Cabbages and Cream: Vegetable garden growing pains at Squirrel's Landing

This week we put in a new bed at ‘Squirrel’s Landing’ because we’ve outgrown the first three!

We’ve used the same process as before – first digging over the soil with a hefty pick, taking out all the stones and grass and then resting it for a couple of days
Next we opened up 8 huge bags of ancient manure, completely aged and dry, and worked them well into the soil
On top of that came a generous sprinkling of organic fertilizer pellets and bone meal
More digging over followed
With a good watering to get the soil evenly moist
We then let the bed ‘rest’ for a week, with two more good waterings as there’s been no rain, and some temperatures in the 20’s
Finally we planted out a long row of young strawberry plants taken from the six originals we cropped off last summer

Broad beans in the organic vegetable garden

The broad beans are in flower! This is a new surprise, as they are still quite young, but none the less are bursting with health and enthusiasm. All the seeds germinated, and as a result, the plants are quite close together and so giving one another some support. So far they haven’t been battered by the wind or rain, and if our luck holds, we should have some young beans in a couple of weeks.

Artichokes and rhubarb in the organic vegetable garden

Artichokes and rhubarb in the organic vegetable garden

The artichokes and rhubarb are growing very well – we had a crop of rhubarb with stalks over 50cm in length, so only needed a few for a hefty rhubarb pie. When we planted the artichokes we knew they were too close together, but hoped they’d grow slowly through the cold weather and give us time to get some new beds going before they outgrew their space. Instead, they’ve grown into huge plants at a record pace and will have to be transplanted very soon.

In the background of the picture you can see the asparagus fronds are dying off quickly. The stems will soon need to be cut back and the plants given their covering of well rotted manure which will send down nutrients into the soil over their dormant time. thinning them out will taken place before their new shoots form at the end of winter

As you can see, the bed we’ve just prepared isn’t going to give us nearly enough space – we’ll have to do it all again very soon if we want to sew any more beetroot and carrots. Let alone the lettuce, peas, tomatoes, cabbage and potatoes which the books tell us we can plant in June.

Strawberries in the organic vegetable garden