A Step Back, a Step Forward

A couple of hot days, then some rain mean that my tomatoes in their pots in the courtyard are looking fabulous!  Also the brassicas, which really need planting out at the Hill.

Unfortunately the weather has brought everything green on, not just the tomatoes and brassicas.

This is the bed in which they are to be planted; a concerted effort needed this bank holiday weekend to knock the area into shape. The small bean plants in pots are in the same situation, so the bean frame needs fixing so I can get those planted out too.

I did reclaim the maincrop potato bed, though, and finally all the spuds are in, and I planted out the courgettes too - and the bed is ready for the squash to be planted out when they are big enough too.

Busy, busy....

The trouble with this time of the year is that I tend to go on holiday, and also have my work cut out with training for our town's flagship fundraising event, both of which coincides with the weather being ideal for everything green going bonkers and growing at a triffid-like rate.

That means that some parts of the plot at the Hill look like this:






However, after today's hard work, at least some of looks like this, with the potatoes popping up....










.....and this, with newly laid chippings on the paths (seedlings are a mix of carrot, leek, parsnip and weed - I hoed the weeds, but am anxious not to disturb the other stuff) - which is more like it.

I have the bean beds to knock into shape before I can plant out the runners and French beans which are growing nicely at home, ditto a bed for the brassica seedlings.






Talking of seedlings, the new tomato seed packets that I bought from Wilko and sowed on 21st April showed no sign of life after three weeks - so I gave up and bought some small plants from the Farmers Market on Friday.

As you might guess, the following day, the seeds popped up. Ain't nature great?

Potatoes in at last!

No photos as I left my phone at home when I went to the Hill today where I spent a couple of hours weeding and digging over a bed; hoed it level and poked the first earlies (sharpes express) and second earlies (charlotte) in the ground.

Dug out the remaining leeks from the next bed, where the maincrop will go, and ran out of enthusiasm and came home.

A job done, though.

Bit by bit

You'd think that a couple of days off for the Easter break would mean I'd have plenty of time at the Hill, but not so - where does the time go?

I went down late afternoon with the intention of planting the potatoes (still!) but got side tracked with the front border.  Invasive grass is creeping in from the raspberry bed; and the three lavender bushes are leggy and straggly.

The plan is to replace the lavender, and I have half a dozen sturdy little plants at home ready to plant out - and to clear out the grass and its spaghetti roots once and for all.  I got to work with the fork and spent a satisfying hour or so loosening the soil and chasing the roots and picking out these and any  other weeds.  Plenty more to do, but the result looks good.

I rough dug the miscellaneous bed, so that's another one ticket off - and dug a few potatoes, a few leeks and pulled some rhubarb.

The pink stalks to the back of the pic for mum, the thicker ones to the front will form the basis of the first batch of rhubarb wine of the year.  Marvelous.

Planting Potatoes? Nope

At the Hill this week, the one job of most pressing importance was to plant the potatoes that I'd intended to do last weekend, but hadn't.

But instead of banging straight on in with that when I arrived in the afternoon sunshine yesterday, I got the spade and fork out and had another crack at getting the wild area by the bench into better order.

To this end, I dug out some of the blackberry-intent-on-world-domination roots, and clods of grass, raspberry suckers and dandelions.  I slogged away at this for about an hour and made a rough job of about 3 square feet.  Oh well, no one said it would be either quick or easy.

Then I got sidetracked with the easy option of raking the front bed that I'd prepped last week and filling it with a row of parsnip, a row of leek and a row of carrot seed.

And I dug some potatoes, and pulled a few leeks, and decided that was enough for the session and came home.  Another day, and all that....

Half a Job

The clocks went forward last weekend (which gives us more daylight in the evenings), so with that and the better weather, it does feel like Spring is well and truly upon us.
I wish someone would tell the tomato seeds I sowed a couple of weeks ago - not a hint of them coming up, so I'll have to have another go with different seed.  They were pretty elderly, so it's not a complete surprise.  The brassicas all up and running, and lettuce and sweet peas too.

I went to the Hill today with the intention of at least getting the spuds planted.  I got sidetracked, however, and made a thorough and comprehensive job of weeding the front bed, ready for carrots on parsnips.

Then I took the bean frame down and moved it to it's new position (that is, chucked the two end supports onto the bed that they need to be fixed to).

I dug up some leeks - we could be charitable and call them trendy 'baby leeks' to make them feel better about themselves.  Then I dug a couple of the picasso potatoes - they haven't fared quite as well as the carolus, and have some slug damage, but not too bad.

Finally, I pulled the first few stalks of rhubarb, and came home.  Never did get those potatoes planted....

Tidying up

It's been a very Spring-like day today, so it was a pleasure to be at the Hill this afternoon.

