my own saved seed, have to see how those go (I think they were either White Gem or Guernesey and it's a pity that I received some free parsnip seed this year when I bought my seeds) - some flowers (mixed seeds, some nigella and zinneas). I managed to shift the enormous manure pile that was cluttering up the top bed, digging in half of it and spreading half of it around to other places (my shoulders are sore today). Tidied up the flower beds and the edges. Watered as it is so warm. Actually took time to sit and admire :-)
And to take some pictures.

As usual the artichokes fascinate me. This is the 5 year old specimen - it has been divided up, then buried under a ton of manure then frozen solid in February's bid cold snap. But it's still there are going great guns:


I picked a load of sprouting broccoli, in a week it has given so many sprouts! It must be the warm weather. Unfortunately the plants are rather fragile, and have been damaged over winter, they are leaning very precariously depsite my efforts at earthing them up. I am going to try and get some seeds of this and sow more as this has been a marvellous crop, at a time when nothing else is around.


The fruit is also enjoying the sun: The raspberries have their first leaves - you can see the spiky gooseberries just behind them. A bit worried that I still have gooseberries in the freezer! Might be time to make a little jam and use them up, methinks.


First flowers on the strawberries - this one is part of 6 new plants planted last autumn.


I do like this bed, everything has gone into it bit by bit and some things accidentally! The rhubarb is in the foreground, coming up like mad now, and behind, through the cheeky white marcissus you can see the young artichoke plants. 2 were sown 18 months ago and the other one is a baby of the old plants. They look very healthy and with a bit of luck I might get one or two globes. I know that next year will be their peak and from then on I will get a lot of artichokes from them. This bed also has purple honeywort which the bumble bees love, and a rose and a lavender bush as well as wild growing mint and parsley. I sowed a little nigella and some zinnea into it yesterday too.


The rhubarb chard gave nothing over winter but it is a hardy little beggar and it's coming up again. It really was beautiful, the red veins showing clearly in the bright sun, I couldn't resist a snapshot. There are 4 plants but we've not eaten a stick of chard yet! Hopefully soon...


One last shot before going home time: The foreground (with my shadow!!!) shows the onion bed, brown Stuttgarters (or Sturon? not sure...) which are already up and the red Barons just starting on their left. On the right, you can see the garlic bed with its lush green foliage and over the back the ploughed up potato bed. One or two tiny potato leaves are coming through, once it is earthed up and mulched it will look the bees' knees. What you see on this shot is about 1/3 of the plot, the lower end, where the fruit bed is. This year it has alliums and potatoes.

Labels: digging, fruit, peas, pictures, spring

Still pretty hot out there this weekend, I have to water a lot as the ground is really hot and dry. I ended up gardening in shorts and a sports bra as it was so hot!!! Oh well, give the neighbours something to gossip about.
There is lots of bindweed everyweher, it's most frustrating. I need to do some more heavy scale weeding. Maybe during this week, my kids are on camp (yippee!!!).
so:
Work done this weekend:
Space made in potato patch, compost added, two short rows of Pak Choy planted.
Echalotes harvested by my daughter, they are spectacular, a really terrific harvest this year. Now I need to get some manure this week and dig that over and cover it up.
A little cursory weeding, round the courgettes and strawberries which are plagued with bindweed.
Lots of watering, although we are getting a sprinkling of rain this morning, it's nowhere near enough, it will just freshen things up a little.

Harvest:
A few kilos of early potatoes, about 5 kilos, that is starting to get to the end of them now, they were ravaged by my vole (read "vile") that I thought was so cute but was really eating me out of house and home. I should take my cat down there next time.
A good punnet of green beans, the first ones, wonderful.
Several courgettes
Strawberries, raspberries
my gooseberries! AT LAST! without them being eaten by other creatures. I plan to make a small amount of jam and some puree, there are only red ones! Which is odd as I planted green ones originally ???

