Easter Weekend 2023

Friday

Am feeling under the weather so gardened gently (ish).  On Friday, it got quite warm (relative to Spring to far) so I pottered in the front garden, planting out some Sweet Peas.  These are the ones I sowed in Autumn and I believe to be Cupani.  While weeding the sunny border, I found 2 other Sweet Pea seedlings emerging near the front.  They could be Cupani or April in Paris.  Will be a nice surprise if they come good.

I also sorted out some of the pots on the patio in the back garden as it was all quite a mess.  I used some of the Ivy twigs and branches to line the bottom of some pots (hugelkultur style) - to save compost, to provide some more organic material to hold water and potentially to make the bottom of the pots less hospitable for Australian flatworms.

I filled up the pots further with the material removed from the pots in previous months and will top them off with fresh, shop-bought compost.  I plan to sow some seeds into them this weekend when I swap these with the pots of Potatoes presently in the greenhouse.  Nighttime temperatures are set to be above zero for next couple of weeks though down to 2 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday so will keep an eye on that.

Saturday

I spent most of yesterday in the greenhouse.  I pricked out salad leaves (Romaine and All Year Round), some Spinach, Baby Kale, Kohlrabi, Calabrese and Primo Cabbage.  I watered everything from the bottom  

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Sunday (today)

I set out some Jerusalem Artichokes to ferment in some brine (2tbsp of salt per 1l of water).  Let’s see…

Despite a gloomy start this morning, the sun came out and warmed things up to about 16 C.  T-shirt weather at the plot.  I managed to get my main jobs done - planted out the Potatoes (2 rows of 8 in Bed 5 and the remaining 11 tubers in Bed 6) and Broad Beans (Bed 6), sowed Carrots, Parsnips, Radish, Turnip, Beetroot and Leeks (last two in Bed 4 and the first four in Bed 3), and watered in the nematodes.  It is set to rain for most of this week so hopefully the nematodes will feel ok.

I sowed about 1 square metre each of Parsnips and Carrots and another similarly sized square half with Turnips and half with Radish.  

For both the Parsnips and Carrots, I did this with 5 short rows made with an onion hoe.  3 rows up and down - left, middle and right - then the 2 in between.  Two short rows each of the other two crops.

I made a similar set of 5 short rows (across this time) in Bed 4 to have one of Leeks in the centre and two rows of Beetroot each side of that.  

Unfortunately, when I lifted the fleece on Bed 4, I did uncover a single Australian flatworm.  That’s the first time I’ve noticed one at the plot, certainly since I discovered what they are.  I merely re-located it to the end of the plot as I didn’t have any salt to hand.    

The photo below shows the first picking of Rhubarb and, at the front, some Raspberry plants moved from Bed 5 (I had moved the wire cage for the leaf mould). 

With the rain coming in tonight or tomorrow, I’ll be focused on housework tomorrow although I may decide to sow some seeds into some big pots in the greenhouse.  Wondering about potting up 3-4 spare Strawberry plants in case they can provide an early crop.