I did quite a bit of 'housekeeping' - I gathered lots of stray bits of 'I'm sure this will come in useful' wood which have now gone rotten and put them in the car ready for the tip.

Then I had a bout of sumo with one of the dalek composters.  I wrestled it to the ground and emptied it, and re-sited it.  I forked quite a bit of uncomposted stuff back in, then recommenced battle with the bramble intent on World Domination.

I spent half an hour or so adding pulled up dead grass, over-zealous comfrey and snipped up bits of bramble into the dalek, and added a couple of bags of horse muck too. This 'wildlife area' probably need another session of clearing before I can tackle it with a fork - and I need to decide what to do with this area.

Chris from down the bottom came by - I haven't seen her for ages, so we sat on the new bench and chatted for a while.  I note that the view is spoiled somewhat by the pallet (left over from forming a pallet compost bin) - it'll have to go.

She went off to her plot, and I dug the last of the Carolus potatoes.  It was time to go home - though still plenty light enough at 5.45pm - so I lifted about half of the leeks too (freeing the end of the bed ready for the next dalek re-location) and headed off

.

Changing Storage mk II

Started off in the drizzle this afternoon at the Hill which didn't bother me - I have a hat, and those with a hat laugh in the face of rain.

Today's job was to dismantle the shed and transport it to the tip.  Full marks for the first job, but a fail on the second as the tip closed before I got there.

I gave the slabs a brush (more of a rinse down as the rain had become rather more substantial by this time), then moved the storage bench to it's new spot, which boasts a lovely view down the site and across the field.

I spent a determined half hour doing battle with the bramble which aspires to world domination and made some headway clearing the space euphemistically know as the 'wildlife area'.  I dug some more potatoes (which I now note are completely rubbish as boilers), and a couple of leeks.

By this time, despite my hat laughing at the rain, my coat and feet were soaked through, so I took my car full of rotten wood home, and hope that no permanent harm will come to the interior before I get to the tip in the morning.

Changing Storage

Today was a day to rearrange furniture.  The garden storage bench which I was kindly given in the Autumn has been assembled and been in the kitchen for the past couple of months or so where it has been a surprisingly useful addition - if a bit odd looking in the setting.

So I ordered a proper kitchen dining bench yesterday; and today I took the garden storage bench to the Hill.  The idea is that the few things that have been kept in the shed (rather on its last legs)....

.....will now be kept in the bench, which will have the added advantage of providing a handy place to sit.  Turned to be a bit of a fail on the first point, as both of my hoes are too long to fit in *sigh

No matter, the overall plan is a good one - and the shed will take it's final journey to the tip next weekend now that I have emptied it and evicted all the spiders, snails, woodlice, a few worms, and a sleepy wasp.  At least dismantling is unlikely to cause any great difficulties.

I dug some potatoes to take home -  they are magnificently preserved, and have none of the slug damage that the first and second earlies had last year. Hurrah!  The variety is Carolous, and although waxy, so didn't make the best roasties this evening, are certainly worth growing again.

Making a Start

It's been a reasonable Winter so far - some frosty nights, and chilly days, but nothing to moan about.  In fact if I can brave this January's weather in shorts and tee to go running, then there are really no excuses not to have been doing some 'Winter work' at the Hill.   Even so, today has been my first visit to the Hill since before Christmas.

I spent a couple of hours cutting down the raspberry canes; upending, moving and refilling one of the dalek composters (one down, three to go); and rough forking the front two beds.

An unexpected plus were a few of last year's potatoes which are still in the ground - I dug a few and found them surprisingly un-slugged (variety Carolus).

Less impressive were the leeks - small, and leek moth damaged - but I still managed to get enough good bits of leek for tea with the potatoes.

I think that counts as a win.

A Job Well Done

For once, this year I don't feel like I am on the back foot - the beds are all prepared, the first seeds are sown, the potatoes are in; and today, I have turned my attention to the strawberry bed.

The strawberry plants are ancient - I've not got the knack of replacing the plants with new, grown from runners every three or four years and consequently, the yield is practically non existent.  What strawberries do grow are promptly scoffed by slugs and the whole bed is full of weeds.

So time for a revamp with some new plants.  I bought a tray of six Elsanta plants for £2.99 from Aldi a couple of weeks ago, and if I find this is too few, I can grow on some of the inevitable runners for new plants.

I dug over the bed, ditching all plants and weeds, then gave it a good layer of horse muck, and another good layer of compost from the old pallet composters; covered with weed suppressant and planted through holes cut in the suppressant. Fab!  I'm rather sorry that I forgot to take a 'before' pic - because this is a real improvement.

