Busy busy busy

Have had a good couple of days on the plot. It's been 'roots' in the biodynamic calendar so have put in one lot of early potatoes (Colleen), where the old strawberry patch was, plus the previously mentioned onions, a couple of rows of carrots (Cubic), some peas and a row of parsnips (Imperial Crown) with radishes (Rudolph) - the radishes germinate quickly and show you where the parsnips are, which take ages to germinate. We only grew one short row of parsnips last year cause we didn't have much ground cleared. They were really tasty though, so are growing loads more this year. We're growing them in between rows of broad beans with the hope that some of the nitrogen fixed in the soil from the beans will make them grow bigger.

Here's some piccies!

The peas, with some pea sticks

Onions (jetset). I think I put them a bit close together but hopefully as they're staggered they'll be ok. Just need to be able to get inbetween for weeding.

Early potatoes (Colleen). Have got another variety (Maris Bard) for putting in the bed behind but they weren't as well chitted so have left them until next months 'roots' period.

The black currant leaves breaking. Nice. We've got 3 bushes (which were already on the plot when we got it) and have started managing them on a three year rotation (i.e. cut one down to the ground each year) as this ensures you get nice new growth regularly which produces the best berries.

Early stage of pond making. Had a biggish white container and have lined it with thick black plastic (just for looks). Then put lots of stones in the bottom and a brick to for a platform in case anything falls in that doesn't really want to be there (like a hedgehog, not that we've got any, but it would be GREAT if we did!)



View of pond area

Also put in an old washing up bowl next to the bigger tub and have put more stones around the edge. I knew I find a use for all those bloomin stones! You can also see the habitat pile made from some of the buddliea coppicing.

Close-up of the pond. We've got a pond in the back garden so I whipped out a few plants and some water from it for the new ponds, to get them going.

And lastly, just for interest, here's a new apple tree (Katy) we've put in. Note sneaky use of an old inner tube for the tree ties. There was a big flowering currant here before, which I eventually managed to grub out (with the help of an Azada - a really useful mattock-like tool purchased from Get-Digging, a Norfolk based mail order company) . It was a shame to see the currant go but it was massive and taking up too much space, plus you couldn't eat the berries!


I should say at this point that this and the last few posts have been from me (Lou) rather than Ms Idler....she's busy busy busy doing other stuff but I haven't got my own log in yet. So there you go!