Tuesday 28th November Following a busy week landscaping the garden then a relaxing weekend away at Stourhead meant it has been a while since I came down to the plot. Arriving late in the afternoon I only had time for one major task. First I had to deal with offloading two bags of garden waste up onto my compost bin, courtesy of a neighbour as usual. The top of the bin is nearly as high as I am so it is not an easy task! Then I checked my rat traps and bait. The bait inside the shed had disappeared completely, probably eaten by mice though there are no droppings at all! Only one trap had been sprung but the peanut butter was untouched so I think it may be mice eating the bait inside the plastic box enclosing the trap. Then I turned to the major task of digging over the about to be planted summer raspberry bed. Of course the raspberry plants I had ordered from Ken Muir over a month ago arrived the day after I had gone away for the weekend so have been languishing in the Post Office over the weekend and need planting as quickly as possible. That made getting the bed dug over and the compost incorporated a priority. As you can see the soil was very friable and the biggest difficulty was digging close to Swiss Chard that I had planted right on the edge of the bed. The leaves of the parsnips growing on the other side were also encroaching on the bed so I finished up tidying the row up to remove the longest and oldest leaves.
If you look carefully at the photo you can see the huge parsnip on the path that I dug out from the end of the row. With it are three leeks I went on to harvest - together with a loose cabbage head, some Brussel tops and a good picking of Brussels sprouts. A brief visit but a productive one! Monday 20th November I came down to the plot today firstly to empty the kitchen waste bin I forgot to empty yesterday. Once on site I decided I had time for some work having emptied the bin. In the incinerator, the old raspberry canes finally went up in smoke, disappearing into a small pile of ash. Meanwhile I forked the dead grass from my (and a neighbour's) lawn scarifying over the patch I have just dug over, spreading it into an even layer all over. As a mulch it is not as good as compost or mature manure but better than the horse litter in the bins on-site. I shall probably add a layer of horse litter in the spring as I hope the worms will drag the grass down into the soil.
Once again I enjoyed a lovely sunset as I went home. Sunday 19th November I had just one task I wanted to complete this morning. I wanted to dig over the old pea and bean patch that will become the brassica patch next year. I started by using the spade to cut a line along each side of the patch and down the middle. I then fetched the barrow and started digging a trench along the fence, loading the soil into the barrow and looking carefully for any bindweed or thistle roots. Having trenched one half and got a barrowload I emptied it at the other end of the other half - along the path. I then started digging half the patch with my Backsaver spade. Soon after I had begun I realised I had forgotten to put on my back support belt so I wasn't sure I would be able to finish. However in about 15 minutes I had dug that half and was shovelling the heap from the barrow into the end trench. Having worked so hard and got quite breathless I then decided it was a good time to take a break and join the café crowd for coffee and cake. I chatted for far too long before returning to repeat the process for the other half. This sort of rough digging is ideal for the Backsaver and doesn't stress my back at all. Indeed I have to pace myself or I get out of breath. I'm not sure I would have paid the £99 it costs to buy one so I'm glad someone long ago gave me this one. (If anyone wants to try it, just get in touch. It is especially good if your back struggles with any amount of digging.) I plan to mulch this patch so felt it would be better with a fairly flat surface so I got my cultivator out and ran it over the soil working from a board I laid down the centre. The cultivator works a treat as long as the soil hasn't dried out.
Last time I left the plot I forgot to cover the compost bin and close one of the brassica tunnels. (Fortunately the pigeons didn't find their way in.) This time I only forgot the compost bin! Friday 17th November Work terracing my back garden and leading a walk for the Rambling group means this was the first visit to the plot this week. All I wanted to do was start spreading the compost in the bin. I needed to enrich the strip where I plan to plant the new summer raspberry plants which are on order. I removed the front of the bin and was pleased to see how dark the compost was. The top was a bit dry and the bottom was soaking wet but, as I cut it out in vertical layers, it will get mixed together. There were also lots of worms, always a good sign. Even the tunnels the rats had burrowed were a help aerating the heap. A 2 or 3 inch slice filled a barrow with a bit left over. The first four barrowloads went on the future raspberry strip. Then I tipped the next four onto the asparagus bed and spread it into a 4 inch blanket that will benefit next year's crop. The upturned bottles mark the asparagus plants so I don't damage the emerging shoots next spring. The winter green manure looks doubtful. Despite having a second sowing of seed, there is little sign of any Ryegrass though the Vetches are coming through reasonably. I will be contacting the supplier! Before going home I harvested the Brussels sprouts from the bottom of the plants. To tidy things up I picked everything of each stem until I had got four sprouts of eatable size. I also removed any yellowing leaves throwing them on a neighbour's plot to see if his chickens will eat them. I then dug out three leeks, the first from this year's crop, and a parsnip. Finally I pulled a cabbage that had not hearted up - early spring greens! Monday 13th November After spending Sunday morning with the Association Working Party improving access to the new container, I only had time for a quick visit this afternoon. I needed to prepare the bed for the summer raspberries I have ordered and could arrive any day. The courgette plants have almost disappeared but the plastic bottles sunk next to each plant for watering were still in the ground. I had forgotten to bring my digging tools but managed with the old ones I leave in the shed. I forked out the bottles and then dug the 4 foot wide strip over. I then started sorting out the compost I want to dig in before planting. The mature compost bin no longer needs the extensions so I transferred them to the next bin. That meant I could add the garden waste from the pile of bags I had waiting. Next time I shall remove the front panel of the bin and start digging out the compost. To finish I removed the netting covering the strawberries so I can weed then. I then pulled a Mooli radish and a couple of small Swedes to take home. I haven't taken any photos recently as my phone has started 'losing' the pictures. However I succumbed to temptation and photographed the sunset as I went home. When I find where it has been stored I will be able to post it. Photo of Monday's sunset which I finally discovered buried away on a chip in my phone! Enough cloud to keep the temperature overnight from plummeting into frost?
