Thursday 17th January My broad bean plants, grown in toilet tubes, have been hardened off for some time in my garden and waiting to be planted out so I brought them down to plant out today. I started preparing a strip as normal at right angles to the path but then remembered I was trying to do less digging and that it's easier with each of my 3 x 4 metre beds divided in half and rows parallel to the path. The bed I was planting in had a mulch of homemade compost on it so I used my shovel to scrape the mulch off a strip down the middle to form a path and prepared a strip along the boundary on either side. Laying a line as a guide and using a board to walk on, I drilled a double row of planting holes on each side with my trusty bulb planter pushing it in nice and deep so as to bury the tubes completely. Otherwise if they are exposed at the surface I'm told they act as a wick drawing water up to evaporate and so dry the soil and roots. A dozen plants fitted nicely on each side of the new path. Last year I lost plants to mice digging up and eating the seeds, pulling the plants out in the process. With that in mind I dropped a couple of drops of paraffin beside each plant hoping the smell and taste will put them off. I had to be careful that I didn't get any on the plants as I know it kills the leaf it lands on. That done I stretched a net tunnel over both rows to add to the shelter of the plastic sheeting as the plot is more exposed than my garden. The board resting against the tunnel give a little more shelter.
I then harvested three cauliflowers, one large, one small and one in between. To that I added a few baby parsnips (none of mine have grown to normal size this year), some Mooli and some broccoli. I will take most of it with me when I visit family this weekend. Monday 14th January Monday was a lovely day, fine weather and not too cold, so I could do some of the less energetic tasks. Top of the list was the blackberry bushes which needed cutting back and training. I started by pruning out all the canes which had fruited this year. It soon became apparent that wherever a cane had touched the ground it had started rooting so I was soon pulling and digging plantlets and collecting them on the path. Once the fruited canes were removed and the rooted ends separated I fixed the thickest bamboo canes I had between the posts, replacing some thinner ones that were not up to the job. Following that I selected a few of the stronger canes cutting the weaker ones back to the ground. I decided to leave tying the canes in to another time as I had the trailer with me so I went to the horse litter bin and collected a load. The ten barrowloads I collected was stacked on the roots bed, which is already mulched with horse litter, ready for when I have dug over and cleared the paths alongside the raspberries of roots and offshoots.
That done I cleaned up the trailer and went home for a late lunch. |
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May 2023
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