We've been through one of the coldest winters for 30 years (they say). These pictures were taken on 7 January. From 17 December to 18 January, effectively a whole month of snow, frost, ice and below freezing. It's just not what happens these days in winter. Apart from the inconvenience, moaning and groaning and general annoyance (not to mention cold), it also meant that it was too inclement to do anything meaningful at the plot for some time other than try and find snow-covered harvest. Which is a shame because January is quite a nice time to pootle about on the plot, doing structural things and such.
Yet again, the Pagoda stood firm where others buckled (the photo shows a view from inside). We think it's got something to do with the windbreak provided by the hedge behind us. Apart from the magnificent workmanship obviously.
What we have done is to organise our plan for the growing year ahead, putting seeds into alphabetical order, etc, in their new water-tight container, compiling the spreadsheet and so forth. We are definitely going to try to be more sustainable this year, within limits. The new seeds have arrived from T&M and represent a new start to our growing endeavours. And we have added celery, shallots and First Earlies to the list (we forgot to order these). First Earlies are the faithful Arran Pilot, purchased from Homebase. They look to be good healthy seed potatoes - much better than the ones we had last year, if memory serves. Jan and Pat are going to
try celery too - so we can learn together. (Long-term readers will recall that we grew celery in our first year but that's because we were too scared to say no when they were proffered at the Garden Trading Hut. These will be grown from seed and started in the greenhouse.)Another issue we need to address is how far we talk about the greenhouse in this blog. Do we only discuss those issues related to the plants that end up on the plot? Or are we extending the franchise to our garden, where (we hope) to be growing various peppers, aubergine, tomatoes, cucumber and melon? It might be all too much information. Maybe we should retain some mystery and privacy.
Anyhoo. Today was the first day for ages that we went to the plot and did some developmental things. Firstly, we planted our garlic in bed 5 - 44 cloves of Marco and (I think) 55 cloves of our very own Solent White (prizewinning ahem) harvest from last year - just under 100. We think we overdid it last year and have planted the cloves closer together. 4 cloves of elephant garlic have been put on the bank. We look anxiously under the pile of compost for the rhubarb. No sign at all. Hmmm.
Secondly, we dug bed 6 (which has overwintering green manure) ready for its new existence as a carrot/parsnip bed. We also dug up all the remaining (tiny) carrots from the current bed and have enriched the soil with leaf mould and chicken manure for the strawberries which will be moved soon. (Oh and last weekend, apart from harvest, we bought some strawberries back in pots to grow in the greenhouse for that special early crop. Everyone will hate us.)
We are very disappointed in the kale which seemed to have been attacked and have pulled it up. Do not buy this variety of seed again. What a shame - it was such a star turn last year. The leeks are fantastic and the chard is having a little think about things but will no doubt get going again. We are going to be entering the hungry gap soon, and with no sprouting broccoli or kale, we are a little under vegg-ed. But we'll be OK with our stored potatoes, squash, frozen veg and garlic.
The Arran Pilots (14) are in their egg boxes cosy in the greenhouse. Avanti!!
(We find this blog to be very useful to check back on when we did things or if we have forgotten how much/what we planted. It's not just to entertain our public. As we enter the third growing year, we are building a unique record of cultivation for posterity. Wotever.)
