For various reasons I was late home every night this week, and so I didn’t get to spend nearly as much time in the garden as I would have liked to have done. Which of course goes without saying, even if I hadn’t stayed late once! Here’s a day-by-day summary of what we managed to get done this week:
Monday
After the colossal task of watering the plants that are still in pots, I focused on the vegetable patch. I dug and sieved the gap between the row of parsnips and the lawn that adjoins it. There is space either side of the parsnips for other crops, but I decided to start on this side as it is smaller, and I expected to finish it quite quickly and move on to the other side. However, I was very quickly reminded of why we didn’t plant the parsnips up to the edge of the bed. Just under the surface of the soil, there is a small tree stump. A neighbour had told me that the previous tenants felled several self-seeded plum trees to make the vegetable patch, I assume this was one of them. I dug about six inches (15cm) deep, and removed all of the stump’s roots to this depth. I then sieved the soil and filled the hole. Expecting that there would be more root beneath this, I decided to sow beetroot here, rather than the carrots I had planned. I sowed two beetroot seeds (each actually being a cluster of seeds).
When we planted the parsnips out we were probably a bit on the cautious side when it came to spacing. So after sowing the beetroot I sowed a single spring onion seed between each pair of parsnips, figuring that of all the things I plan to plant amongst the root veg, they had the smallest roots. By this point it was starting to get dark, so I moved on to my final job of the night: planning the legume bed. I have several legume plants that could do with being planted out, but I’ve not yet planned what is going where. I took a couple of canes from the shed and laid them across the bed to gauge how many canes I could fit across it. It appears I can only just fit two. The problem is that I have three types of legumes that I would like to grow in this bed. So I considered turning the canes lengthways, and growing three rows that way. This would mean eating into the brassica bed slightly, but my brussels sprouts seedlings don’t appear to be doing too well in their pots (they’re looking very leggy, I’m not sure why), so I haven’t got much to go in there at the moment anyway.
The final thing to report from Monday evening is the photo at the top of this post. Whilst I was working in the root bed I noticed that the parsnips have started to form top leaves! This was a very welcome sight after my concerns about the roots being coiled at the bottom of those paper pots and how I was told they were sensitive. I had half expected to see some of them die. But they still appear to be growing.
Tuesday
Attached to the fence that surrounds our small front garden patio are three small baskets. I had previously planted two strawberry runners into the two end baskets, but the middle one was still empty. In my lunch break on Tuesday I went out to pick up some multi-purpose compost as I still plan to plant some scorzonera in a large pot (it is a little late, but I’ve read if they’re not fully formed by the end of the season they can be left to overwinter). Whilst I was in the shop I noticed that they had a single tumbling tomato plant left, priced at 89p. I made a snap decision and bought it. I’m usually reluctant to buy tomato plants as from a self-sufficiency (and an economical) point of view it makes more sense to sow your own. However, it is very late in the year to be planting them now, and my tumbling tom seeds were saved from an F1 hybrid and although they did tumble a little, they could probably have done with a few more years of saving seeds from those best displaying the trait.
Upon returning home I set about planting my new tumbling tomato plant in the middle basket, and then on to some other odd jobs that needed doing. I had noticed that a couple of apple trees that we have in pots were looking a little low on soil, so I topped those up. During the clearance of the vegetable patch I put some nettles in a bucket with some water to make a nettle fertilizer. This was now ready, so I bottled it for future use. My dad is experimenting with growing rhubarb from seed this year and he offered me some seeds. I planted four, all of which germinated. Three of them were in the same pot and I spent a few minutes on Tuesday evening separating these into individual pots. If I go ahead with my soft fruit patch I will probably plant these there.
My next job was to tackle the old cardboard boxes in the backyard. When we have moved house in the past we have always used the same boxes. When we unpacked we just folded them down and put them in the loft of the new house. However, this move many of them started falling apart, so I folded those ones down and left them in the back yard to be ripped up for the compost bin. So after separating my rhubarb plants, I figured I should compost the cardboard, as it has been waiting six weeks. I put them in the compost bin by the vegetable patch, as that has had mostly green matter up until now. Finally I noticed just how many redcurrants were either ripe or very close to it, so I picked some of those and typed a lengthy post about them.
Wednesday
I was very late home and didn’t expect to get much done. I asked Liz (my wife) to accompany me down to the vegetable patch so we could reassess our options regarding the legume dilemma. On our way we got talking to a neighbour. She knows the lay of the land better than us, having lived here for four years. She expressed her concern that the area we had planned for the miscellaneous bed wouldn’t get enough sun to get a decent squash harvest. She went on to suggest that we could make a squash patch in a small area of lawn that is ours. It is separated from the main lawn by several bushes. She turned a similar area over herself a couple of years ago, and still grows in it, even though lawn is determined to come through again. She offered to help us prepare it this weekend, and we plan to take her up on that offer.
After this conversation Liz and I meandered down to the vegetable patch and assessed our legume requirements. If we do decide to create the squash/pumpkin patch nearer to the house, then the area of the vegetable patch that we had planned for miscellaneous crops will be going spare, apart from the tomato, parsley and courgette plants already there. So we are now thinking of planting our peas out into this bed, which is becoming one of our most urgent jobs. We are growing a heritage variety named Champion of England, which the instructions say to sow at the end of April in order to avoid the pea moth maggot. We didn’t sow much later than that, but with the longest day of the year less than a week away, I feel a little anxious about not yet having the peas in the ground.
After we discussed the legumes for a bit we cracked on with turning the soil. Liz turned over the soil in the rest of the brassica bed, removing weed roots as she went. I planted out a chard plant that had gone to seed in a pot in the front garden. It was one of several chard plants I salvaged over the winter when we were clearing the allotment. I took a large proportion of their leaves for a dinner we had a couple of months before we moved house. By the time we had moved they were covered in leaves again. Having just moved house and having very little home grown food available, seeing these full of leaves again encouraged me to turn to the River Cottage Veg book for inspiration. As always, the book didn’t disappoint. Looking in the index for chard I found a chickpea, chard and porcini soup recipe, which required all the leaves we had. One of these chard plants is regrowing particularly quickly, and I moved this to the root veg bed (they are essentially beetroot, so this is the logical place for them).
Thursday
I was very late home on Thursday and I was also very tired. I did stop off at a shop on my way home and buy us a new larger watering can. Aside from that it took all of the energy I could muster just to water everything. I did pick some redcurrants along the way and put them with the others in the freezer. Liz did manage to get outside during the day and turned over the soil in the legume bed of the vegetable patch. She also removed an impressive pile of roots during the process.
Friday (Today)
I had ambitious plans of getting outside and getting some legumes planted, but I was very late home again and didn’t manage to achieve anything. I plan to make up for that tomorrow! On my way home I did manage to pick up some netting for the peas to climb up, so it wasn’t a day completely lost.
Reflections On The Week
It was a strange week in that it seemed I spent most of my free time working on the garden, and yet looking at what we achieved I’m a little disappointed. I suppose a lot of what we’ve been working on such as turning the soil and planning and measuring the vegetable patch don’t have any visible results. At the end of a week of hard work we’re still surrounded by plants in pots waiting to be planted. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we will look back and think how we benefited from all of this week’s preparation. Looking at the positives from this week though, we did get a little more planted (the chard and the tumbling tomato), and some more sowed (the beetroot and spring onions). The vegetable patch is in a much better condition for planting into. We also managed to harvest and freeze a few redcurrants, and our parsnips are still alive!