Sowing and Hoeing in Earnest

Strawberry patch

We’re discovering that this is one of the busiest times of the year – the ground is warming up, the sun is out and literally everything is bursting into life. The lambs are bouncing around the paddock, the snap peas and beans planted a few weeks ago are popping up, the sweetcorn on the children’s windowsills have grown about 2″ in less than a week and the weeds…well, let’s just say they’re doing fine.

Asparagus bed

The mulching idea on several areas of the patch seems to be working – manure on the strawberries, grass cuttings on the asparagus, home-made compost on the spring cabbage and winter onions. But the bits of naked earth are a prime target for anything unwanted to

Winter Onions

try and take root – we seem to have nobbled the chickweed quite well from last year – nowhere near as much at the moment. Likewise with the Shepherd’s Purse, though the wild pansies seem to be quite tenacious. So this weekend has seen a lot of hoeing, but it’s been quite easy as we’ve all been doing it regularly and the soil is quite crumbly now.

Garlic

Life in the allium patch is running amok – the garlic is shooting nicely – well, one variety of them, the other is still sleepy. The shallots have their familiar fluffy tops on them where the multitude of stems are visible from one shallot. They always remind me of a muppet hairdo at this stage. A few onions have been uprooted by a ne’er-do’well – probably one of a feathery persuasion.

Courgette & Squash stations

We’re also trying something new this year when it comes to the courgettes (F1 Zucchini) and butternut squash (F1 Cobnut) – left overs from last year. Holes are being dug for each plant, and in the base some well-rotted manure is being added. Then the soil is replaced, forming a little tummock for each plant to sit upon.

Courgette tummocks

No idea why it works as this stage, but all of the books and websites I’ve been reading suggest doing this so here goes! We must remember to mulch around the base of the plants once they’ve been planted. At the moment all of the squash and courgettes are sitting in the mini greenhouse in their own 3″ pots. There’s no denying that the finished mounds look tidy.

Asparagus

On a final note, up until a few days ago we had one asparagus in the asparagus bed. This is one of the most exciting veggies for me personally. I love them…Suz loves them…so imagine our disappointment when only one showed up! Then, when another came up, the original disappeared! I’m guessing an unwanted visitor must have nibbled it, but today we found about 8 spears waiting for us – one of them about 14″ tall! Most were still quite tiny, and I’m not sure if we should pick them this year – but in the most appropriate words of Young Frankenstein – “It’s alive!!”

This weekend also saw the grass cut in the whole patch for the first time, more mulching around the bases of the orchard trees, and the first pruning of the plum and cherry trees. We also mowed one of the headlands, where many Shepherd’s Purse flowers were happily growing. I’m not sure if mowing at this time will kill any wanted flowers that may be there, but the cutting is an attempt to let some light into any wanted flowers that may be struggling to see any light. We’ll soon see if this has worked.

Last but not least, we sowed the first row of beetroot – Cylindra. We’ve not tried this variety before, but I hear it’s good as a salad variety. We’ll sow the F1 Kestrel variety that we sowed last year later in the year, for storage.