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Finishing off winter preparations in the potato bed

19/9/2015

As I am taking a trip away next week I tried to finish off the sowing of Green Manure I needed to do. Having cleared the second potato bed I dug out the required trench along the fence, again removing as much of the bindweed as I could, and levelled off the ridges left from the potatoes. With the ground already broken up the digging with the Backsaver spade took very little time though I needed to take a break halfway through to gather my breath. Despite carefully harvesting the potatoes, I still found nearly a dozen I had left behind and they were not all small ones! There was also a fair few bits of bindweed root showing it is very difficult to remove every single crop/weed when digging.

I had intended pruning out the old summer fruiting raspberry canes but decided that could wait until I return from my trip so instead I started harvesting.

I picked quite a bit of Calabrese/Broccoli. The new crop started with the first big head on the plant and this was added to by the second crop of side shoots on the older plants.

The Runner Beans are just about finished I think. I got enough for a meal but the only pods still on the plants now are those I am leaving for next year's seed. I will leave them to ripen and hopefully turn brown before the winter sets in and they go all soggy.

There were a few climbing French Beans, more than I initially thought when I started picking as they hide themselves very well and I needed to check over the row several times.

Raspberries are coming thick and fast from the half row of 'Polka' autumn fruiting ones. The transplants I have planted in the other half row, taken from those growing on the plot when I took it on, have still not started cropping and I am not sure what I shall get. If the harvest is not good I shall be buying new canes next year!

Finally I got a reasonable crop of Courgettes. Only two yellow ones (and one was very small) but the green 'Tiger' marrow/courgette has started producing. Last time I found a couple of huge "Courg-arrows" (as I call them) at the back of the plant. One is now at home awaiting stuffing; the other I gave to a neighbouring new tenant working hard to clear his plot and not yet harvesting. He also got the split red cabbage I could not use before going away. Hopefully he can rescue something from it.

With another picking of peas and some Swiss Chard, I took home more than we can cope with before our break away so our neighbours will get the benefit. I hope one of them will be able to water my greenhouse in return!

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Continuing to get ready for Winter

15/9/2015

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I am beginning to clear more ground ready for winter. I dug out my last row of potatoes, the second row of Sarpo Mira. The tubers were large but not as large as the first row, probably caused by the competition from the rhubarb and bindweed in the ground next to them! I spent quite a bit of time and effort digging out the bindweed that had invaded the end of the row nearest the fence and my neighbour. We have agreed to try digging it out from both sides of the fence over the next few weeks. That is almost impossible and we will probably have to use weedkiller (very carefully) next year when it starts growing again.

Later I will dig over the patch and sow green manure for the winter.

I then cleared the sweetcorn patch so the Butternut squashes can get more sun and finish ripening. The old stems will provide some harder material for the compost heap, though I will need to chop them up. There were a few very small cobs to take home.
I used a cultivator to break down the large lumps on the future brassica patch I dug earlier. When I get chance I must mulch it with horse litter.

A couple of pumpkins needed a slab/piece of timber to lift them off the ground
Finally I harvested some runner beans and some raspberries as well as the potatoes that had dried out a little since I dug them at the start of my session.

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Sowing Green Manure

10/9/2015

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Today I started my winter preparations in earnest.

First I dug out a row of Sarpo Mira potatoes, many of which came out absolutely huge! I gave a couple away to my neighbours, each one being a meal for two!

Having already cleared the other side of my potato patch and prepared it, I sowed four packets of Suttons Green Manure (General Mix) bought from In-Excess for just 50p a packet. Each packet is meant to cover 3 square metres so that is just right for my 3 by 4 metre beds.

Having sown the manure I went on to refill the rat bait and traps that I have set in the sweet corn bed. I have found one mouse dying and had to despatch it. I also caught several in the traps even though a rat trap is not meant to be tripped by a small mouse. However, if they go at the peanut butter bait two at a time then the inevitable happens and I catch two at once!

As always at this time of year there is much to harvest. Runner beans aplenty and some French Beans. I am rather disappointed at the way the climbing French Beans have struggled. Growth has been slow and there has been a very sparse crop. Next year I plan to grow them where I have grown my Runner Beans successfully and hope they do better. I have grown 'Cobra' as a recommended variety but wonder if there is a better choice for our soil. Anyone got any ideas????

Another poor harvest has been my courgettes. I grew two yellow courgette plants to only one green variety as the yellow ones have always been less productive. The green Courgette was a gift from a friend and is actually a Marrow called 'Tiger', I think. It was a magnificent plant and grew well but is slow producing fruits. However, the yellow ones are very puny and have produced only one or two very small courgettes. Each plant had a good dose of my own compost under them so I am not sure what has gone wrong. I need to rethink for next year.

However, the cucumbers and pumpkins are producing well with very little help. The bed was mulched with horse litter throughout the winter and the plants put into spaces scraped in the mulch. The whole bed is covered with vines and leaves and I need to search carefully for the fruits. While many of the cucumbers are actually meant to be for pickling, we have found that peeled of their thick skin, all the cucumbers are delicious in salads.

I was also very pleased to get my first crop of peas from my new row. The row has some gaps despite me sowing two packets into the trench, but there are quite a few pods developing and enough of eating size to give me a meal. The second new row is sprouting well but may be too late to give me a crop; but worth a try as the seed is going out of date and I cannot use it next year with any hope of good germination.

