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A depressing trip, really. The courgette, squash and sunflowers are gone, some of the (anya) potatoes have what looks like black leg, the black and red-currants have been eaten by birds, the weeds are rampant. On the plus side we should finally get some broad beans in a week or so. Planted some carrots in a raised bin (away from carrot fly) and some perpetual spinnach. Dug up some new potatoes, got a few strawberries and raspberries. No, not the first time back since the ‘reset’ post a month ago, but sadly not far off. The weather’s been ‘orrible. Anyway, the plot was massively over grown, so did a lot of weed-pulling and grass chopping. The sweetcorn in bed B has pretty much all failed and no sign of any drawf beans in bed E. The climbing and runner beans are OK but not great. Broad beans are just flowering but not too impressive. A smattering of beetroot and parsnips in bed D, no perp. spinach. Leeks are holding on, potatoes are OK. Some donated cabbage plants we put in bed A are looking good. Harvested some mouse-nibbled radish from between bean rows, and some really good looking rhubarb. Planted sunflowers by the shed which have been struggling in pots at home. Planted squash and courgette plants in Bed B, a mix of bought from Henri’s and grown from seed in pots. Sowed more beetroot and a couple of rows of turnips in bed D. Sowed loads of lettuce and rocket between beans.
I suppose I could just post new stuff and maybe no-one would notice the one-year hiatus… but no. Last year fizzled out, bad weather, lots of stuff didn’t grow, what did grow got blight / white rot / whatever, motivation left me. Over the winter I dug over most plots and covered with leaf mold. We decided to make life easier by planting half the plot with fruit bushes that don’t need too much doing each year. Didn’t quite it ready in time to get them in before the growing season started, but maybe the opportunity to be sure that all the perennials are dug out from that side is a good one. Here’s the plan for 2012: As of May 27 we have planted the potatoes (beds C&G), strawberries (bed G/H), beans (broad, runner and dwarf & climbing French) (bed E — along with lettuce and raddish), parsnips, perpetual spinach, & beetroot (bed D). On May 27th we planted leeks (edge of bed C) and sweetcorn (bed B) from pots that we had started at home. We have some courgettes, red cabbage and sunflowers at home. Also sowed some sunflower seeds at along the road at bed A and nasturtiums along the side near the public path. The pots are just showing in bed G; the broad beans are up, but small; the runners and climbers are just showing, but no sign of the drawfs, so sowed one more at each station; the strawbs are flowering. Too early to tell about the others. Planted 2 rows red cabbage in bed B with radishes as catch crop; 1 row parsnip and 1 row beetroot in bed C; lettuces between broad beans on bed A. Harvested purple sprouting broccoli, perpetual spinach, and rhubarb. Rhubarb this year has thrown up a lot of flower stems. Onions, shallots and broad beans are all looking good. |
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