Sunday, February 24, 2008

Whot No Title?

It's been a busy three weeks, and after another 3 hours on the plot today I can't think of a clever title for the post.
Things have been progressing. On the Sunningdale plot, photos right and below, I changed tack and rather than dig the remaining two raised beds, the two in the foreground covered in carpet, I decided to move onto the main section of the plot, starting at the far left hand side. It took me 3 two hour digging sessions to dig through an level a 4 foot wide bed the length of the plot, which I guess is about 25ft. Depending on what the weather does I may get back there next Sunday, after I've pruned my mother-in-law's bay tree. Apparently somebody has complained to the council and it's now going to have to be pruned back hard, which is probably going to kill it. I've got a few small ones taken as root cuttings, but they only grow slowly, and my mother-in-law's is about 40 years old so is a nice size now.
Anyway with the dry weather we've had during the past three weeks I decided to take a look at the Bracknell plot this weekend. Unlike the Sunningdale plot which is on a nice rich loam, the Bracknell one is on heavy clay, and doesn't really become workable until late March, but if I left it till then I'd have no chance of getting this years potato bed ready. So I spent two and a half hours digging yesterday, and another 2 today. I managed about 3 feet yesterday, I'm digging a 6' wide strip as the raised bed will be 4' wide with a 2' path, but today was spent weeding and breaking up the clods I dug out last thing last night, which had dried out enough in the overnight wind and morning sunshine, and then turning out another load of clods, adjacent to the section I'd done yesterday and at the top end of the bed near the couch root pile I created last year. I had hoped to be able to clear this last summer but as the weather didn't co-operate, ie it wasn't blazing hot like the year before, I never got around to it. I'm now going to have to sift through it as I go, but that'll be in a few weeks yet, weather permitting of course.
Things are also progressing in the greenhouse, although the continues mouse presence is making like difficult. I've had about 30% germination of the sugar snap peas, and about the same again for the second batch of sweet peas. No sign of any of the Early Onwards though.
The second batch of onions, sown three weeks ago are now up have have more or less caught up with the earlier batches. Shame I forgot to label them. The rest are progressing, and are in the colder environs of the main section of the greenhouse, on top of the raised bed. Once I get around to repairing the cold frame I'll move them to it along with the rest of the onions which are now all sprouting nicely. I should note that my overwintering onions on the Bracknell plot are doing Ok. I've lost one or two, and there are about half a dozen which appear to be "slow". There is no sign yet of whiterot though so the bulb planter/top soil plug seems to be working.
I've now sown my asparagus, which is cluttering up the propagator, so it's going to be 3 or 4 weeks before I can start the cucumbers/tomatoes/courgettes/squashes unless I use the top of the boiler. I must check last years planting schedule and see what else should be going in as we advance into March.
On a non vegetable note, most of the lilies have started sprouting so I planted the ones I rescued from the vine weevil/lily beetle larva in the autumn. I've had them under saw dust all winter which seems to have prevented them drying out too much. Provided I can work out which ones are which I'll have a dozen or so crowns I can sell in 2 or 3 years time.

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