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Got a bunch of peppers, tomatoes, sweetcorn and tomatillos in. Between sweetcorn I have mini lettuces, to crop in the meantime before they really take off, and some dwarf beans around the edge.
Pumpkins and courgettes have been in for a week of cold nights, but made it through and are starting to get green again (they did yellow a bit).
Basil, dwarf stocks, rudbeckia and marigolds interplanted here there and everywhere.
Some globe artichokes went on the border - 4 of them. May be a bit much though, and too close to next door so I'm half expecting to compost them if they do well.
Lastly, some purple kale planted in a new bed (cardboard and some compost on top of grass). It's only in a couple of inches of compost but I've had success before. Sprinkled some fast growing salads around them and watered in - kales are slow to get going so I should get a few salads out of the bed before they really hit their stride, and the salads will hopefully help control the weeds.
Amazing weekend.
I've got a lot of work to go on the new plot, but the first is decent. Harvested a butter head lettuce which was nice, but did lose quite a few leaves to slug damage... Can't beat the slugs, though.
I do seem to suffer much less slug damage than others around me on site - whether this is because of my selections of lettuce, the size I plant them out (smaller than they do, so I doubt it...) or the not digging thing, or something completely different... Who knows? Gardening can be quite the enigma.
There is a second row of asparagus behind the first, but it's only sown seed this year so it'll be a couple of years yet...
Broad beans, with pumpkins or courgettes to grow once they're done.
Peppers following garlic. Some basil and flowers dotted about. At the back is rhubarb, some French bush beans and tomatillos.
Freshly transplanted globe artichokes. Cardboard over grass - it's a new bed. Compost on top to keep weeds down and hopefully condition the soil over the next year or so.
Sweetcorn with gem lettuces in between. Very young, but no slug damage yet... Starting to get established.
Bronze fennel! And other herbs struggling to keep up.
Geum starting to flower. Lavender growing up a bit.
Flower border, weeded yesterday. Bed is mixed salads, netted as some kale and cabbage is under there, as well as some carrot. I've sown carrot around the onions and tomatoes to the right as well, to see if there is carrot root fly. You never know! Yarrow at the back, with peonies (establishing) and stocks.
Second plot coming along. Trees were twigs but now producing shoots.
Kale and strawberries. Again, new beds.
My forsythia - a dwarf variety. A sing cosmos in front, because why not.
Not much, but I'm excited the raspberry canes seem to have taken and the trees are coming along!
Planted a new dahlia - eveline - where another was, ahem, mistaken for a weed by ladyprettydamned. To be fair to her, there were a lot of weeds... I have a few more dahlias to get out, just need to dig some holes on the new plot - not easy, on this clay, but I'm determined to have some beautiful cut flowers later in the summer.
I did manage to get a redcurrant and a mulberry bush in the front. Digging holes was very difficult, but they're in with some bagged compost mixed with soil, and mulched with some more to keep moisture in.
I also turned the compost heap into the other bay. I love doing that. It's a small heap, under 1m cubed (it only gets about 70cm high, 90cm long and wide) so never stays hot for long. After a turn, it often gets to 60 degrees for a day, then returns to 30 - but I'm always amazed. All that has gone in are kitchen scraps, the brassicas from winter, some grass clippings and weeds and some cardboard from amazon boxes and loo roll tubes. On the top is a dry mix of these, in the middle was a slimy mess, but the bottom 30cm or so was glorious smelling, wonderful, crumbly compost full of worms, woodlice, centipedes and plant-growing-goodness.
I've found that, when I mulch with home made compost, it disappears into the soil within a couple of months - contrast with bagged compost, which does go down but seems to take a year. All I get left on top of the home made stuff is the woody bits and the soil underneath becomes crumbly and lovely. Often it also leads to volunteer potato weeds and a butt load of pumpkin, tomato and pepper seedlings to weed off but it's super worth it.
Magic!
Of course! All about celebrating growing our own.
Impressed with your structure, I need to think of a way to protect our fruit trees and bushes when they start fruiting. I wonder if it'll be something like you've built, but with a roof...
Super tidy!
