We started with knee-high grass, thistles, bindweed, brambles, dandelions and a bit of enthusiasm.
The story so far...
July 2006: Cut down the grass, dug over plot 1, planted stuff wherever there was space.
weeded... and weeded... weeded some more...
Crops: leaf beet very successful, tomatoes got blight, runner beans pretty good, lettuce OK, leeks did very well, sweetcorn failed, brassicas disastrous, courgettes plentiful despite powdery mildew, peppers - got a few green ones.
September 2006: marked out plot 2, drenched with glyphosate, waited 4 weeks, used glyphosate again, dug over then covered with tarpaulins to exclude light and prevent weed growth. Left it alone until March.
October 2006: planted broad beans and peas for overwintering. The beans were fine but the peas vanished within a week of planting out. Swapped some pea plants for some purple sprouting broccoli (Other Neighbour) and her pea plants vanished too. Pigeons ate the PSB :o(
December 2006: Planted 5 cloves of organic garlic just to see what happened. They all came up :o)
Jan 2007: Bought seed potatoes in Wilkinsons and started them chitting.
March 2007: Uncovered bed 2, dug it over again, forked over and removed weed roots several times. Added chicken manure pellets then fish blood and bonemeal when I ran out of birdcr*p. Started seeds off in the plastic planthouse.
April 2007: Planted seed potatoes (lots!) and strawberry plants and Jerusalem artichokes. Also planted some asparagus crowns from Wilkinsons. Weeded most of bed 1 thoroughly then AN finished the weeding and took over mowing duties.
May 2007: we have planted out
more potato plants than we need :o) Arran Pilot, Desiree, Anya and "mystery-found-sprouting-at-the-back-of-the-cupboard" which might be Orla - about 65 plants in all!
a couple of ferny asparagus plants (sigh... planted six)
six lots of JAs looking healthy
24 strawberry plants of uncertain variety but mostly alpine, flowering
about 90 onion sets, growing well
2 dozen each of romanesco, snowball cauli, hispi cabbage - well netted or fleeced against pests
Broad beans - one row cropping after overwintering and one row just planted out and about 6" high
peas - just planted out
parsnips
lettuce red salad leaves and cos
And there's more still to go in the ground!
The plot, looking south
Look what's growing in my compost heap!
The view under the fleece tent. Caulis and cabbage, planted closer than "official" for cropping every second plant early as baby veg/greens
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