May Week Three Sunday 20th 2007
On arrival at the lottie today we first turned our attention to the netted fruit crops which seem to be doing incredibly well and giving us the prospect of a good harvest within the next few weeks and months when a lot of other things are unfortunately looking not so good.
"Gorgeous Gooseberries"
The raspberries planted early this year are thriving and throwing up new shoots like there is no tomorrow, which is a very encouraging sign for next years producing season. The sea of strawberries which inhabit beneath are just starting to colour up thier little fruits and hopefully with some sunshine should be ready for eating very shortly. Even the baby plants we placed in a nursery patch along the side of the plot are producing some nice looking little strawbs and should make nice strong plants to replace thier parents after the summer 2008 harvest.
"Berries Galore"
The Blackcurrant, Gooseberry and Blueberry bushes in our fruit patch are also looking nice and healthy with some small but perfectly formed little fruits just developing. All in all one thing we can say about the soil on our plot is that fruit varieties definately seem to like it, unfortunately though we did not keep any of the little tags which came with the strawberry plants during our first few months last year to identify them in order to further elaborate on this.
This week again however we are sad to report another tale of woe, the salads we had reorganised and attempted to protect last week had been utterly devastated by pigeons once more, in particular the pak-choi which had grown to an excellent size but now consisted of little more than spines of leaves. These were covered before we left for the day and it will be interesting to see if they are able to recover in any way by our next visit. The plants eaten last week have been able to revive themselves slightly after we treated them this way so we are somewhat hopeful that this will be the same for the salads, but we will let you know.
We were further dishearteded this week to relise how little of the crops we had sown directly into the ground in March had germinated resulting in minimal seedlings of carrots, chard and seed onions. As such it was clear a thorough re-sowing was in order and additional drills of most of the direct sown vegetables were made and also some later comers such as swedes were introduced to the bed they will be inhabiting as adult plants.
Skeletal Salads
On a cheerier note, the potatoes seem to be doing well and have produced some pretty little flowers indicating all is happy below ground level. At the end of may we may dig up one of the less substantial looking plants to just double check there are not problems and obviously give us a heads up on how long it may be until we get a crop. Exciting!
"Bloomin Marvellous"
Another crop looking good this week are our Longpod Broad beans, which have been able to resist colonisation by further parties of blackfly and are reching for the skies, next week we shall probably pich thier tops out to ensure against further infestations.
The most pressing job of the day was to make final repairs and erect the monolith to house our assorted chillies and tomatoes. This consisted of initially strengthening the sides with extra wooden battons which stuck out about two foot at the base of the structure so they could be buried in the ground for stability. Then we repaired all the rips in the plastic covering and took it to the area where it was to be placed to select the best angle and orientation to prevent damage by storms and wind as was suffered last year during its service at the lottie. Once its relocation was selected four holes about a foot into the groud were dug and the feet placed in them, earthed up and stamped down to aid stability. The top of the structure was then fastened together with wire and inside the earth raked into a bed and covered in a weedproof membrane weighted down with clay tiles. Small puctures were made in the membrane and all necessary canes for the toms and chillies added and then holes for the plants we had bought with us to place in the structure. These plants went in with some water crystals for conservation of moisture and a handful of organic chicken manure pellets to give them a boost. Finally it was up and already doing a good job of warming our precious little plants, a very welcome sight and an indication that summer is well on its way despite the damp weather.
"Its Alive"