Planted a couple of dahlias, still a few to go. Broadly happy with the first plot, need to get more mulching for the second going on so more cardboard happening at the weekend
Strawberries are sort of getting going but not very happy. No idea why, but hopefully they'll get there in the next few weeks. Sweetcorn is properly getting going now as well, beyond ankle height at least
Hoping to harvest broad beans at the weekend, some are just about ready but they are definitely a bit behind where I'd like them to be. Nights are still cool so tomatoes, peppers etc are a bit slow and peppers are a bit yellow! Oops.
But an update -
Strawbs survived. And multiplied. Everywhere.
All my beds are full of couch grass, but garlic, broad beans and coriander is thriving over winter.
I'm nervous about the trees I planted, but can't wait to see them (hopefully) spring to life soon.
I have a few cabbage to harvest still, and some tree cabbages that should last a couple of years.
Once we've had a dry spell, I'll get the plots weeded and put down some fresh compost. It's a total waste of time now though, it's all clay so you take your life into your hands when visiting!
Planning to get out this morning to collect some seed potatoes and a couple of bags of compost. Our plot is now horribly covered in grasses, especially couch grass, as we've been unable to weed it through winter. It's been mild and wet, perfect to make huge amounts of weeds and grasses!
So, I'm abandoning not digging this year. It simply won't work fast enough. Today, I'll be digging over a couple of beds (no small task - remember, we're on pure clay soil, you probably could pot with it if it wasn't for the stones) and chucking some first earlies in with some compost.
I'll also be planting out a few cosmos that need planting on, sowing some beetroot direct and possibly sowing some other bits and bobs direct - chard, spinach maybe. But the main task is digging. Sigh!
I did get the fruit cage re-netted last week.
Need to find a new patch to scratch, or convert the tiny back garden.
Wonder why the allotments are ending. Maybe they can make money from the land?
I am not much looking forward to removing what has essentially grown into a 10 inch tall lawn today but it'll be a long overdue workout...
Lesson learned - get black polythene on unused beds this time.
It's not going to be the most productive season for us - unfortunately, the wet spring means enormous hordes of slugs and snails, which have decimated everything that's not perennial. I'm not too sad, though - it means our soil has bags of moisture and soil life, ready to support some nice big pumpkins, courgettes, tomatoes and sweetcorn.
Today I'm planting out some sweetcorn (only 7 of them - very poor germination) which will act as supports for runner beans. I'll be sowing a couple of packets of a different sweetcorn, which is synergistic - that will be our main crop, and planted a little way away from the others. Hopefully they'll germinate better and we'll plant out 20 or 30 of them!
We've been weeding tons, and I've turned the compost heap over. Loads of grass seeds have gone in, but I'm not too worried about that. We are literally surrounded by untended plots so seeding is an issue no matter what.
I moved some herbs from the balcony to plot ahead of us moving house, so hopefully they've survived - I'll find out in a while. The soil is improving though - the presence of perennial plants rooting out (such as lavender, chives, geum, fennel) coupled with a yearly mulch of manure has led to really significant improvement. However, you could still make pots with the soil once you're more than 3 inches down - no worries from me, it's fertile and healthy, and full of worms, slugs and beetles, just the way healthy soil should be.
I'll be planting out cosmos and zinnias today - I love to have a lot of flowers. My liatris are coming through, as are the gladioli - sadly, the wet winter and spring has rotted the dahlias.
I've planted out some gypsophila roots, though not sure they'll take, as well as a blue ornamental grass, prostrate rosemary and sweet Williams. Sweet Williams are fantastic for pollinators, tough, easy to grow and super pretty.
Trying to get rid of couch grass. Unfortunately this means slugs - I hope to get some pumpkins and courgettes planted through the polythene but the first round got eaten hoping warm dry weather sees them off.
Ladyprettydamned netted off the strawbs. Again, praying the slugs stay away.
Main crop spuds live here, with a few zinnia seedlings at the front and a couple of cosmos. Pulled out a lot of grass and left it there, couldn't be bothered to carry it 5 yards. Lost a lavender at the front through that wet winter and spring.
Geum is a bit too big now and needs splitting later in the year, but the bronze fennel is still beautiful and the rosemary is starting to grow a bit. Pots are from the balcony - we'll put them on the patio when we move house.
Finally, asparagus is settling in now (had a tiny harvest this year, should get a bigger one next) and garlic are starting to succumb to rust and allium leaf miner. That's OK - we should still get a full year's worth from this bed. There are a few elephant garlic elsewhere.
The sweet Williams are just visible at the back, next to the now quite-big rhubarb.