March Week Four Saturday 31st 2007
Saturday had all the intentions of starting early down the lottie however after visits to several named garden centres for supplies and bark chips etc, it was about half eleven before we arrived down the plot. As such we had to get our skates on, there was a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. Much to our delight however on inspection of the purple sprouting broccoli we were very pleased to see its recovery to such an extent that it is about to produce a crop, nothing short of a miracle considering the bashing it took over the winter.
'Finally PSB!'
Firstly we layered some more bark chips down on the path to try and stifle the few weeds which were trying to pop up at the sides of the membrane we had placed underneath. Operation Comfrey Removal 2007 had started in earnest with the removal of eights roots sprouting growth from various patches of the plot - it is an excellent fertiliser medium, however, does cause a great deal of disruption when they pop up in your carrot patch and force all the little seedlings out (these roots were carefully removed not to snap the root and discarded).
After this we removed some more of the now well established rosemary sproutings and potted these up for transport home and to give to friends - we also gave one to one of our new neighbours on the site for them to pot, to say thanks for some rhubarb crowns which had been donated. The fruit patch was then weeded once more to remove all the older discoloured leaves and try and sort some of the baby plants which had been formed from runners into a more organised form. We were also able to notice some significant growth to our gooseberry bushes, and although we are not sure how much fruit we will get this year it is very exciting to see these bushes begin to establish themselves.
'Goosgogs'
The main job of the day was to complete the rabbit proof fence to go round the whole of the plot in order to protect our crops, we had managed to finish approximately a third on one of our earlier trips but this needed to be completed. So utilizing two rolls of chicken wire and two packs of treated one x two we managed to put together the rest of the fence and hammer it in place, protecting the whole plot. This even spanned down to creating a specialised piece of chicken wire to cover the gap, which would have been caused by the path. This will hopefully help to prevent a lot of the damage we know was inflicted last year by rabbits and is also very easy to remove and manoeuvre to still allow flexibility of access to all the plot. This is not however the end of our pest control exercise, we will be utilizing old CD's, horticultural fleece, small foil cake tins, and waters steeped in rhubarb or nettle leaves to control all manners of pests from pigeons to black-fly organically. We will let you know how successful or otherwise this proves over the summer.
'Bunnies Beware'
This rabbit proofing exercise was not however without its casualties, and via some impatience during the use of a hammer, the following accident resulted and meant one of our party was not able to participate much more in the day’s proceedings.
'Ouuuuuuuuuuuccccchhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'
The rest of the day mainly consisted of reorganising the herb patch with an addition of one of our rosemary bushes and also the harvesting of some of our cabbages, for lunch the next day, which were very tasty. It was unfortunate that we had by accident neglected to put our selection of seeds in the car with us today, which prevented us sowing any new crops, however, we intend to do a lot of this over the Easter holidays.
.JPG)
'Spring Greens'
We have recently begun receiving some hints and tips from people reading the blog and who have allowed us to share them with you for these tips don't forget to visit out Hints and Tips page where you will find these and a whole variety of hints and tips which you may find useful. Any comments like these will always be greatly appreciated and if so requested also find a place on the page.