Labels: fruit, gooseberry, potato, summer

Finally made it down there with a camera! So this will be a more cheerful post.
First let's have an overall look at the plot, from the onion and potato beds down. This is the lushest part I guess:
Looks like I need to weed it again! Along the side, I took advantage of the spare place to put in a few lettuces and some marguerites. They look nice. If it's warm this evening I will go down and hoe, just to tidy it a little.
The artichoke is finally getting some fruit on it (well, flowers, but let's not split hairs):
You can see that the self seeded marguerites next to it have gone beserk, but by September they will all have died. sad isn't it? Behind it you can see the rhubarb, and the little wild patch, where I grow mint, lavender, lemon balm, a rose bush etc.
Between the two is the carrot patch, a row of parsnips, a row of beetroot and the Brussel sprouts! But the artichoke is blocking the view!
On Saturday, I picked my first crop of peas. They were still dewy and fresh, we ate them for lunch and they were just perfect.

They are Kelvedon Wonder, sowed in March and April. So quite a fast cropper.
The fruit beds are always sweet at this time of year. I have not had so many strawberries, but all the plants are new, so I guess I have to be patient.



The gooseberries are ripening wondefully, I protected them with netting this year.
Squash and pumpkin is the crop of the year. The courgettes and pattypan squash have taken off well:

You can see the mass of straw behind that is the melon bed. The plants are not obvious yet but some have survived. Next year I will sow direct as that seems to give the best results with squash! Another new thing learned this year.
A Parador yellow courgette - soon it will have flowers and fruit.

The 3 sisters bed is a bit of a mixed bag this year - 4 straggly corn plants! but the pumpkins seem to be enjoying themselves. Some old garden trellises behind will support the tiny Cobra beans that are just peeping through the ground. The beans are surrounding the squash this year, for easier picking.

And finally, the tomatoes. You can see that they on a very rich patch of soil this year. They are growing on a load of manure. I hope to get a really good harvest this time! I am growing salad toms and some beefsteaks up the stakes, and along the back there are some bushy cherry tomatoes, Totem or Gardener's Delight. I didn't get a good cherry tomato last year, so I have put a lot of effort into that this time!


I hope you all enjoy seeing what the plot is looking like! I think this has been my most successful year so far, and now I have to concentrate on getting things ready for the autumn and winter crops (planting leeks and beetroot and caring for kale and oriental greens that I have just sown) and caring for the current plants (putting bordeaux mixture on the tomatoes and spuds, weeding and continuing to harvest).

Labels: courgette, fruit, onions, peas, spring, squash, tomatoes

Unseasonally hot for April in fact - I had to wear a bleedin' HAT!
Had a few chances to tidy up well this wek, the warm weather makes everything spring up though!
I have been planting lettuce (grown from seed in my own little seedbox!!), and spring onions and sowing beetroot, spinach and parsnips. And watering a lot all the rest!. I managed to put together the other seedbox, which is now half full of brassica seedlings, more lettuce, broccoli, flowers and spinach. Nice.
Today I did two important jobs, prepared the courgette bed (just to get ahead of things): it's been spread with loads of manure and today I forked in a few shovelfuls of compost too, then covered with black plastic. Then I just have to plant the courgettes and squash straight in once they are ready! Later in the week I will do the same thing opposite it, for melons.
Other job was mulching the fruit bushes with shredded paper. That amused the neighbours...
Otherwise, it's all going swimmingly, the herbs, strawberries and rhubarb have sprung back after our harsh winter, the potatoes and onions are growing well, I have a lot of radishes that will be ready next week.
Next job: take some pictures, then tidy up the lower border and use the planks I managed to scrounge to edge them off (all the soil keeps running off otherwise), earth up the spuds which are growing vigorously now, make the melon bed I just mentioned, and go get some stable waste so I can mulch the aubergines and peppers when they are planted in a couple of weeks time. I should also be able to start sowing the early dwarf beans.

