After Lee decided that he wanted to rejig our original plot (officially plot 2) to tie it into the new plot, he's been working hard to sort it out, whilst I've been working hard on getting our crops sown and the seedlings / plantlets planted out! After an 11 hour day on the plot yesterday (on our day off), I am now in a position to say that the new plot (officially plot 1) is fully under cultivation, every bed now has growing crops in it! Not only that, but almost all of the paths have been lined and barked up too!
Our original plot now has some extra paths in it, the beds are edged and only awaiting some more bark chippings to be delivered to the site before it too is almost fully finished too! All but 2 beds are now cleared and planted, and there's now only another 4 cross paths to edge and line before barking them up!
As you can see from this piccy taken from the left of both our plots (looking towards plots 2 and 1) there's now only the 2 beds (under the cardboard in the center) to get cleared and planted!
Another panorama, from the shed area of plot 1 looking towards the back of plot 2. All plot 1 is now under cultivation!
Plot 1
Believe it or not, we've only had this plot for 5 weeks now, having taken it over on the 8th of May 08, and it was in a right state too! Thanks to hard work from Lee (and some help from me), in only 5 weeks its gone from a mess of weed infested beds and weed filled paths to a full plot under full cultivation!
This first run of beds on plot 1 (from the rear where the piccy was taken to the front where Lee's car is parked) has the plastic greenhouse behind the piccy viewpoint, then in front there's a bed of swift sweetcorn and chestnut squashes, a bed of 190 leeks, a bed of ovation sweetcorn and pumkpins, 2 beds of spring sown onions from seed, a small bed of celery, then the greenhouse and beyond the greenhouse a bed of outdoor toms, a bed of jack be little pumpkins, 2 beds of celery (Lee slipped when planting a tray of celery, so we have rather a lot growing!) and a bed of foxgloves, the only flower bed on the plot!
The second run of beds on plot 1 has from front to rear - 2 beds of courgettes (with catch crops of radish, beetroot and spring onions, a bed of sweetcorn and pumpkins, a large bed of carrots, a large bed of pumpkins and squashes, a bed of peas / beans (victorian purple podded peas, borlotti beans and carlin peas) and a bed of brassicas at the back!
As can be seen here, the first planting of sweetcorn and squashes seem to be doing ok!
The 190 leeks, I cut the holes thru the cardboard in the hopes that it will keep watering down and suppress the weeds in the leek bed, so far it seems to be working fine!
The grapevine on the shed on plot 1! Growing away nicely, looks like we're going to have to give it a prune soon! Longer term we are thinking of adding a gazebo to the front of the shed to allow the grapevine to be trailed over the top of it, giving more light and air in the hopes that it may even further increase the potential harvest!
Not sure if you can see them, but look closely and you'll see the grapes beginning to form!
This is the carrot bed on plot 1, there's still another bed of carrots to go onto the other plot, once its been cleared and edged! To the right of the piccy you can see the 3 brassica beds that have been made from the large brassica bed, covered in netting to prevent wabbits and cabbage whites from reaching the crops!
Plot 2
Growing away nicely, here we've a piccy of the overwintering onions and garlic, methinks that we'll be harvesting these soon! We're going to split this bed (after they've been harvested) down the middle, then after it's been manured, we'll be using it for the spring cabbages that are due to be sown this weekend, ready for planting out once the onions are harvested!
This first bed on plot 2 has the large greenhouse on it, with a small bed in front of it that we are going to use for seed crops (we'll put leeks / parsnips / shallots etc that we want ot save seed from in it next year!), then in front of them are 2 largish brassic beds, then the goosegog bed and then the fedge and strawberry beds!
As you can see here, the new paths between the brassica beds are aligned with the paths on plot 1, tying them in nicely together! We've still 2 paths to put into the central bed on plot 2 to tie that in (the grass to the center of the cardboard directly in front of the camera), but we're hoping to get them finished very soon now!
The goosegog bed, we've only got the weed control fabric and bark chippings left to do on this bed, unfortunately the site has run out of bark chippings at present (tho they are on order, so hopefully we'll be able to get this and the other paths finished by the end of our holidays (hols a week on Monday fro 2 weeks, I cant wait!)) Behind the goosegogs is the central bed that we've still got 2 beds to dig and 2 paths to lay, then the beanery!
The Beanery! To the left of the piccy (out of shot) are some dwarf french beans, then 2 double rows of rondo pea and 2 double rows of early onward pea, then in the piccy are scarlet runner beans, early onward peas, enorma runner beans, then this years seeds bed and some more dwarf french beans! The 'paths' are reinforced concrete slabs that were inherited at the bottom of this plot, we dragged them out and placed them to keep the paths between the beans weed free, even tho at 12" by 8' and 4" thick they were a right pain to move!
The last bed in the beanery, with the broad beans (2 types) mange tout and yingyang beans, with the fartichoke bed visible to the right! The bed immediately to the right of the first bed of beans has more spring sown onions from seed in it! I know the broadies are a bit behind, but the first direct sowing didnt germinate at all (too cold perhaps) and with having to clear the other plot we were late in getting them sown!
A view looking forwards, showing just how much is left to clear, not much more now!!!
Greenhouses!
A piccy of the inside of the larger greenhouse on plot 2, we've toms at 2" and cuces at 3" in here, plus lots of plants doing rather well!
Another more closer view of the left side, strangely this side grew better than the other side last year, and seems to be doing so again this year, strange!
Inside the plastic greenhouse on plot 1, looks like a possible good harvest of tomatoes this year methinks!
The greenhouse on plot 1 is coming along nicely, as are the toms and chillies in the greenhouse at home, they are both at a stage somewhere between the large greenhouse and the plastic greenhouse!
Still to do!
Well, with getting the new plot up to scratch and tying the 2 plots together we've sadly neglected the strawberry bed and adjoining fedge, so one of our priorities once all the planting is done is to weed and remove the bed, then replant the strawbs thru weed control fabric and to then bark it up to attempt to keep the weeds under control and increase our potential harvest for next year! This may reduce the strawb harvest this year, but we both agree it needs to be done asap!
Another are we need to sort out is the pond area and the 'wall' between the pond and the manure pile, it got damaged in high winds not so long back and needs rebuilding, one of those jobs that will be nice to do, but only once we've got everything growing for this year! In the meantime it makes a lovely 'shabby chic' wildlife area!
The next priority is to finish off digging this middle bed and get the paths in it (the areas under cardboard in ine with my MINI), once thats completed, then all of plot 2 will also be under cultivation, quite a feat considering the upheaval with taking over an unused second plot and after already clearing the other half plot (which we are in the process of giving up - another tennant has taken it on - and is doing a fab job - but we've still got spring sown onion sets and all our spuds on there, so we wont be fully finished with it until they have been harvested (we are splitting the harvest with the new tennant!))
Well, thats us up to date for the moment, hope you're crops are growing well! Further updates to follow soon!
