Shaping up with beds!

We’ve had some lovely days again this week & yesterday was no exception with the sun shining & a brisk breeze.

It must be the time of year that is bringing the plot holders out with a vengeance – Reg-next-plot, David-other-half, Barry working his plot this week along with dispensing advice, & I’ve now met the chap with the enviable plot on our right. He’s called Ted & he’s on the Committee so he opened the store shed for me to have a look around.

The seed potatoes are only 60p a kilo, & they have Stemster, Romano & Desiree, so all I’ve got to do is work out which of these will complement the Cara main crops which I have chitting upstairs. I’ll also have to do some maths with spacings to see how many I should buy in order to fill (but not overwhelm!) the rest of the potato plot.

I was very pleased to see that the paths had withstood the week’s weather, so I put down two more (with the aid of the string & tape!) – I’ve found that it is making access to the ‘beds’ (i.e. those areas in which I have put seed) a lot easier.

Also the 3’ length of 9” plank is proving invaluable – not only does is hold the sheet of polycarb down during the week, but it is also useful to walk on so I don’t squash the soil, & the length can be pushed in the soil to form a seed drill. Fantastic!

It’s lovely to see the broad beans making progress – I can actually see a row of them now, but only a few isolated peas as yet. The radish under the polycarb is a proper row too, so I’ve take the cover off so they can get into their stride! No sign yet of the two short rows of lettuce that were under there, or of anything in Plot C (roots). I wonder at what point you give up waiting for seeds to sprout?

There are promising buds on the gooseberry/redcurrant/blackcurrant bushes – so I’ve not killed them off yet! Over the boundary, neighbour Ted has put a dressing of black flaky stuff around his fruit bushes – it looks like charcoal – but I forgot to ask him what it was and what it’s for. The Grapevine recommends netting currants unless you want all the birds to eat them first, which sounds like a right faff, but I’ll take my cue from neighbour Ted - & if the birds do take a fancy to the currants, then it’ll be blackbird pie & no mistake.

I’ve put the ONION SETS (sturon) in – there are zillions in the bag, & so they’ve taken up more room than I thought. I’m now getting worried that we won’t have enough space, although, clearly that’s a daft thought.

I also put a short row of CARROTS (early nantes) in Plot C (roots) with the spring onions & spinach, & a short row of both LETTUCE (little gem) & RADISH (Mirabeau) in Plot B (everything else).

Following David-other-half’s invite to the rhubarb, I found 3 sticks about 10” which I took for mum – later she said that it was lovely, but only barely made a portion. Maybe that whole row of plants isn’t so excessive after all?

I’ve had a thought about where the asparagus can go – along the border at the end of the run of fruit bushes, I think, although I didn’t get as far as digging the trench for them – just as well as I’ll probably change my mind...