Labels: courgette, fruit, planning, planting, sow, spring, weeds

I had a bit of a tidy up on Sunday, as the summer draws to a close. Overall it has been mediocre, too cool and humid to get any of the real summer crop flourishing. It's a year with 13 moon cycles, so I am told, and some people say bullshit but the old timers seem to believe that they are bad crop years (like 2007), and I am inclined to believe that.
Anyway I ripped up all of the tomato plants and stakes and the black plastic, the useless melon vines and the summer cabbages (digging only the cabbage leaves into the ground so as not to waste their nutrients). I covered that area and have decided it will make the onion and garlic patch for the new season. I guess roughly speaking, the rotation plan for 2009 will be:

• spuds 2009 vs beans 2008
• alliums 2009 vs tomatoes 2008 (and follow them up with the winter cabbages)
• Three sisters 2009 vs spuds 2008 (I will probably have time to do a little dabbling in that patch, spring radish, or seed beds)
• Beans 2009 vs brassicas 2008
• Roots 2009 vs three sisters 2008

State of play:

• the brassicas are doing very well, I think they like it cooler, the red cabbages are terrific.
• The last lot of dwarf beans should be giving fruit in the next couple of weeks.
• The late carrots are growing well but they need to plump up a bit still.
• I have left the last three pumpkins on the vine for now, they still seem to be growing.
• The rhubarb is slowing dying off, it has finished for the year. Soon I will divide it and plant a third root and I will do the same with the artichokes. I want to mulch them both well with manure over the winter and spring.
• The celery is a bit of a mystery. The branch type doesn't seem to be growing well, although it is healthy enough, just too small, and the root type, I don't know what is going on with it. Maybe not enough water?

Sigh so what to do next year? I guess this year was a small improvement over last year, I got lots of fruit and a decent crop of alliums and potatoes. But I guess it is still not the bumper crop that I was expecting. Although I do know where I went wrong in most cases, so maybe I can make it better next year?
Good resolutions for 2009:

• Plant more earlier and under cover (works well for peas).
• Get a salad leaf box going for all year round greens (and give up on sowing individual lettuces, they just don't work for me).
• Plant more spuds, closer together, heavily mulched, more maincrop and a really nice salad variety. That Caesar variety was good, very big spuds.
• Repeat the Three Sisters experiment, adding in runner beans and planting the corn closer together. Get a nice variety of Butternuts going.
• Really look more into the varieties: this year was an improvement but next year should be better. Remember that the Colmar carrot was a success, the Lark corn and Coco de Paimpol beans do well here, the Gatrenperle tomatoes were crap but the Harzfeuer were nice and tasty. Get better varieties of beans, broccoli, beetroot (try that Cylindra type). Try two types of garlic to see which works best.
• Sow my own onions in January and plant them out.
  
• Get a polytunnel up and running and do aubergines, sweet peppers and chillies.
• Mulch and cover, mulch and cover, mulch and cover and GET A WHOLE LOAD OF HORSE CRAP ON THERE!!!!

Well I am glad I got that off my chest...

Labels: cabbage, carrots, fruit, summer, tidying, tomatoes

Ah a week of holidays.
A week of rain.
Almost non stop.
The gods are against me.
Still, I did manage a few odd jobs in the garden, like the trip to the riding stables to get another boot load of horse manure. I had intended to dig that into the tomato and squash beds but that never got done because of the rain. I did manage to dig over and weed the fruit bed, and plant a new blackcurrant bush. I also managed to plant the maincrop potatoes and some new lettuce and remove the old cabbages that were starting to bolt.
And biggest surprise of all, I took some pictures.

First thing, I took this of the inside heart of an artichoke plant. You can see the baby artichoke growing in it.
And this is the fruit bed now it has been dug over, weeded and some of the annoying grass removed. You can see the new bush in the middle. The black plastic is where the strawberries are and the leafy thing on the left is chives.

