Yesterday we had hailstones tumbling out of the sky and I am told that we had some snow this morning (but I missed it, as I was still in bed). No wonder the daffs took their time coming out. They are in full-swing now and, although we don’t have as many of them as we used to (I guess because we lose some each time we do a make-over), they do create some bright colour in the garden. A photo of the lower beds after today’s efforts:
Mark has not managed to get into the garden during the week, but today he has managed to put in a few hours, despite doing his ‘swimathon’ last night at Prudhoe Waterworld. The garden below the trellis has now all been cut back, weeded (I suspect of many of my lovely geraniums and other perennials) and now is on a ground elder battle. In one area below the silver birch there is a lot of ground elder which has taken hold amongst the plants – but we are going to dig up the plants as well – as long as they are not rare. We have a lot of Euphorbia griffithii ‘Fireglow’ in that area, so a lot of that will go on the compost heap. Can’t risk giving it to friends, in case we give them ground elder as well. That is not what friends are for…..
We have cleared the bases of two plain large Hebes which give them a more stately look, that is, as if they are meant to be there.
The sun has shone quite a bit today, but I didn’t let that fool me. So I wrapped up warm before I went and sat on the lunch patio – which is in a terrible mess. It is awaiting the new log storage and a plant pot make-over. We have lovely plants in plastic pots, and in the lovely pottery pots, we seem to have rubbish! Grasses – particularly Carex bronze and Carex Frosted Curls – seem to enjoy making babies in our garden and therefore we have about 6 of these to locate from pots to border. Last year, we created a grass border below our zz garden seat area ( I must post some photos of it), which were all babies. It doesn’t take them long to mature into a decent sized plant.
Tomorrow the seed-potatoes we bought a few days ago in Tom and Joe’s nursery, will be stuck into our veggie beds. We have just bought one variety , King Edwards, and know very little about planting potatoes. They have buds on them, but not very developed stalks on the buds – but I believe we can stick them in like that and they’ll be ok (I may be terribly wrong about this, so please tell us before tomorrow if that is the case, as once they are in, that is it!
We are going to try two methods, according to how much compost has been allocated to each bed – some will just have a dibbed hole leveled off to fit the base of the potato to the soil. Then covered deeply and then left to their own devices. The others, will be planted in a trench and as the green growth comes through, more compost dragged over them. I believe this protects them from early morning frosts, and encourages more potatoes to grow on the roots. Clive built a ‘greedy boy’ on one of the veg beds so that has compost piled right up against it. It is functional and allotment – style, but if it does what is says on the cover, who cares? I have found three photos – one showing the veg beds when in their glory, another showing them pretty neglected and full of wild flowers and the final one, of them having been filled with compost. There don’t seem to be any close up shots of the veg beds when they were truly run down!! There will be a couple of photos to post tomorrow when the potatoes have been put in. but meanwhile here is a link to today’s photos, and a couple more of the veg beds .
https://pygardens.co.uk/day-by-day-in-the-garden/27-4-13
Hi Helen
Please to hear you bought your seed potatoes. You could probably get 2 rows in each deep bed, but the rows need to be 2 foot or more apart. Use quite a thick dibber (an old fork handle is ideal) to make a hole 6 to 8 inches deep and drop the seed potato in. Each potato should be about a foot apart. If the sprouts are long on the potatoes you can break some of them off if they are too straggly, if they are short leave them alone as that is the ideal way to plant them. When your rows are planted you can earth them up straight away with the azada so you end up with a long mound over each row. Later if you think you are likely to get a frost then earth them up again to protect the young growth. In theory the more you earth them up the better the crop will be. If potatoes are planted too shallow, they tend to grow near the surface and go green
Hope all that makes some sort of sense!
BTW, Mark says the azada was great to use.
Thanks for that Jenny, it will help tomorrow! I hope you had a great time in Kenya – I am assuming you are back home now, as you are on the internet – although I know that location is no reason to stop your internet access.
Hi Helen, Jenny has given you good information. Asked hubby Allan what he thought and he says the compost will do a good job. When he was young his dad used ‘rough muck’ instead of compost which is basically straw and manure that was shovelled out of the sheds cows used. If you know a friendly farmer (not too many off them about just now because of the weather causing such hardship) rough muck is excellent.
xx
Thanks for that advice Maro. Rough Muck – sounds just about right! Unfortunately, anything that wants to get into out garden has to come through the house from the front, or come in on a rope from a helicopter like James Bond! I am looking forward to our next get together, sorry I missed the last one – I haven’t been well, and am now on ABX so am feeling quite a bit better now. Having a CT scan of chest tomorrow. I hope you are keeping well. Going back to the Rough Muck, I’ll tell my neighbours, as they have just taken on an allotment and will be wanting that sort of advice. I think they already have a source for manure via a friend.