Runners and riders

OK, who chose a winner? My usual stroke of luck that keeps me from winning the National Lottery helped me avoid picking a winner on the Grand National this year. Once again I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of success. There is one part of the horse racing game that interests me, how do they manage those hedges? Horses crashing over and sometimes through them can't be good for them!
Anyway, back to the plot. Talking of runners, I put up my bean canes for my runner beans today. Spent about two and a half hours on the plot, doing a bit of hand weeding, watering and cropping. Also took some ash from the incinerator at home down to spread around my raspberry canes. They like a bit of potash.
I usually just strim the wees on the paths between the beds as mowing is too difficult with a push mower and I don't own or have the means to transport a power mower. I like the idea of leaving some cover on the soil on the paths as I'm convinced the bare earth would draw moisture from the beds. I hope eventually to be able to cover the paths in a mulch but that will take time. Maybe ,if I remember , this Autumn I'll lay cardboard down on them and top it with either leaf or grass clippings.The cardboard I used on the beds has kept the moisture in and the weeds down.Pulled a couple of Radish and Spring Onions today, cut a cabbage and picked the last of the sproutings. The white hasn't lasted well, but I put that down to the weather.Sproutings are essentially seed heads and the warm atmosphere is ideal for seed sowing and will have hurried the plants along.
next on the list for sowing will be butternut and courgette and any other of the squash family I intend to grow this year. Tomatoes I will buy as plants as I don't grow enough for a packet full of seeds and the germination rate of tomatoes is pretty high.Same goes for peppers, not having to sow early under glass and with heat makes up for the cost and limited range. All this just as soon as I've got the cash for some compost!

Well, as predicted, weather is giving us one more reminder that March, and winter, isn't over yet!
Didn't visit the plot this weekend as the driving wind was only worsened by the sudden and heavy showers.Some Pyrethrums I am raising from seed were being hardened off out side at home but they went back under cover in the smaller greenhouse until the temperature returns to something more like it was.Fortunately all the veg growing on the plot at the moment is hardy and should happily cope with the drop. Maybe the radish I sowed two weeks ago will be sacrificed but radish can compete with weeds for speed and survival so Im not unduely concerned. The autumn planted onion sets are tough enough and big enough now to put up with much rougher conditions as are the brocolli plants. The fruit canes are long term plantings and are generally bred in the scottish highlands so will feel cosseted and warm by comparison!All this meant I could spend time with my wife on Mother's day and fit in a visit to my parents too.As they say(rarely now) it's an ill wind that blows no good.

Real start!

This is a recent view of my plot.Still a good layer of grass about but it's going slowly. I've divided it into beds to reduce ground compaction and the amount of digging needed. I don't use strictly organic means but do where and when it's sensible and possible to. I eat this stuff and feed my family and friends so I want to be sure I know whats going on and into the crops. I'll give you sizes another time, but for a rough guide, the small shed at the end is 6' x 4'.

I'll not bore with a list of crops yet but may list them elsewhere on here as a reference. Needless to say in these modern times, I grow more than I can eat, more than my children like and a lot of what is termed as weird looking by them and others! But I grow for the fun and satisfaction of it, not for the profit or logic of it. It could be time consuming but I can make as much or as little time as I feel I want to spend there. There may be differing results because of that but I want to enjoy it , not be a slave to it's demands. As I said, I grow more than is essential and therefore wont starve if something fails, just disappointed.

I try to get down to the plot at least once a week in the colder season and daily in the height of summer. It's easier when the days are longer to spend a few hours juts watering and losing track of time. It's a blissful waste of a summer's evening to be honest! Oh I can hardly wait now for the crisp crunch of a fresh lettuce or the bite of a radish pulled out of the ground and rinsed off there on the site. Lovely days just around the corner now as I sowed a row of French breakfast last week and the seedlings are poking through already!