We succeeded in growing garlic last year and we used each bulb we dug up, so going from 15 bulbs to 40 didn’t seem a bad thing to do as I knew we would use them all – plus it would fill in the bed with just garlic. We didn’t set out to have ‘beds’ but they have naturally appeared (as hoped) and so I started to remove the wooden boards and replace them with digging off the top soil and banking up the beds. I’ve put the wooden boards back down for now as it is rather muddy, but I will remove them once new seedlings start to grow and in doing so remove hiding places for slugs. I made the first two beds this way and in total I think we will have seven when I finish it all.

I used this time to tidy up the remaining root vegetables still in the ground, removing bits of leaves and weeds and also any yellowing leafs. It all looked a lot more loved having done this.

I wasn’t planning to spend too much time but the sun was out making it quite pleasant and warm – you could have thought it was a longer spring day. So I stayed and pruned the gooseberry bushes, pottered about a bit, and picked sprouts and kale to take home.

• 

• 

• 

• 

•