Archive for the ‘Garden’ Category
Lush new grass...but for how long?
I don’t know where the time has gone. May is always a busy time in the garden, but it seems more so this year. I think the main reason is the amount of watering I’ve had to do. This dry weather couldn’t have come at a worse time for gardeners when lots of seeds are relying on damp soil to germinate. Our water butts (including our two 1000 litre tanks) had almost run dry, until a few days ago when we at last got a deluge of rain. However, even with a few hours of rain the soil was still pretty dry underneath. It looks like the dry spell is coming to an end (at least in this part of the country) and we’ve had a few days of rain. Read the rest of this entry »
First of many...I hope!
I just managed to sneak the first harvest of new potatoes into April. These are the potatoes in bags I planted in the polytunnel back in February. They haven’t produced the most abundant crop, but there’s enough for a meal. Now the potatoes in store have just about run out, it’s good to be able to run seamlessly into the new potatoes. Definitely an experiment I will try again next year.
Asparagus crowns
Now we’ve got plenty of room in the garden, I thought I’d have a go at planting asparagus. As a perennial vegetable, it stays put year after year, so it isn’t something that many people can find the room for in an average sized vegetable garden. It’s also a bit of an investment, as the plants aren’t cheap, but hopefully once they’re established we should be rewarded with a good crop of asparagus spears for the next 20 years or so. I earmarked a space for them in my perennial veg plot, where they should get plenty of sun and the soil is (relatively) free of stones. I worked in some manure over the winter to try to enrich the soil a bit, and I’ll add a mulch of manure or compost each year. Read the rest of this entry »
This year's crop in the making
It’s been a busy few weeks. The start of spring means things are starting to happen in the garden, and there is a flurry of activity at the potting bench. The recent warm weather has seen shoots appear where they should and shouldn’t have. So it’s now the start of the battle against the weeds and slugs to make sure the garden is as productive as it can be. I usually start my morning rounds off now with a slug hunt, some of which are fed to the chickens, and the rest are given a salting. As long as I keep up the routine for the next few weeks I should be able to keep the worst of the slugs at bay. I’m also leaving a few strategic pieces of wood and rotten vegetables around the place, as the slugs will hide under the wood once the sun comes up, and also gravitate to the smell of the rotting vegetables so can usually be found in its vicinity. Read the rest of this entry »
Free bedding
From what I’ve read, bracken was once popular as animal bedding instead of straw. It is only in recent decades that straw has become relatively cheap to buy, and comes in convenient-shaped bales for use around the farm. However, the price of straw is reported to be on the up, given the poor grain harvests at home and abroad. With pig arrival day nearing, and reading about the cost of pig feed and bedding going through the roof, we’re trying to think of ways to keep the costs down. We’ve got quite a lot of bracken growing on the banks in one of our fields, so we thought we would try to utilise it. It’s died down and dried out over winter, becoming very straw-like, and so should work nicely. Armed with a large tarpaulin and some shears (no sickle this time!) we went up the field to see what we could harvest. Read the rest of this entry »
Homemade hurdles
The garden is looking a bit of a sorry state at the moment. Most of the vegetable beds are empty now, just a few leeks, parsnips and kale still standing. The spring bulbs are beginning to emerge, even in areas where the chickens have been scratching about. Because of this, and as I’ll be starting sowing again soon, we’ve now confined the chickens back to their run. Needless to say there’ s a lot of whingeing coming from the top of the garden. To make matters worse for them they are having their twice-yearly dose of worming treatment this week, so are not allowed any extra treats over the next 7 days. Read the rest of this entry »
Potatoes in bags
We’re still clearly in winter, as we managed to get down to -3C yesterday. However, generally the days seem to be getting warmer, as well as longer. So it seems about the right time to plant some early potatoes, albeit in the polytunnel. I’ve had my seed potatoes chitting on a cool window sill, and sprouts are beginning to emerge. I didn’t want to put any potatoes directly in the polytunnel beds, as potatoes are the same family as tomatoes, so don’t fit in with my polytunnel rotation plan, so I thought I would give them a go in bags. Read the rest of this entry »
Chitting potatoes
Wilkinson wouldn’t be the first place you would think of to get seeds and the like, but in the last few years the amount of aisles devoted to gardening in these town centre stores makes it as good as any other garden centre chain. It might not be the best place for the “proper” gardener, but if you are looking for ordinary seeds and gardening paraphernalia then you can’t beat it. Read the rest of this entry »
What can we find here?
The chickens have been on top form recently, continuing to give us eggs right through the cold snap and into the new year. However, we mysteriously got 5 eggs today (although 2 of them were soft-shelled). We can only assume that Ginger, who always lays soft-shelled eggs, was trying to lay a double-yolker and it came out as 2 eggs instead!
The chickens continue to be a source of pleasure, but they have become a bit of a pain and a danger to themselves in the garden. They’ve now learnt that whenever I get the spade out goodies may be available. So today they were trying to “help” me dig in the polytunnel, and getting very excited when I put down a layer of well-rotted maure, full of all sorts of worms and wiggly things. I expect another 5 eggs tomorrow!
Where to start!
I’m entering January and 2011 with a sense of nervousness and excitement. I’m excited that spring is (hopefully) not too far away and the days will be getting longer. I’m also keen to get back out in the garden and preparing for the year. However, I am a little nervous about what the year will bring, and whether I’ll be able to repeat the successes of last year and improve on the failures. Read the rest of this entry »