Tying in, digging out, and exchanging plants

Monday 25th February
It was such I nice day I set about tying in my Loganberry. It went quite well until I had nearly finished when I mistakenly cut off one of the longer canes while trying to remove a short, weak one. I had pruned out a number of thin canes and planned six stronger ones each tied to a support cane. Now I have only five!

At that point I wandered up the track to offer a neighbour some Jerusalem artichoke roots. In the short time he has been on his plot he has doing wonders and it just so happened that he likes Jerusalem artichokes and wanted to grow some. I was about to clear part of my patch as it was growing through onto my neighbour's plot. I only grow it to shade the greenhouse in the summer as it gives me terrible wind if I eat it. I therefore returned to the plot and dug a trench along the fence removing all the root as I went. I finished with a bucket full which I gave to my friend. Enough for him to plant some and eat the rest. I found it interesting that I could distinguish the two varieties I had growing. The red skinned roots which I bought in and the white ones which someone gave me.

​I finished up with a strip along the fence that was clear of the roots and a patch next to the greenhouse where the new crop will come through.
Then I spent some time moving bags of leaves from next to my leaf mould bin so I could undo the netting. Then I fetched my barrow and dug out several loads which I spread as a mulch where the green manure had been growing. This patch is now ready for sowing the first row of peas.

​While I was doing that my friend from up the track came by and offered me a Honeyberry bush which I was happy to accept and try alongside my other soft fruit. Unfortunately it took quite a while to dig out the bindweed roots that had established themselves

It is a tiny spidery bush at the moment (just visible if you look carefully!) I smoothed the soil and then mulched with horse litter.