This is the herb bed, rather loosely named :-) There is parsley, lemon balm, thyme and a rose bush as well as some newly planted mint, tarragon and rosemary (can't see that from here). You can see that the paths are getting the better of me...
Now this next pic is an overall view, you can see the plastic bags with the manure in them. And the tarp is covering up the tomato bed, saving me a bit of work. You can see the broad beans just behind the black bags and further down on the left hand side there are the spud and allium beds. The messy patch where the bin bags are will be dug over next week and manure-trenched in readiness for the squash and corn and melons.

Perhaps this gives a better view though:

You can see my hopeless polytunnel, the messy paths around the plot that drive me mad and the general chaos. But you can also see the nice raspberry bed that gets thicker by the day and the strawberries that are getting lots of leaves and a few flower buds. Since I took this the spud bed just near the polytunnel has been dug over and the bolting cabbage just after the tunnel on its right have been taken out. I think I shall save that bit and the bit next to it for courgettes and leeks.
Hope you have all enjoyed seeing some new pics. Hopefully in a week or two I will have decen weather so I can get down there and weed a bit more and tidy it up before planting the summer crops that are growing all over the house: I have seedlings of tomatoes, sweet pepper, red cabbage, broccoli, corn, flowers, courgettes, leeks, pumpkins and brussels, all driving my hubby mad...

Labels: artichoke, fruit, herbs, potato, spring

Ok here are some of the promised pics.
Something is on my sprouts !! waaaah! I asked at A4A and they said either mealy aphids or white fly... wtf? whatever, gotta find a way to kill it.

anyway, in other news: here are the fruit bushes, you can see how big the physalis (cape gooseberry is, it is actually a bit invasive. I wonder when it will start perishing??
I took a few views of the overall picture, you can see that if you compare it with January's pics, there is no contest...
This is a view from the compost end
You can see in the foreground the cabbages, and some greenmanure behind it, the very green bits. The tallish things round the edges are cow cabbage, the leeks and sprouts are on the left side.
Then there is a view from the top end, you can see the last of the flowers, orange and yellow and the amputated sunflower stems. This is the section with fairly new seedlings, beans, beets and carrots.

Here you can see the artichoke and rhubarb.
I guess I am pretty proud of what I have done, but I know there is still a lot to be done!!!! sigh...

Labels: autumn, beans, cabbage, fruit, leeks, rhubarb, sprouts

quiet weekend in the garden. Just an hour yesterday actually harvesting!! didn't think that day would come! Got:

• raspberries,
• strawberries,
• cape gooseberry (physalis)
• leeks! first ones, lovely and thick
• parsnips
• a few tomatoes,
• one beet
• big bunch of cabbage leaves
• little bunches of spinach, parsley and rocket,
• handful of radishes,
• handful of peas.

So I am pretty chuffed really!
The plot is a little untidy though, needs a good weeding again. I sowed some green manure again, but weirdly enough i now cannot find the seeds!!! Smallest One was there with me and it is looking bad for her on the guilt front... hope they turn up or I will have lost all my green manure for the season. I popped down this morning but no sign of the little brown paper packets.
Also saw a little mouse in the compost bin! Just hope it stays there and helps eat all the veg instead of the fresh stuff on the lot!!!!!!
Took some pics, be online soon.

Labels: autumn, fruit, green_manure, harvest

Yesterday was Monday and I had a day off. Not brilliant weather but at about 5 it brightened so the kids and I set off to the garden. We dug over the patch that I had covered (the former pea patch) and that was pretty easy, we pulled out some of the bindweed roots but of course it is too hard to get all of it out. We hauled the tarpaulin over to a new patch to kill the weeds, that will be the garlic patch in a few weeks time.
I dug, Smallest One was meant to be pulling out roots but she was actually pulling out worms and taking them down to the compost... Biggest one raked it over. They then went to pull the rocket seeds off the dried plants for me (but really it only caused squabbling, I will have to do more of it myself later in the week.)
Then we planted 2 rows of broad beans (a first timer there), the kids were surprised to see the beans when I opened the packet!!!
After that I put in some salad onions to overwinter, a row of red scarole lettuce (maybe it's called endive actually???) and a row of scarole lettuces for autumn/winter. Finally a little row of radishes, maybe we will get some of those if we are lucky.
[UPDATE!!!! that red thing I sowed is this:
click for pic]

