Monday, February 25, 2008
On Saturday, it was a glorious day, quite unbelievable for February, brilliant sun and quite warm. So it had to be an afternoon down the allotment. There were loads of people at the site, all making the most of the lovely weather.
I attacked the onion patch, digging in some manure, and I uncovered the bean area that had been tarpaulined since October. I had let all the chopped down beanstalks rot and underneath the ground was dark and crumbly, I just dug in the grassy dead material, it will break down. A few good forkfuls of manure went on too then I planted the echalotes (Jelmor cuisse de poulet), the red onions and the yellow onions, all sets. Today (Monday) it is a bit rainy so they will be well watered in.
While feeling terribly enthusiastic, I also manured and dug over the patches where the spuds will go and covered them with the tarp. That will save me a lot of work in a few weeks' time ;-)
The broad beans have flowers, will they give any beans I wonder? They have been in all winter.
I looked at the new strawberry plants, and I put little sticks around them to keep the black plastic back off the crowns so they can get the maximum sun and rain now. They all seem to have taken, now they just have to grow.
So many heralds of spring, the cherry trees are starting to flower around town, and I noticed that the gooseberries and raspberries are starting to have buds. The rhubarb is growing well, as are the artichokes, and the roses given to me by a friend have all got new growth so they must have rooted well over the winter.
Oh and I nearly forgot, I planted some first peas (Kelvedon Wonder) and ripped up the last remaining Romanesco, broccoli and sprouts. Got about a pound of late sprouts, about 1 1/2 kilos of Romanesco heads and shoots, and 5 lovely leeks. Blimey no wonder I was knackered afterwards, that was a lot of bloody work in retrospect!!!! Still when I look over the plot I see how much work is still to be done :-( BUT the plot on the whole is much more worked over than last year so if I take one patch at a time I am sure it will be OK.
I attacked the onion patch, digging in some manure, and I uncovered the bean area that had been tarpaulined since October. I had let all the chopped down beanstalks rot and underneath the ground was dark and crumbly, I just dug in the grassy dead material, it will break down. A few good forkfuls of manure went on too then I planted the echalotes (Jelmor cuisse de poulet), the red onions and the yellow onions, all sets. Today (Monday) it is a bit rainy so they will be well watered in.
While feeling terribly enthusiastic, I also manured and dug over the patches where the spuds will go and covered them with the tarp. That will save me a lot of work in a few weeks' time ;-)
The broad beans have flowers, will they give any beans I wonder? They have been in all winter.
I looked at the new strawberry plants, and I put little sticks around them to keep the black plastic back off the crowns so they can get the maximum sun and rain now. They all seem to have taken, now they just have to grow.
So many heralds of spring, the cherry trees are starting to flower around town, and I noticed that the gooseberries and raspberries are starting to have buds. The rhubarb is growing well, as are the artichokes, and the roses given to me by a friend have all got new growth so they must have rooted well over the winter.
Oh and I nearly forgot, I planted some first peas (Kelvedon Wonder) and ripped up the last remaining Romanesco, broccoli and sprouts. Got about a pound of late sprouts, about 1 1/2 kilos of Romanesco heads and shoots, and 5 lovely leeks. Blimey no wonder I was knackered afterwards, that was a lot of bloody work in retrospect!!!! Still when I look over the plot I see how much work is still to be done :-( BUT the plot on the whole is much more worked over than last year so if I take one patch at a time I am sure it will be OK.
Labels: onions, peas, potato, romanesco, roses, sprouts, winter
Monday, December 17, 2007
Operation Big Freeze...
-2c here this morning, there was actually a sheet of ice on the car. bbrrr
so yesterday it was down to the allotment to snatch up everything we could, which included a kilo or two of parsnips, two cabbages, the romanescos, a heap of big Brussel sprouts, all the first leeks and all the tiny carrots and beets that were still in the ground. I think I might have to put some veg in the freezer this week :-)
It is my first experience of seeing the garden over the winter, all the fruit bushes have lost their leaves and gone to sleep, the leaf mulch I spread out has started to decompose into the earth, as has all the other vegetation. The rhubarb has disappeared and the artichokes have sort of sprawled out as if they are kipping.
The compost bin had collapsed again, so I took the opportunity to dig over the compost before rebuilding the bin.
The water barrels are full of ice! that is quite a spectacular sight! luckily they are not sealed. Maybe it will kill any nasties in the water too. And just think, it is not even winter yet!!
Still I took a moment to look around and think, in the spring I will be digging all this up again, but keeping in mind that next year I am going to cover and mulch as much as possible. Because I have made so much effort not to walk on the beds, the earth is still soft and aerated. The things I dug up yesterday, I dug over a little to let the frost into the soil. And had a little moment to visualize in my head, ok where the tomatoes were, that will be beans and peas - and over in the onion bed, the spuds - and in February I will see the sprouts of garlic there - ok the spuds were there so that will be the squash next year and this bit here will go out and be root veg. Now where will I put the broccoli....
Gardening - 2 parts sweat, 7 parts weeds, 3 parts delicious home grown veg and 0.02 parts pure fantasy
-2c here this morning, there was actually a sheet of ice on the car. bbrrr
so yesterday it was down to the allotment to snatch up everything we could, which included a kilo or two of parsnips, two cabbages, the romanescos, a heap of big Brussel sprouts, all the first leeks and all the tiny carrots and beets that were still in the ground. I think I might have to put some veg in the freezer this week :-)
It is my first experience of seeing the garden over the winter, all the fruit bushes have lost their leaves and gone to sleep, the leaf mulch I spread out has started to decompose into the earth, as has all the other vegetation. The rhubarb has disappeared and the artichokes have sort of sprawled out as if they are kipping.
The compost bin had collapsed again, so I took the opportunity to dig over the compost before rebuilding the bin.
The water barrels are full of ice! that is quite a spectacular sight! luckily they are not sealed. Maybe it will kill any nasties in the water too. And just think, it is not even winter yet!!
Still I took a moment to look around and think, in the spring I will be digging all this up again, but keeping in mind that next year I am going to cover and mulch as much as possible. Because I have made so much effort not to walk on the beds, the earth is still soft and aerated. The things I dug up yesterday, I dug over a little to let the frost into the soil. And had a little moment to visualize in my head, ok where the tomatoes were, that will be beans and peas - and over in the onion bed, the spuds - and in February I will see the sprouts of garlic there - ok the spuds were there so that will be the squash next year and this bit here will go out and be root veg. Now where will I put the broccoli....
Gardening - 2 parts sweat, 7 parts weeds, 3 parts delicious home grown veg and 0.02 parts pure fantasy
Labels: autumn, cabbage, freezing, planning, romanesco, sprouts
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