The Morning After

I got up early and waited until it was light enough to go out, but by that time the wind and the rain had started and didn’t stop for the whole day….  The next day I got up early, scrapped ice off the car, and got to the plot just in time to watch the sun rise – I didn’t sit watching for long, it was cold…

Everywhere was wet and rather bashed looking after the day before, I tidied bits up and attempted not to slip over on the wooden paths.    Next week I shall be planting garlic in an area that has been clear for quite a while apart from some rogue potato plants that had come up from left over potatoes in the ground earlier on in the year.     I dug these up, the ground was very soft, this part I had spent hours previously removing stones and digging over (a lot) before I covered in manure.    A bit of traditional dig and no-dig working together, and I do like digging.  A lot of other areas I have covered in cardboard and manure, no digging – I wonder if I will be able to tell the difference.

I dug up three potato plants and while most were small, there were one or two larger potatoes.   For something I had not planted I was happy, next week I will dig up the Christmas potatoes and see if anything actually grew after they all seemed to die off a little bit sooner than I had expected.

I raked the soil to make it level once again, pulled up weeds, covered it in rotted manure, ready to for garlic to be planted out next week.

Last week I started pruning the raspberries and today I finished these off.  I expect I may come back to cut some more down on my next visit, I tried to keep just six or seven canes on each plant, but I’m sure when I look at it again I’ll find some more I could remove.   The area had loads of bindweed during the year and so I’m still planning to dig them all out, weed very well, cover in cardboard and manure and re-plant the canes through holes I make in the cardboard.  

I came home with:

  • potatoes
  • carrots
  • turnips
  • kale
  • spring onions – I finally pulled them up, they are small but still onions all the same
  • a leek
  • sprouts

Watching the sun appear and the mist below at the airport

  

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