Wednesday, 28 October 2015

Preparations

Today I prepared a bed for next season's squashes. I broke up the one year old haybale within a cage. Mixed in were some of the old squash plants, some used compost from pots and some grass clippings. A layer of composted horse manure went over this. Finally a thick layer of "rough" garden compost. The whole was covered with black plastic sheets to keep the worst of the winter weather off. In the spring I will top it off with some good medium (Maybe leaf mould and sieved garden compost?) The squashes must not go out so early next year. Perhaps a couple of bean plants can join them?

Monday, 19 October 2015

Beans and peas

I sowed 3 rows of 7 broad beans today in the large bed, between the leeks and garlic. I've got about 7 beans left to sow in "holes" in the spring. I watered them in with peppermint flavoured water to deter mouse predation.  Then I sowed some sweet peas in loo rolls set in pots, 1 in roll, 1 in pot for most of the ten pots. Some of the seed were this year's saved seeds, some were last year's from Higgledy. These have all gone into the cold frame.

Note: 2nd November. The first broad beans are showing. Some of the sweet peas have been up for a few days now.

Monday, 5 October 2015

The new gardening year begins

Today I took down the bean sticks, tilled the area, added growmore and some spare seed compost. I then planted my elephant garlic cloves, 1 round and 1 shallot!
Around these I planted out some salad greens which have been growing well in the conservatory. It will be interesting to see how they do. On 11 October I added some pak choy to this bed which has also been raised in the conservatory.