What a belter of a day Yesterday was!!
After the promise of good weather for the weekend all week saturday turned out to be a bit hit and miss so luckily we just did a bit of running about and decided to hit the plot on Sunday. Even then it was trying to rain as we arrived at mid day; but soon cleared into a fine clear day.
Leaving Vicky to carry on with clearance and bonfire duties it was time to start getting things in the ground! First up was our beans. We sowed runners and dwarf beans in pots some weeks back and they were desperate to get out some had grown so much they were no longer seedlings but full plants. More to the point some were starting to flower!
Armed with some 7ft bamboo canes the first thing to do was to erect a support structure for the beans to grow up.
After the beans it was the turn for our first lot of peas. Rather than a linear structure the pea support was done as a wigwam using smaller bamboo canes. Due to slugs munching the peas last year we decided to protect them this time round sliding 2L plastic bottles with the bottoms cut off over the canes to act as mini clothes.
With the legumes sorted it was time to get another of our raised bed filled. We did this my digging up soil from an area of the plot that isn’t currently in use. Using the wheel barrow to move it about made the job quick. So with 3 of the small 1500mm square beds filled it was time for a late lunch break down by the river where Vicky had scattered our wild flower meadow seeds and where our local wild life come to visit us.
Lunch over including a well deserved beer it was time to get on with more planting. Armed with dibber, scaffold board and packets of seed Vicky set about sowing this years crops of roots and brassicas. Into the first bed went carrots and parsnips, bed two was swedes, turnips and beetroots, while bed 3 was cabbages and Brussels. To provide some protection and also to help with warm we covered the raised beds with sheets of corrugated plastic to act as a sort of mini grow house.
So by the end of the day the plot was really starting to look like the plot that I’ve had in my head for the last 18 months. A few more bits and pieces and we should be well on our way to a thriving plot growing all sorts of delicious fruit and veg and also a tranquil little haven where we can hide away.