The seeds I sowed in the summer are doing really well. I have dwarf beans that look ready to flower, carrots that seem to be working at last, a nice row of beets and more parsnips and the spinach is off to a flying start. I hoed a little bit but I had to hand weed some of it, teh hoeing was a bit scary for the seedlings.
I am also surprised by my raspberries. There are quite a few on the bush now waiting to ripen! It is Harvest, a late fruiter. Must get a couple of earlies next spring!!! I had thought that this being the first year I would get none. They are exquisite.
The physalis too is starting to ripen. The fruit "lanterns" start to dry on the bush and once they are papery you can harvest them. I was unfamiliar with it but it is terrific, I will make space for some more next year!!! :-D
I guess you could say that the autumn garden is shaping up better than the summer one...oh well, we can't help the weather can we???

Labels: broad beans, fruit, lettuce, onions, physalis, raspberry

Yesterday another express maintenance visit! We decided to tackle the herb bed. Actually it's not really one, it's the patch next to the shed where most people grow a few flowers or herbs or fruit. I had foolishly left a bramble there, thinking it might give fruit. Ah how we live and learn!! All it did was grow to gigantic proportions and rip us all to shreds everytime we went down the path. So yesterday, we got a wheelbarrow and a pair of secateurs and set to work. We pulled out loads of bindweed and dock and chopped the bramble up into manageable lengths. I also took the opportunity to cut back the lemon balm which is enormous. Eventually the bramble was cut back to a stump that I dug out (but i bet I see it reappear in spring! Next time I will rip it straight out!
Anyway we uncovered some mint, parsley and my lemon verveine has lots more space :-D Next spring I want to plant that area properly, putting some good soil in and planting more herbs like tarragon.
That didn't really take so long, so we then got back to work on the fruit bed. I pulled off the netting from the longest row, which was stuck down with bindweed and we weeded all those strawberry plants. Then I set up a stick with a plastic cup over the top to hold the netting in place in a more logical way. Next year I will build a frame I think. Of course still have to do the other three small beds, but it's a start. Next job will be putting down some more black plastic and establishing the runners in the ground. Might be tricky as my beds are not straight ha ha so I don't know how the extra ones are going to fit in. There are loads of runners, some of them even have their own fruit!!!
Looking tidier already, I then cut back lots of the grass that seemed to have popped up all over the place between the raspberries and goosegogs, leaving it all on the ground as mulch. Actually I think that this groundcover was not too bad as underneath the soil is cool and crumbly.
The physalis has grown to massive proportions!! Next year I get it will be bigger so I might have to cordon it off. It seems to repel weeds! I wonder what its secret is??
The lettuce I sowed from seed is doing OK:
Here you can see (clockwise from top left) Chives, some butterhead lettuce, a frisee, some radish going to seed, broccoli (a castaway) and more frisees and butterhs, then back next to teh chives is a little patch of rocket.
Last night I came back home with a bunch of chives (got them out from under all the grass!!), a huge bunch of rocket, a frisee lettuce, a handful of beans and two tiny broccoli heads. SO last night we ate a frisee salad with the 3 tiny toms from Tuesday, rocket and some chicken ham, then I made pasta with a sauce of turkey breast, broccoli, beans, and chives in a cream sauce. Smallest one picked out every single chive. There is just no pleasing some folk...

Labels: fruit, herbs, physalis, strawberry, strawberry runners, summer, weeds

Back down the lot yesterday for a bit of a dig. Biggest One helped me sow some late seeds, carrots, beets, radishes and the first lot of Mache (lamb's lettuce), also two seed beds for autumn lettuce, green oak leaf and frisee.

We tidied up a fair bit, raking out the dried weeds etc and filling a whole wheelbarrow full. Still loads of weeds though, how many can possibly grow in one plot??

