2017 Calendar

[Bigmallly]

April should look good NG................

[Bigmallly]

I find Feb/March to be standstill months:

The plot looks much the same with the exception of 15 mounds ready for the Asparagus when it arrives, Onions also planed under a cage.

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The Muntyhouse is still empty, this will be my next job to prepare for CFB's

[Bigmallly]

The Squash frame & the spud cages are much the same as last month:

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[Penellype]

April photos

The house end



2 cloches house 3 buckets of potatoes each. Plenty of flowers around now and the strawberries on the seat are starting to grow well.

Near the apple tree



Plenty of leaves and flowers on the white currant, apple tree has flower buds (I've told it to slow down as frost is forecast this week!). Overwintered spinach in the bucket, 2 buckets of early Lady C potatoes under the cloche are growing well. More spinach in the corner under a plastic cover.

Behind the garage



Peas in the pot at the front. Pots of potatoes and strawberries in the growhouse, spinach in the saladgrow planter. Brokali and a couple of pots of last year's carrots inside the frame. The bucket covered in fleece is this year's early carrots. The Charlotte potatoes in the raised bed are doing well despite very little light.

Behind the fruit cage



(sorry about the quality - the original image was too big)

More buckets of potatoes under the plastic cover. Calabrese and spring cabbage on the right. PSB is producing more than I can eat and threatening to flower. Greenery and flower buds appearing on the blueberries and also on the blackcurrant which is stuffed between the hedge and the PSB. Lots of strawberries, carrots under the shelf on the left and chinese celery still producing at the front.

The veg garden



The fleece has now been removed from the onions in the foreground. Brassicas have been replaced by a cloche covering more buckets of potatoes. The buckets behind are beetroot and spinach, plus the old buckets of brokali and calabrese which have been moved into the shade. The corn salad front right is growing fast and the bed just out of shot on the left now contains early peas, with planters of pak choi and namenia on the path to the left.

[Guest]

Ok so the cutting patch is still getting worse I have raised the entire stretch of my neighbours leylandii now though .



Just to prove I am not a complete slacker, here is the veg patch.

[Bigmallly]

April Update!

Some general tidying up is in order but apart from that, things are looking healthy, the Asparagus bed now has a 4" layer of leaves to help settle them in & the spuds are showing nicely.

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[Bigmallly]

April Update (Cont)

The Munty House is ready for the CFB's & I'm hoping the Zephirine Drouhin will give a nice display this year:

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[1Bee]

April Update

Finally getting a grip...

Bed 1 (from left) has the onions in, and I just need to do a bit more digging so I can sow parsnips.

Bed 2 is under plastic until I can dig it properly for the brassicas.

Bed 3 is ready for the charlottes.

Bed 4 has broad beans in, is ready for the peas, and then the bean teepee.

Bed 5 is currently the 6yo's mud wallow...



We've acquired a bit more space, so bed 6 is rough land and hard going, but I'm nibbling away at it. Hopefully will be main crop tatties if it's ready in time. (Long bed heading away from where I'm standing towards the muck pile.

[Guest]

Still not very exciting but it is not getting worse and I have done a bit

[Penellype]

May

The house end



Looking a lot more leafy. The Lady C potatoes have outgrown the 2ft high cloches and have been given a taller growhouse (well anchored into the soil! Flowers just starting to open on the strawberries on the seat.

Near the apple tree



The apple tree has nearly finished flowering and the white currant is covered in fruit. Overwintered spinach is nearly finished. Another growhouse needed for Lady C potatoes which are almost ready to harvest (flower buds visible). More spinach under the net (which is mainly there to stop the cat jumping on it) and beetroot in bucket 11.

Behind the garage




The wormery has moved house and is now the other side of the garage door, replaced by a quadgrow root veg planter of potatoes. Spinach in the 2 saladgrow planters. The net is back on the carrot cage with several buckets of carrots (fleece covering the ones that haven't yet germinated. There are also some parsnips in there. Peas are growing well in the pot in front of the growhouse, which now contains strawberries and seedlings hardening off. The Charlotte potatoes in my raised hotbed are doing well. The chinese celery in bucket 10 is starting to bolt.