Other crops harvested were Swiss Chard, raspberries and Calabrese, which my wife insists on calling Broccoli as that is what it is called in the shops!

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A catch-up entry

7/9/2015

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These days I am finding it very difficult to keep up to date with this blog as I get in quite late from whatever I am doing and, by the time I have eaten and dealt with my emails etc. it is too late. However, this is a late entry in an attempt to maintain continuity. It may not be too accurate and probably rolls at least a couple of visits to the plot into one!

On Monday 7th I had a little help as my wife came down to harvest the raspberries. I persuaded her to pick the runner beans as well which enabled me to pick a lovely crop of delicious peas after the other jobs I had to do.

I dug a trench in the old potato plot along the fence ready to use my Backsaver spade. I then put all the old mulch in the bottom of the trench. I would like to have what is effectively woodchip buried deep below the cultivated soil soaking up any fertiliser washed downward by the rain but that will take a great deal of work that I cannot countenance at the moment. In a trench at the edge will have to do for now.

Having started with the Backsaver spade I decided to dig half next years' brassica plot. Digging the trench with my traditional spade was fairly easy, surprisingly as there were few weeds growing through from the derelict plot next door. The soil just fills my barrow so I parked it on the path ready to empty it into the final trench. The actual digging takes no time at all but I spend a little time running the spade down each side to help demarcate the digging patch edges. I shall need to break up the lumps before spreading the mulch.

I harvested Runner Beans (as expected), climbing French Beans, some cucumbers (though several had to be thrown away as the mice had a field day gnawing them!), a loose hearted cabbage, and some Swiss Chard.

As frequently happens, I found I had forgotten to shut my 'temporary' Pallet 'gate' when I came down the next time! I always seem to forget something!

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Trying to get ahead

5/9/2015

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I went down to the plot today in an attempt to get a little bit ahead with the work. At this time I tend to get bogged down in constantly harvesting the crops. It takes so long to collect crops at this time that I never seem to get time to prepare for next year and for the winter.

So this time I planned to prepare a patch for a green manure crop and perhaps get it sown as well. Before I started I decided to dig a row of my King Edward potatoes. I say 'my King Edwards' but I grow them because the wife likes them and I grow them even though they succumb to blight and other problems very easily. This year we have been lucky as there has been next to no blight so there is quite a good crop. Once dug I left them on the surface to dry off and went to prepare the patch.

I had just started when I I realised the patch I was preparing was going to be for Brassicas next year which means it needs to dug over this autumn and then left to compact for the crop next year. Green manure will need to be dug in next spring so it was no good for that patch! So I stopped hoeing off the weeds as I will be mulching the patch with horse litter and that can be left until later in the year!

So I went back to harvesting!

I got a few climbing French Beans, a very disappointing crop as I had hoped to freeze French Beans instead of Runner Beans but that will have to wait until next year now. I picked lots of Runner Beans even though it is only a couple of days since I had help doing a major pick when we picked what we thought was absolutely everything! I got more than enough for meal on the second pass, having picked a carrier bag full on the first pass. My wife is very good at processing the beans and freezing them in meal size packs, Though we have quite a large amount left over from last year which I am going to add to the compost heap in the hope they are not a total waste!

My Purple Teepee dwarf French Beans gave me another good picking but probably the last as the night-time temperature drops.

I was very happy to get a picking of peas but there was only enough for a meal so it was gone within the hour as was the sweet corn I picked. Afterwards I had reset the rat traps and added some rat poison within the containers. I have caught a few mice but the rats have eluded me so far; hopefully the poison will get them! They've had too many of my sweet corn!

Next time I need to dig over that patch ready for mulching it!

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Catching Rats!!!

1/9/2015

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I thought I was going to get a good crop of sweet corn this year. The plants grew well and there were lots of cobs developing. So I was horrified to see that something had attacked some of the cobs and eaten away at them. I wasn't sure whether it was birds, mice or rats.

However, I was on the plot yesterday and saw one plant quivering differently from the others. Creeping down the path when I got there I came face to face with a very well fed rat sitting on one of the cobs.

A clap of my hands and he was gone. But I needed my rat traps. I located them in my shed but the boxes I use, with a hole at each end, were lost in all the rubbish filling the floor space to a depth of nearly 3 feet.

I am told rats will not enter a space unless they can see a way out so rat boxes always have at least two entrances. So I had to convert two 2 litre milk bottles by cutting off both ends, baited the traps with peanut butter and set them inside the 'bottles' close to the half eaten cobs. I also harvested any cobs that looked reasonably ripe - about a dozen from my 30 plants.

Today I checked the traps. Mice are supposed to be too light to trigger them but if they come mob handed and try to feed two at a time.......! I had two bodies in the same trap but no rats.

The second trap had been triggered but was outside the 'bottle'. It had probably propelled itself out as there was no sign of anything being caught in it. I reset both traps.

I had not planned to do anything other than check the traps but there were so many ripe raspberries and runner beans ready to pick I had to stay and do some harvesting. My dinner was lovely with really fresh veg and dessert!

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Finishing off winter preparations in the potato bed

Continuing to get ready for Winter

Sowing Green Manure

A catch-up entry

Trying to get ahead

Catching Rats!!!

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Finishing off winter preparations in the potato bed

Continuing to get ready for Winter

Sowing Green Manure

A catch-up entry

Trying to get ahead

Catching Rats!!!

Your Comment!

﻿Author

Categories

Archives

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