Re: The Veg Plot.
 

The first courgette plants are appearing. So they've won over the home delivery of food we've waitied 3 weeks for so far.


More seeds to plant today from the stash that we found hidden since Christmas.


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...93e4d296_c.jpg

Re: The Veg Plot.
 

Always a relief to see those seeds germinating!

Been very busy on the veg plot, up there pretty much all day, every day at the moment. The three main beds are all ready now with stuff going in. Onions, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, and radishes sown on the lower bed, and Broad beans on the top bed. Brassicas will be sown probably tomorrow in the middle bed.

Today I was building the new fourth bed. It's a long job as I am having to dig out vast quantities of bracken, and hogweed root. I have the front timbers in place now, a couple of hours more digging out the back and the back timbers can go in.

I have a load of pictures of progress over the last couple of days. I'll try and post them up tomorrow.

Re: The Veg Plot.
 

I got the pack of 10 (15) courgette seeds planted and then found loads of runner beans in the border that must be there from last year. A few of them seemed decent so potted those up too in hope they might come to something. I think the sugar snap peas I planted are all duds. So now it's just the beetroot seeds to sew.

Re: The Veg Plot.
 

An update on progress.

The three original beds are now all operational, with several rows of seeds in the bottom bed and broad beans in the top bed. I'll be sowing lots more this month.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a07f239a_h.jpg
Veg beds by garynortheast

The leaning pear tree is now staked upright, weeded, mucked, fed with some wood ash (potash), and mulched, as are the gooseberry bushes. I've also planted in the bed, a fourth,
self set plant which I grew on over the course of last year.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4caae5c7_b.jpg
Gooseberry bushes, pear tree by garynortheast

The bulbs at the far end of Sioned's border, up behind the top bed are all coming through, although it's too late for them to flower this year. It looks like the daffs we transplanted
have survived too. At the near end of the border are a sowing of purple globe artichokes.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cf4c34b9_b.jpg
Globe artichokes, Sioned's bulb and wildflower border by garynortheast

The potato tyre towers are all planted up. I need some more timber to build retainers around the platforms, so I''ll get that ordered next week, along with the timber I need to build
my fruit beds.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...714eb658_b.jpg
Potato towers by garynortheast

This was the new bed a couple of days ago.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...25a959a9_b.jpg
New bed in progres by garynortheast

This is where I've got to by this evening.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...502e4728_b.jpg
New top bed by garynortheast

It's taking a long time to dig it over as this is what I'm having to get out. There are five or six large piles of this stuff, drying out around the veg garden. Almost every fork full turns up
a large mass of bracken, bramble, and hogweed roots.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...463250e2_b.jpg
Weeds n' Roots by garynortheast

All this as well. It came out of the top bed.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...34cdb5a9_b.jpg
Weeds n' Roots by garynortheast

All of it will go in these when it's dried out properly.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cbd216e0_b.jpgCompost bins by garynortheast

Hopefully, one more day of digging will clear the new bed, then I'll go and get another dozen bags of horse muck to dig in, and to lay in the bottom of some trenches I'll dig and
backfill, ready to plant runner beans over.

Still to do are proper footpath construction (essential on the slope my veg plot is on), fruit beds to build, rescuing my 2nd pear tree and the three apple trees, and a polytunnel to
buy and build! Enough to keep me well occupied for what could be a long haul under restrictions.

Re: The Veg Plot.
 

Seriously good activity levels Gary. I'll hopefully get the onion sets in tomorrow if my knees will let me. I did very little today after knackering myself yesterday cutting the lawn before scarifying it, weeding the herb garden and then washing all the windows around Trev Towers.

Re: The Veg Plot.
 

Have you got raised beds Trev? They could be the saviour of your knees I'd say! Onions will need lots of watering in this weather. We do need some rain....

Finished digging over the new bed today, so now it's all raked and ready for an application of horse poo. Feeling the effects of running this morning and then spending most of the afternoon digging! I'm going to make a start on weeding the second pear tree tomorrow, ready for an application of muck and a mulch of bark chippings.

Off to get another dozen bags of muck from the monster horse poo heap on Monday!

Re: The Veg Plot.
 

Very productive day today. Started with Sioned and me heading around the side of the allt to collect a few bags of bracken litter, ready to stuff the next layer of tyres on the potato towers. Just in time too, as I noticed this evening that the first shoots are now breaking through the compost, so I'll need to add more tyres this week.

Then, while I potted on the last 7 or 8 acorns we've germinated, Sioned sowed cabbages, Romanescu caulis, and sweetcorn into modules and toilet roll tubes. Then I headed up onto the plot and sowed early purple sprouting, and green sprouting broccoli, and chard.

Just had dinner now and it included a crumble made by Sioned, which used up the last of the previous years soft fruit - gooseberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, and rhubarb. Just pulled the first of this years rhubarb as well. That's now trimmed, chopped, and bagged up in the freezer.

Re: The Veg Plot.
 

I sowed some rhubarb seeds a week or so ago in the greenhouse and they're now showing through. We inherited an overgrown crown when we moved in but something clearly go to it as it suddenly died off last year and has not come up this spring, hence sowing more.

I do have raised beds but only with 8x1 boards from the builders merchant. Enough to improve drainage and let me add in a few barrow loads of compost each year. I have six 10ft x 4ft beds so plenty of options for crop rotation.

The good drainage does however mean the top layer can be a bit dry and friable sometimes so beetroot never germinates very well. As a trial I sowed some in newspaper pots in the greenhouse and they're showing through now too so I may keep doing that from now on before transplanting out when established.

The biggest issue I have though is the local cats. Since we lost our black lab Jackie three years ago they now strut around the place. They also use my raised beds as giant litter trays so I have to go out every evening and wet them down to dissuade them. Doesn't always work...

Re: The Veg Plot.
 

Trev, if you want to improve the water retention in the beds make them a bit deeper and dig in loads of organic matter - leaf mould, well rotted manure etc.
Frames of chicken wire laid over the beds will keep the cats off.

Re: The Veg Plot.
 

Bit of a gentler day on the plot today. First mission was to go and bag up another 14 bags of horse manure and bring it back.
Second job was to start preparing the new bed for planting runner bean in a few weeks time. I'm doing six rows of them this year, so started digging the trenches to put a layer of muck into and then backfilling them. Ran out of daylight at trench 4 so back out tomorrow morning to do the last two. I may do the same thing for the climbing French beans as well as neither they nor the runners like to have the roots drying out.

Sioned and I went up onto the plot yesterday and made a rough plan of where we want the fruit beds to go. Tomorrow we'll go and measure up so that I can order the timber I need for the job. I'll also start on the weeding and feeding around the second pear tree.