And what did I wake to up on Saturday? Sunshine! Hurrah! Given the lovely weather, I was surprised not to see more people at the Hill – just Barry & young Jody near to me.
Although the misc. plot B is sorely in need of a damn good weeding, I know that there are nettles starting to grow there (along with the chickweed, & another prevalent weed that I don’t know the name of) so I prevaricated & started with plot D where I dug the potatoes up last week. As the ground was ready prepared, all I had to do was give it a light hoe & it was ready to sow a short row of TURNIP (snowball), KOHL RABI (delikatess white) & CELERIAC (alabaster 3).
I left a couple of foot border at the front of the plot so I can plant out some red sunflowers that I have on the go at home. I did rather misread the packet & they are not dwarf, as I thought, but never mind. I’ve also left room for putting a path straight down the middle of the bed in due course.
With that done, I gave the roots bed C a good going over – both sides – & that now looks really good, if I say so myself.
Whilst I was weeding, Barry & Jody came down to neat neighbour John’s plot, & Barry explained to Jody how to fork up one of the haulms of potatoes which they will take to his widow. The variety was Kestral (a second early) & they had loads off the one plant (more per plant than the rocket that we’ve grown). Barry gave me one which I had for my tea last night – it tasted better than the rocket too, so I must put it on the ‘hit list’ for next year. Barry also gave me a clump of about a dozen plants of ‘red pickling cabbage’ (whatever that is!) which I’ve temporarily put in the brassica cage pending planting out properly.
By this time it was time for a sandwich, so I went up to the Club, & once suitably refreshed, I went back to sow a row of CARROTS (mixed) & SPINACH (samish f1) in root bed C, & planted out some sorry looking clumps of SPRING ONION (white lisbon) which have been growing in jiffies at home. I also planted out a dozen tiny celery plants which have been waiting their turn for a couple of weeks. They look very tiny – & worryingly yellow – so we’ll see how they get on.
The swede that I planted out last week seems to have settled in well & the butternut squash are growing along with the tomatoes which have about doubled in size since they were planted out. The Prize Pumpkin seems to be romping on – I’ll have to work out soon what to do next with it!
The final job in root bed C was to thin out a couple of rows of carrots – & I was delighted to be pulling up baby white, purple & yellow carrots from the mixed colour seed that we bought at Malvern. Fabulous!
Retired Maureen came up – I was pleased to see her as it was only the other day that I wandered over to her plot & saw that she appears to be growing an extensive crop of nasturtiums & not much else besides weeds, & I hoped she was ok. We commiserated about neat neighbour John, admired David-other-half’s plot & did our good deed for the day by chasing a cabbage white butterfly out of his brassica netting cage. I increased my good deed total by asking her if she’d like to pick herself some gooseberries, so she went off happy with a bowlful.
There was no putting off tackling misc. bed B, so I got stuck in & an hour later it looked much better. Not perfect, but at least you can see the rows of crops & most of the weeds have gone. I could have spent another half hour thinning out the lettuce & landcress, but it was way past home time by then, so I picked a few SPRING ONIONS (white lisbon) & RADISH (saxa 3 & white icicle) for today’s salad, & went home well pleased with the day.
Although the misc. plot B is sorely in need of a damn good weeding, I know that there are nettles starting to grow there (along with the chickweed, & another prevalent weed that I don’t know the name of) so I prevaricated & started with plot D where I dug the potatoes up last week. As the ground was ready prepared, all I had to do was give it a light hoe & it was ready to sow a short row of TURNIP (snowball), KOHL RABI (delikatess white) & CELERIAC (alabaster 3).I left a couple of foot border at the front of the plot so I can plant out some red sunflowers that I have on the go at home. I did rather misread the packet & they are not dwarf, as I thought, but never mind. I’ve also left room for putting a path straight down the middle of the bed in due course.
With that done, I gave the roots bed C a good going over – both sides – & that now looks really good, if I say so myself.
Whilst I was weeding, Barry & Jody came down to neat neighbour John’s plot, & Barry explained to Jody how to fork up one of the haulms of potatoes which they will take to his widow. The variety was Kestral (a second early) & they had loads off the one plant (more per plant than the rocket that we’ve grown). Barry gave me one which I had for my tea last night – it tasted better than the rocket too, so I must put it on the ‘hit list’ for next year. Barry also gave me a clump of about a dozen plants of ‘red pickling cabbage’ (whatever that is!) which I’ve temporarily put in the brassica cage pending planting out properly.
By this time it was time for a sandwich, so I went up to the Club, & once suitably refreshed, I went back to sow a row of CARROTS (mixed) & SPINACH (samish f1) in root bed C, & planted out some sorry looking clumps of SPRING ONION (white lisbon) which have been growing in jiffies at home. I also planted out a dozen tiny celery plants which have been waiting their turn for a couple of weeks. They look very tiny – & worryingly yellow – so we’ll see how they get on.The swede that I planted out last week seems to have settled in well & the butternut squash are growing along with the tomatoes which have about doubled in size since they were planted out. The Prize Pumpkin seems to be romping on – I’ll have to work out soon what to do next with it!
The final job in root bed C was to thin out a couple of rows of carrots – & I was delighted to be pulling up baby white, purple & yellow carrots from the mixed colour seed that we bought at Malvern. Fabulous!
Retired Maureen came up – I was pleased to see her as it was only the other day that I wandered over to her plot & saw that she appears to be growing an extensive crop of nasturtiums & not much else besides weeds, & I hoped she was ok. We commiserated about neat neighbour John, admired David-other-half’s plot & did our good deed for the day by chasing a cabbage white butterfly out of his brassica netting cage. I increased my good deed total by asking her if she’d like to pick herself some gooseberries, so she went off happy with a bowlful.
There was no putting off tackling misc. bed B, so I got stuck in & an hour later it looked much better. Not perfect, but at least you can see the rows of crops & most of the weeds have gone. I could have spent another half hour thinning out the lettuce & landcress, but it was way past home time by then, so I picked a few SPRING ONIONS (white lisbon) & RADISH (saxa 3 & white icicle) for today’s salad, & went home well pleased with the day.
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