We then started looking at the fruit bed which is a bloody mess. The kids weeded the raspberries a bit (fighting all the time :-( ) and I set to the strawberries. The weeds have massacred the netting! I will have to fix it up a bit. There are LOADS of runners! I cut a lot off in the summer but more apparently escaped my notice and they have even rooted. So I will now have to snip them off, lift them and make a new bed. Still that will fill in that corner nicely, as it had too much spare room up to the boundary so I got very weeded-down. Now I will have black plastic all the way to the edge, I will put some wood down to neaten off the fruit section.

Here's a pic of the rasps and the physalis which is big and seems to be cropping well. Patience, not ripe yet...

Labels: fruit, strawberry runners, summer, weeds

A mixed weekend for the allotment. I went down on Saturday but didn't have loads of time.
What is doing well:

• Fruit: all the "twigs" now have leaves !! The strawberries have flowers too, at least some of them.
  These are the gooseberries:
  

And here are the strawberries:

• Spinach: The seeds seem to have germinated at least. A few little heads here and there.
• Second lot of radishes: Poking their heads out.
• Peas: The first batch have finally sprouted.
• Potatoes: The early ones I planted seem to be growing some good leaf heads. Let's hope that below ground it is the same story!

• Herbs: The mint and thyme seem to have taken off, and I have discovered some lemon balm growing in the herb bed!! So I will let it grow. I will give the herb bed a bit more attention next week, as it looks quite pretty really.

What is worrying me:

• Lettuce: I took my lettuce seedlings down and planted them but when I went to check on Monday they all looked dead :-( I will have to check my technique, maybe I did something wrong.
• Second potatoes: the ones I planted with Biggest One haven't given much signs of life yet. Wonder how long they take to show their heads?
• Carrots: No sign of germination yet. I planted another row in case.
• Parsnips: No sign of germination yet. I planted another row in case.

My barrel o' taties is just sitting there but I guess I can't expect the potatoes to rear their heads after just a few days!
I watered everything, as it has been dry and sunny here. Perhaps this is just a praying period garden wise???
Splurged out on 2 courgette, 2 cherry tomato and 2 Roma (egg) tomato plants and a tray of lettuce, to compensate for my pathetic seeding efforts. I have another tray of lettuce sprouting in the kitchen!! Hope they are not doomed to death too?
Indoors, the tomatoes are coming along marvellously and so is my pot of coriander. The gherkin seeds have sprouted and I will quickly transplant them into little pots I think. There are about 15! I will never be able to plant all of those!! I guess I will give them away. Still waiting for the sweet pepper seeds to sprout though.
I really need to get stuck into a weed control plan and start preparing the spaces for the beans and tomatoes as time is slowly creeping forward.

Labels: fruit, herbs, potato, seedlings, spring, tomatoes

God, not the best week, gardening wise. Last weekend I didn't get to the lottie at all, and I only popped down quickly on Tuesday morning to plant a thyme bush and some violets that a friend had given me. I was distressed to see that the recent cold snap seems to have killed my peas :-( but that the gooseberries seem to be doing well, and the raspberries are still asleep.
My seedlings are a mixed bunch. One lot of tomatoes is thriving and the others are looking pale. Looks like I might need to replant them in a different medium. and the lettuces are doing well for the most part. I must sow some more this weekend, to renew the stocks.
Must do a few duties over the weekend, namely plant some more spuds, plant the strawberries, try sowing some peas and radishes and flowers. The weather seems to be warming up so maybe now is the right time?
And maybe I will at last fulfill my ambition of getting some horse crap from the pony club. I want some to spread as mulch till planting and some to mix for my potatoes that I am going to grow in the big bin. A few aches and pains seem likely for Monday :-)
I wish a good gardening weekend to all those reading.

