16 November 2008 - Some sorting out

This will be a pictureless - or blind - blog as neither of us had our phones with us to take pictures. But we know you have active imaginations and it is more important to blog than not. You have also been there with us on the long journey to get as far as we have with the plot so let the power of imagination whirl you away.

Last weekend, we took a whole load of home compost up to the plot and today we removed the compost holder and had a good old fork over. There was lots of nice crumbly well rotted stuff which N used to refresh bed 3 (we did a bit of thinking earlier about which beds needed what for next year's fun and games and not all our beds need compost) along with a bag of leafmould from last year's leaves. This bed is covered with black plastic and looks officially gone to sleep. We of course removed the last crops from it, which were three leeks left over from the main bed.

K then removed the spring cabbage (though we won't be sure what they are until they begin to grow if previous form applies) and overwintering onion seedlings from the seedbed. The seedbed was made almost entirely with top soil last year, so we put half a bag of mushroom compost and more leafmould into it and again covered with black plastic. It will then be reactivated as it were in February when we sow the leeks and brassicas as we learnt that those started from seed in the soil definitely grew better. And it's a lot easier than piffling about with seeds and such at home. Three raspberry infiltrators were removed and donated to our neighbours.

The spring cabbage seedlings were then moved into a freshly composted bit of bed 2 - as this is where the brassicas will be next year. And one - only one dammit - raddicio seedling. Apart from one superb specimen, they look a bit bitten and weedy but here's hoping. The onion seedlings were then repatriated with their brethren in bed 1 - a lot of jiggery pokery and sorting out of crowded seedlings into their final positions leave us confident that we have a good healthy lot of onions coming in June (last year the rabbits got them but this year we are quietly confident that our security measures will prevent them doing the same).

N manfully pulled up and generally hacked a good portion of the bank on our side of the ditch. It looks bleak and empty but we think of potatoes, moving the comfrey and giving the butternut squash/pumpkin much more room on this new site. We don't think rabbits eat any of these. The next step will be to cover it in plastic, though we don't want to inhibit the lovely daffodills that will emerge in spring.

The kale is producing well and we regularly eat it, now of course we are eating leeks too. The cabbages and broccoli, though a little tatty, appear to be growing. It is interesting how the whole pace of growing slows down as the days are so short. The green manure is now well established and we just have to make sure that we dig it in at the right point.

Now is the time to start ordering and thinking about the varieties of things we want to grow. A large glass of wine and a few gardening mags should do the trick. We should do a proper seed audit to see what we have left - and decide now we have missed the autumn garlic planting spot - and whether to use our own garlic.

One of us was feeling decidely low par when entering the plot. Leaving it a couple of hours of hard work later equilibrium of a sort had been restored.