Dalek!

It's marvellous to have a bit more flexability to go to the Hill now that the evenings are lighter.  Although all that means in practise is that I go later and I'm still caught out by dusk.  Today I had two jobs to do - and of course only got the one done for the reason above - so the maincrop potatoes will have to wait another day. 

I finished digging up the parsnips (parsnip soup perhaps, on the cards) and that freed up space for me to empty one of the dalek composters and spread the contents over half of the front bed - the other half to where I planted the first earlies last week.  

This is not the ideal time to empty composters - Nick raised a good point in his comment about chucking a load of compost/mulch on top of the beds over Winter and letting the worms/weather do the digging for you, but then he sounds more organised that I have am! 

I sumo wrestled the dalek into submission, and relocated the empty unit on the next bed along. 

Anything totally un-rotted from the top of the bin went back in for another go - and I added a couple of bags of horse manure from the manure heap to start it off.  

The 'better' stuff at the bottom I spread about a bit, and roughly forked in.

It is not what you might call a seed bed - being what you could charitably describe as being 'a bit rough', but it'll be good enough for me to plant potatoes, I think.

Raaaaaaaain!

It's been really gusty over the weekend and this afternoon had squally showers.  I thought I might miss these going to the Hill this afternoon, but not a chance.

We all know that it has been a very, very wet indeed over the past couple of months, so I've been in no rush to get things sown.  As far as I'm concerned, there has to be a bit of give and take between me and Mother Nature regarding an acceptable timetable of events - I put things in the ground to suit a busy life, and she chucks an approximation of appropriate weather my way in order for stuff to grow.

However I was guilted into dealing with the potatoes today - despite the showers - after hearing Gardeners Question Time panel on the radio showing some incredulity that a chap had been so lax as to not have his in at this late stage.  Supercilious beggars.

 A quick fire fork over of half a bed (pulled out some couch grass roots) then dug four ditches for me to put the first earliers in (pentland javelin).  As they grow, I'll level the ground.  I find this is easier than planting them in the flat ground and earthing up (which is hard work, and I invariably don't bother), and then I get pototoes going green as they are exposed to the light. 

Dug a couple of parsnips, and pulled a bit of rhubarb and called it a day.

What Happened to the Easter Weekend?

So all the time stretching before me over the Easter Weekend has somehow evaporated and I've only managing to get to the Hill for a single session.  Having said that, it is still so incredibly wet underfoot that even running a fork over the beds is backbreaking work, and I suspect does no real good.

The day length and warmer weather has cause all the kale and purple sprouting into a cloud of yellow flowers, so the weeds are realistically not far behind, so I must not slack! 

Spurred on by Richard-three-plots-down, I have bought seed potatoes this week.  He's got all his earlies in, and given it's now April, it's about time I did too, wet or not.  In fact their spindly chits don't look great, and I'll let them sit in egg boxes for a week to beef up a bit.  What I do have ready to sow is parsnip seed.  

I have had the best crop of parsnips EVER this year, so how to replicate that?  Perhaps use the same variety and sow at the same time of the year?  

You'd think, but no, I have bought Gladiator F1 and not the highly successful Hollow Crown, and I'm sowing them six weeks later than last year too.  Not sure what the opposite of learning from experience is, but this is a good example.

Some Time Better Than No Time

It's been a busier than usual weekend, and despite the welome extra daylight that we are now enjoying late afternoon, I still struggled to do what I wanted at the Hill.  However, a snatched half hour is better than nothing so I made my way there with the intention of sorted out a bit of my 'immediate tasks' list.

I need to buy and apply lime to where I'll be sowing peas/beans this year, ditto with BFF for everywhere else, sow parsnips, zip over the areas where annual weeds are showing up, fork out the emerging couch grass shoots/roots, pick kale and purple sprouting, dig the last of the leeks and a few parsnips. 

Well I was not going to make much of a dent in that laughably long list, but I did bring home a large leek, a cabbage (maybe one more before the last couple go to seed), a large bag of kale (split 3 ways with friends later), the same of purple sprouting, and dug some parsnips.  Maybe one or two more diggings of these before they go woody.

There are signs of the broad beans, the garlic is doing v well, and I'll soon have enough of the Winter crops out the way to empty and move the two compost bins waiting to shove up to their next positions. 

Need to think about potatoes - Richard-3-plots-down has his first earlies in, and we'll soon be into April.  It feels like Nature is on the starting blocks - and I don't want to let my good winter progress slip now that I have the plot in decent shape!

Best parsnips ever!

Finally it has stopped raining - hurrah! - so off to the Hill this afternoon in some lovely Spring sunshine, clutching a packet of parsnip seeds in my hand.  

Last year's planting plan of 'put in what you have ready in the bit of land you have ready' was not what you might call organised but it certainly worked, with some fab veg - these parsnips and cabbage a case in point which I bought home with me today. 

But the 'bung it in' approach does not have any reference to rotation and all that stuff that you are supposed to do in order to keep the gound healthy, as well as the crops in it. 

Being rather more organised this year (so far!) with all eight main beds with veg in at the moment, or ready to planted up means that I can choose where to grow this year's veg.  A slightly limiting factor is that the garlic is already randomly planted in 'A1', and I sowed the broad beans in 'B1', but I will have to work round them.

I fished out my trusty John Seymour to tell me what should be where, and based on where the spuds were last year (C1 & C2), I worked out where I wanted to sow the parsnip seeds. 

However, by the time I'd cut a couple of cabbage, dug a healthy selection of parsnips chatted to Handyman Paul, who kindly asked after mum, and Richard-3-plots-down who came to pick my brains on the best recommended Canary Island, I was out of time.

Parsnip seed - if not parsnips themselves - will have to wait another day. 

Spring?

It's been mild on the whole over the past few weeks with bucketfuls of rain, but today it was crisp and sunny.  The blossom on the blackthorns can only mean that Spring is round the corner (and sloe gin season could be a good one!).

A late afternoon visit it the Hill meant that I had the place to myself, which was just as well as my first job was with a spade, noisily scraping the mud, weeds and moss off the slabs which form the path.

Next up was to dig over one of the vacant beds (accompanied by a robin) where a couple of weeks ago I'd emptied a dalek composter and roughly spread the contents.  The ground is v wet, so the forking over rather heavy going, but its a job done. 

Third job of the afternoon was to sow some broad beans.  Probably should have waiting until the ground was a bit drier, but something I have learnt is that time whizzes by, so you have to take the opportunity to do things when you can, rather than perhaps when you should.

With dusk fast approaching, I picked some kale and dug almost the tail end of the leeks - the winter crops have been so good this year - before packing up and leaving the bossy robin to it.  

 

Well, well....

Out the blue a few weeks ago I had an email asking if I still blogged as the writer found it a good read - especially as I wasn't afraid to chronical the good as well as the - er - not so good. 

Gosh - does Blogger still exist?  I logged on to find that none of the blogs I followed when I made my last entry five years ago are current - maybe everyone moved to Facebook, Instagram and latterly TikTok.  Or maybe they just lost interest, rather as I did.

I guess that I felt that as the seasons roll round I was bored of saying much the same thing, and didn't have much really new to add, but I still have my plot at the Hill - and despite the wettest start to the year in living memory, Spring is in the air.....

.....so long as I can get back into the habit of putting a few words down each time, I might as well.