Labels: fruit, lettuce, peas, planting, tomatoes

Ah that was a full-on gardening weekend!! Saturday Biggest One and I set off at 9.30 full of good intentions. It was not too cold, and we hauled a heap of stuff down to the garden: some more tools, the fruit bushes, potatoes, my week's vege scraps, some shredded cardboard for mulch.
With quite a bit of difficulty we put up the compost box, it is massive! About a square metre!! But it makes the place look tidy.
Then we put in some spuds, Rosevals (reds) and Sirtema. I have loads left over! might have to give them away. I will put in some more in April, to make sure we have a plentiful supply.
Finally, after much thought, I decided to put the fruit in its definitive position. It is cold but not very windy, and they are a bit sheltered by the compost box. So we dug in a bit of compost, forked all over the joint then dug some decent holes and planted them. I put in a few poles too near the raspberries so I can string up some wire later on in case they need support.
We went home, I cooked lunch then went out again by myself after lunch, when I planted my pea seedlings that were not too happy in their newspaper pots, I put some wire fencing next to them so they can climb. If they die, I guess that is the law of nature!! I've got plenty more seeds at least! Popped in some mint too, in a big plastic container that I hid in the ground. And in a rather daring move, I also planted some carrots (early) and some parsnips. Call me crazy. Might just sprout.
My bloody legs were killing me on Saturday night though.
Yesterday (Sunday) a very garden-oriented friend came to visit the allotment and was impressed by the setup. He helpfully spotted some (wonderfullt fragrant) thyme, growing madly all over the place on another allotment, at which point he bent down, found a piece that was sending roots into the ground, pulled it up and twisted it off! "Here you go, go and shove that in next to your shed." OMG I am an allotment thief! I thought, but then I rationalised that this fellow really did have rampant thyme and he could never use all that was there and I don't think he will miss a little bit of root that was out on the pathway. So I shoved it in next to the shed and felt slightly less guilty.
He has kindly offered me a couple of artichoke plants, which I gratefully accepted, I will have to go and get them next weekend. Dunno where I will put them! But artichokes are delicious, so couldn't refuse.

Labels: compost, fruit, planting, potato, spring

Last night I opened my box from the garden mail order firm. I was a little bit horrified because 1) the strawberries looked dead except for some little green shoots in their crowns and 2) the instructions on what to do with them until you plant them outside were not adapted to someone living in a flat. They went like "dig a hole in the corner of your garden and lay the plants at a 45deg angle covering the roots lightly with soil". OK that was out. So in some desperation I just shoved them into toilet roll holders and filled them with potting mix and then gave them a good watering. I hope this will stop them dying the death before Saturday. The raspberries and gooseberries were in plastic bags with their roots naked so I opened the bags, filled the bottom with potting mix, again a good water and put a rubber band around the filled bit.
The planting instructions were quite specific, but not very familiar to me. Firstly you soak the roots in water for a certain time, then it says to dig a hole, put in some potting mix or compost and fill it with water to make a kind of mud. You dip the roots into this, then you plant them in a hole that you have already prepared with some nice fertile stuff at the bottom of the hole. I will try this technique and see what happens. I am a bit worried as the plants seem to be completely lifeless but they assure me they are in "vegetal dormancy" and will wake up once they are out in the air and sun.
Saturday is going to be so busy: I need to build the composter and set it up, plant these fruits, plant my spuds which are looking like aliens, plant my parsnips, some carrots , beets and spinach. Oh, and rip out another 20 kgs of weeds. By hand. Phew.
He Who Must Moan is making acid comments about the tomato and lettuce seedlings cluttering up the kitchen windowsill, the fruit bushes in the pantry, the plastic bottles waiting to go to the garden and the cardboard boxes all over the place.
Lots of plastic things looking like this...
I also think that he went to get a jar of jam in the pantry and dropped my seed packets all over the place because there was a bit of yelling and something about "bloody seeds". I told him that he will stop moaning once he's eating the raspberries but I concede that it is rather a weak argument in the absence of material proof...

Labels: fruit, planting, seeds, spring, strawberry