I turned my attention to getting the maincrop spuds planted.  The kale is in the way, really, but they are still throwing extremely tasty side shoots, so I'm reluctant to pull them up just yet - and even when I'm done with them, brassica flowers are very popular with bees, so I'm inclined to leave them as long as possible.

I compromised by pulling up two and leaving two, and making holes for the potatoes with a stick - the potatoes will just have to grow around them.

Once I'd finished that and tidied up, I just had time to nip up to the clubhouse for a swift half.  I do love these lighter evenings when my trips to the Hill coincide with opening hours!

Transformation of a Compost Heap

Today's forecast was for heavy rain for most of the day, so I went to the Hill yesterday with the aim of planting the potatoes.

I parked at the top of the site, and walking down past the plots with seed potatoes clutched to me in their egg boxes where they have been chitting on the windowsill for the past few weeks; and saw that I was not alone in this plan, with a number of plots sporting the tell tale ridge-and-grove of earth with (presumably) spuds tucked up underneath.

Although I see the theory of planting the spuds in the groves; filling in as the plants grow, then earthing up the growing plants, it strikes me like a lot of hard work, so my spuds get dropped into planting holes made with a handy broom handle about 8" deep, with earthing up later in the season if I can be bothered. 

First, I had to move the netting tunnel to a different bed where I will sow carrots in a week or two - and now that
I have the knack of it, the cage didn't take long to put up in a sturdy fashion in it's new situation.

The three cabbages that it had been protecting though, did make me scratch my head - they are too small to harvest, but in the way of the spuds, and now open to pigeon attack.  I managed to work around them and rig up a temporary netting and hope to be eating them before they inconvenience the potato plants. 

Then I spent some more time digging over and weeding the plot front - the lavender plants that have been there for some years are now leggy (baaaaaaaad pruning!) and since Gardener Zoe showed me last week how easy peasy it is to take cuttings, I will be growing more on and replacing the existing. 

Talking of Gardener Zoe, I offered her all the dry woody contents of my horrible out-of-control pallet composters for kindling if she wanted to have a bonfire in the week, and rather than the compost bins looking like this:

They now look like this.  

Magic!  Now all I have to do is decide what to do with the extra space this gives me. Maybe a pumpkin to ramble over, then dig and create a fruit bed at the end of the growing season, perhaps?

A New Neighbour and Final Bed Prep

The Spring equinox at the weekend means that at last the days are now longer than the nights, and with warmer weather (and the pigeons at home making eyes at each other), it definitely feels Spring is Springing.

The seeds that I sowed last month agree, with the sweet peas and leeks both putting in an appearance - just - the microscopic dot here is a leek seedling.  They have been sown in pots and in the shelter of the mini greenhouse for almost four weeks before sprouting, which just goes to show that that Mother Nature will get on with things in her own sweet time.

I dithered whether to get the spuds in the ground or not this weekend; however, they are due to go into the two beds at the front of the plot which are currently clogged up with two daleks, one cage over the kale and one newly robust netting tunnel protecting three cabbage plants - so there is a bit of a backlog of stuff in the way before the spuds can go in.

So when I arrived at the Hill on Sunday, I moving the cage, and the netting to one site, and got to work with the fork and three-pronged cultivator.  I chatted to my enthusiastic new neighbour Zoe who gardens for a living, but is not so experienced with fruit and veg.

Neat Neighbour John, Novice Neighbour Jody and then Jody's Mate Shaun have all left plot 17a in good shape, and now Gardener Zoe has custody of the front of that half plot to make of what she will.

Once I'd finished going over the beds, I hoed in some blood, fish and bone which should give the cabbages a boost, and made a start on tidying up the flower border at the front of the plot, which is prone to weeds.

Time running out - although not daylight this time - I tidied up and went to pick some kale.  It's just starting to bolt now, so snapped off the flower heads off to take home for tea - and hope that it will throw some side shoots in time for my next visit too.

Shopping

With the weather very gradually warming up, and the afternoons staying noticeably lighter - hurrah! - my thoughts are turning to what to grow for this season.

It kicks off with a potato day - I went to the Shropshire Potato Day (about 40 miles away) last Sunday and having done my homework beforehand came away with two varieties of first earlies (lady christl and arran pilot), two varieties of second earlies (wilja and charlotte) and two varieties of maincrop (picasso and carolus).

The carlolus are a new variety to me - they are supposed to be blight resistant and tasty, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they perform.

Also on sale were shallots, so I had a couple of bags of those, and - joy of joys - my beloved crimson flowered broad beans, for £2 per half pint mug. Magic!

The first seeds for sowing will be parsnip now things are warming up a little - as fresh seed is recommend each year, I nipped into Wilko and whilst I was looking at the seed display found this value-for-money multipack, which looks good to me.

So I'm all set!