Busy, busy, busy

Well my computer is finally fixed though that does mean the photos I have taken recently are now on the wrong machine!!  Oh well will add photos later.

Much has been done since last post.  Of the winter jobs all got done except digging of the whole of the bottom part of the plot which is still being worked on. It is sort of already divided from previous users so there are two beds at the top and one long one right against the hedge. Against all expectations the rhubarb we put in a couple of years ago has survived in the bottom left bed. The top left bed is sorted and planted with Red Duke of York potatoes which are growing on strongly, they have been give manure and are being earthed up with green waste compost like last year. The rest is still being cleared. Have lots of chitted potatoes still to go in and we will see what we can get in this weekend , after than I think I’ll give them away if anyone wants them. The few spare Red Duke of York went to school for year 1 and are apparently growing well in their pots.. I will be taking them a whole bunch of other plants over the next few days, including raspberries, maybe a pumpkin and some outdoor cucumbers and tomatoes I think.

No playhouse has been built as yet but half a fruit cage has been , and all the fruit moved.. That said many baby raspberries have strung up along the end of what s not the potato bed  and I have some new ones form some random root cuttings I took as well but we can’t have to many raspberries.. well it is probably possible but we have a way to go before we hit that level yet!  The fruit bushes are looking much happier now they are moved to a bed which had lots of compost added to last year!

We have ended up putting a big raised bed, well two actually in the top corner.. even after we moved most fo the piles of glass and metal that had been dumped there the earth was full of rubbish so we boarded off the top corner, built a big bed in front of that and filled it with 1.5 trailer loads of compost and a good bit of manure and planted 2 rhubarb (4 Victoria, a raspberry red and a pink champagne) I also put in the primulas the boys gave me for mothers day and a whole bunch of bulbs round the edges. The top corner has ad all the turf etc from clearing elsewhere dumped in it to rot down and we will plant something up there later.. possible some hazel for coppicing.. ideally a cobnut or two so we get nuts on occasion and stakes etc as well.

The palette fence is mostly finished, we are trying to get a couple of the longer palettes to make a gate at the bottom so it is wide enough to get the trailer through. We currently have rough pallet gates at the top but plan to build a roofed gate area partly as a sitting place and partly so there is still room to pull the trailer in to off load. The hedge we planted last year has really taken off well now and the new hedge is most shooting well to.. the older bits are getting really hedge like though which is great, chopping the hard when they were planted has really helped with bushing out.. most of the new stuff we planted at a angle so it is semi-layed so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

The plot below us has been taken on by a couple of really keen lads who have done an amazing job of clearing the whole plot and partly started to hack down the hedge between us to a sensible hight but there are birds in some of it so only half of it was been done. The one over the road has literally just been taken again too.

We have been given permission to incorporate the plum trees on the edge of our plot into it and a bit of the rough ground in front of them to so of even out the edge but that is full of rubbish so will probably a winter job now, though I will give them a prune to get rid of the dead wood at least.

We have moved the two apple tree from the ‘lawn’ and put them with the others and they are def happier.. Strangely our plot is wetter the higher up the slope you go and this winter was very wet.. now of course it is totally dry and concrete like.. That is because the top of the plot is hard compacted clay where as the bottom has been more worked over the years!  We have also got two Bright future apples trees from garden organic which is their anniversary tree, one is on the ‘orchard’ the other is over the other side by the raised beds. The damson seems to have lots of proto fruit but very few leaves currently which is a bit worrying but we will see.. I’m hopeful the hard winter and lots of flowers means we will get some fruit on most of the trees this year though we will thin them down if we do as they are still young.

The strawberries in the greenhouse are really happy and we have just taken the decision to get one of the fairly cheap polytunnels so many others on the site have got which should mean we can fit in most of the tomato, cucumber, and aubergine plants I currently have filling the backroom at home ! They are all moving to the plot in the next week or so. So goes for the corgettes and squashes which are flowering already!

I have a tray full of various brassicas which need potting on as well so hopefully this year we will have some over the winter. The garlic and shalotts seem to be growing on well , the onions less so for some reason.

We have a whole cold-frame full of Dalias but they are showing distinct signs the slugs are on the move so it’s time to order nematodes before they get a hold this year! Fingers crossed we will have sunflowers as well this year as I currently have several different sorts growing well in plots so hopefully some will survive. Haven’t been so good at planting root vegs BUT we do have parsnip seedings show well and some radishes which were mostly there to make the parsnips.