Behind the fruit cage



Remnants of the frost covers near the potatoes and the strawberries on the shelves. Cabbages under the shelves and carrots under the net on the left. Blueberry bushes well into flower now. More potatoes under the plastic near the fence. PSB has gone to flower but I'm leaving it for the bees for now. The blackcurrant bush near the end of the hedge has plenty of flowers (it was new last year and produced no fruit at all). The round grey thing dangling from the frame is a waspinator - it is supposed to deter wasps by resembling a nest. Wasps are territorial and will avoid areas near other nests, so I'm hoping it will protect my perpetual strawberries, which the wasps ate all of last year.

The veg garden



Strawberries under cloches and herbs on the path, plus one of last year's calabrese plants which is still producing edible shoots. More of these in the buckets behind the archway. Main crop potatoes under the cloche near the fence. Spinach in the square pot in the corner and strawberries in the hanging basket. Peas on the extreme left and in the middle, onions doing quite well. Pak choi growing nicely in the green planter on the left.

Trailing fuchsias in pots on the fence can be brought in at night if its cold.

[Bigmallly]

The plot looks pretty much the same, Kale has gone mad that was left to seed to attract insects:

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Garlic bed is looking quite nice:



Spuds are looking good:



Broad Beans are doing ok, no blackfly yet:

[Jungle Jane]

May
I left my brassica to flower for the bees too,there's masses of yellow flowers In my raised bed at the bottom of the garden is garlic & a few strawberry plants,in the same photo is some onions with a bit more garlic. In the third photo is autumn sowed broad beans & peas,i've tied some sweet peas into the teepee for some height & colour. The fourth photo is spring peas & most of my potatoes,except the maincrop,they're on the other side of the patio in large tubs. My ceanothus has started flowering

[1Bee]

Another one here enjoying the bees on the bolted kale.



A panorama of Plot 1B in May.

Over on the far left the raised bed with the fleece dome has something oriental, spring onions, carrots and rocket coming along. The next raised bed has my new molly-coddling frame using a buggy rain cover. The strawberries are just peeking in the bottom left of the pic, in the raised bed made out of a wardrobe drawer.

Then the main beds.... Bed 1 with onions coming along nicely. I weeded them today so they look a lot more respectable now. Bed 2 with the brassica tunnel, with a space in front of it which was supposed to be for sweetcorn, but now looks far too small. Whoops. Out of sight behind the brassica tunnel is bed 6, which has sarpo blue danube in it.

Bed 3 has charlottes and rooster tatties in, both of which are up, and although they've had fleece on since they were planted, they still don't look very happy.



Bed 4 has broad beans, peas, then will have runners, tromboncino (if any bother to germinate) and courgettes. with possibly some mangetout or something... Bed 5 is the other side of the bean tunnel and will have Cobra and cosse violette beans.

Away against the hedge are the newly rescued raspberries.

We need more warmth for things to get going, but more than that, at the moment, we just need rain.

[1Bee]

An early update from me, but time is going to be scarce in the next few days.

I'm loving the plot right now, almost everything is right how I want it. Or at least how I'll tolerate...



Bed 1 onions are doing well, with radishes, parsnips and space for leeks in the background.



Bed 2 now has some sprouts and PSB in residence... plus some squashes clustered round the compost dalek.



Bed 3 has Charlottes and Roosters.



Cont'd

[1Bee]

(Whoops, cut the caption for Bed 4...)

Bed 4 with courgettes, mangetout just sown, the runners coming up....



And peas and broad beans behind.



Bed 5 has the other side of the tunnel with cfb awaiting germination, and the sweetcorn seeming to do well under their bottle cloches.

No pic of Sarpo Blue danube in bed 6 for sine reason...



Bed 7 now covered, with pumpkins planted through.