Wednesday 8th November I came down to the site just in case the farmer with his tractor turned up to tidy up the compost etc. The appointment was tentative so rather than wait around I went onto my plot to do some work. I planned to stop if he turned up but he didn't - so I got quite a bit of work done. Now I have actually ordered new raspberry stock I started digging out the old stools. I soon realised I needed a something to keep the bindweed roots in so fetched a large pot as my buckets are all in use. I also soon realised that the roots of the raspberries went deep and spread wide and I was unlikely to get everything out. I had to extract the posts and wires to get a clear run at the bed. However the thick roots went deeper than the spade and the fine roots, which can produce shoots, were everywhere. If I planted the new stock in the row there was bound to be old stock shooting up amongst it. The solution I decided was to swap the courgette bed with the raspberries. If raspberry shoots appear amongst the courgettes I can dig them out at the end of the season. I finished up with a pile of raspberry roots and a pot full of bindweed roots. I added the latter to the bucket of water where I drown them weighed down with a brick. However, I then realised that I needed to sort out the jungle that was the blackberry at the end of this year's courgette bed if I was going to plant the raspberries next to it. It took a while to prune out the fruited shoots and the weakest of the other shoots. The heap of prunings (on the left of photo) was pretty big. Several shoots had touched ground and rooted, something I hope to avoid next year! I then replaced the wires between the posts with canes resting on screw/nail spikes and wired into place and tied two or three blackberry shoots along each ready for next year's crop. Everything looked nice and tidy but there was another pile of debris to dispose of. I still need to dig over the courgette bed ready for the new raspberry stock. Once again I went home under a lovely sunset.
Monday 6th November
This afternoon I added more kitchen waste to my already bulging compost bin, taking care to bury it in a depression in the middle of the top and covered with weeds after chopping it up with a spade. At the back of the plot I tidied some timber and poles cleared from the shed, stacking them neatly back in the shed. In tidying away some hosepipe I struggled with the fallen stems of the Jerusalem Artichoke I grow at the end of the greenhouse to provide shade. I got the loppers and cut the stems down stacking them alongside the gooseberry bushes while I think what to do with them. One plant had come out of the ground completely revealing huge tubers which I set out clearly labelled on the nearest water tank for others to help themselves, keeping just two to take home. Having cleared everything off the old marrow and squash patch I raked the remains of the mulch onto the gooseberry patch next door and will add more later. Quite a bit of bindweed had spread beneath the mulch but I was able to pull most of it straight out. Anything left behind will have to be dealt with when I dig over the patch. Once that was done, as it was getting dark, I harvested a parsnip which I was surprised to find was a perfectly formed root as its neighbour had been a mass of rootlets. I then pulled some tiny baby carrots as I thinned my last row. I do hope they will grow a bit bigger before the cold weather stops them. Sunday 5th November Saturday afternoon was spent installing and painting the porch cover for the new container but at the end I had chance to nip down to the plot to harvest some rainbow chard for the evening meal. Sunday found me collecting greenhouse glass from a neighbour to add to the Association's stock. Having stacked it carefully I took a break and joined the crowd having coffee and cakes at the café. Then I got down to work on the plot. After digging out on see or two deep rooted weeds like thistles, docks and dandelions, I ran a hoe over the old pea patch, raking the weeds over next to the bean framework ready to bury them in next year's bean trench. I then hoed the weeds emerging round the blueberries but with the soil so moist I had to take them into a heap alongside the patch as well.
Finally I pulled a handful of the oldest carrots and cut a couple of tops from the Brussels sprouts to take home. Friday 3rd November I had just ten plants left to plant, five 'Durham Early' cabbages and five 'All Year Round' cauliflower. There was no room left in the net tunnel I was using for winter/spring brassicas so they had to go in the one I want to move as soon as the Brussels sprouts are done. I shall have to be careful moving the tunnel and net them separately afterwards. I raked the mulch clear of a strip and planted them firmly with a good dose of lime in the planting hole. As you can see from the above photo it was dusk when I had finished but I had witnessed another beautiful sunset. I had cut down the raspberries. Not the autumn ones but the summer ones which I am going to grub out and replace when those I have ordered arrive. It took me a long time to cut the canes down and then cut to lengths ready to dispose of. I had finished in almost total darkness and locked the gate as I left assuming no-one else was mad enough to still be on site.
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May 2023
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