Vegelicious

It's a bit sad. Our broad beans and peas are now just about giving up their last and we are now half way through the spuds. The peas (Feltham First), in particular, have been a spectacular success, providing us with a regular veg portion for something like two months now. I'm leaving the rest of them, along with the broads, to fatten up and dry for either winter pulse supplies or next year's seeds.

On the plus side, we're doing OK for courgettes, have a row of gorgeous red chard, a decent amount of carrots, the French beans are just starting to crop (and the runners look like they won't be far behind), there's enough spud left for at the rest of this month, and I'm backfilling the space they leave with pumpkins, the leeks are looking like they'll provide a good winter crop, and I've just sowed a row each of carrots and pak choi. I do need to start some more lettuces, though.

These new raised beds are really making gardening so much easier. I may even add more this winter.

Back in the Garden

I have a good feeling about the garden this year. 2007 was a dead loss (horticulturally speaking), with a new baby plus an OU course leaving me with precious little time or energy to do anything much outside. 2008 was not much better, having fallen off the wagon the year before what little effort I did put in was in trying to prevent the garden from reverting to Ancient Forest. This year we are off to a decent start though.

We've been discovering that the Youngling, now past her 2nd birthday, is interested in helping out with things outside. Of course, this sort of help tends to slow things down somewhat, but them's the breaks. So a couple of weeks back we took a few bits of 6"x1" and built a raised bed (my assistant happily dropping nails around the place and occasionally passing them to me at useful times), which is still only half filled with soil, sand, compost and the like. The plan is to add another raised section or two and pave around them (for non-muddy access) using the slabs that came off our patio when the conservatory was being built.

Last week we planted some broad beans, with me poking holes in the ground and the youngling dropping beans into the holes. She loved that — it's just a pity she will have to wait some time for seedlings to start to appear.

Then over this weekend we planted some basil to grow indoors (I pledge this year to start a fresh pot of basil every few weeks to feed my herb habit!) and sowed some seed trays with broccoli and parsley to plant out when the weather gets warmer.

This is turning out to be a very equitable arrangement: the Youngling gets to help out, spend time outside, and hopefully learn some stuff, and I get to do some gardening while still spending time with my daughter. Hopefully we'll be able to continue this for years to come.

In the meantime, the rhubarb is just starting to show its head. Give it a month or so and we'll be able to take a crop. I'm looking forward to that.

Rhubarb Enhancement

So I have now divided my rhubarb. Actually I should have done this some time back, during the winter, but seeing as we haven't really had much of a winter and the plant has been growing pretty much throughout, I don't think it's much of a problem. Having not done this before, I was in for an interesting time.

The main thing I hadn't realised was just how much of the plant there would be underground. I found a fibrous mass a bit larger than a football (but a lot heavier) and a number of cable-like roots heading off in all directions, including downwards. Basically, there was no way I was shifting that beast. With excavations all around the plant I decided to get heavy and shove the spade in to split the root/stem mass were it sat. A little later I had four hefty new crowns, two of which I replanted right away (the whole point of this is so in future I can force one plant for an early crop and let the other develop naturally), one I gave to a neighbour, and another is promised to friends on the other side of town. I was also left with a small piece which I have potted up for the time being, pending some better idea of what to do with it.

Now only time will tell if I have managed to kill off my lovely rhubarb plant or if I have improved the productivity of my garden and also made some other people happy. The whole process felt more destructive than anything, but I get the impression that rhubarb is one of those resilient plants which are hard to kill. Fingers crossed...

Them Pesky Cats

This weekend I did something that I have hardly managed to do over the last few weeks: get into the garden during daylight. A few days ago I posted about burglars who apparently used a wheel barrow in their nefarious exploits, and Phillip made the comment that perhaps I should worry more about my wheel barrow than my fish. Well, I looked by the shed where the wheel barrow usually sits and it is there no more (and it isn't elsewhere in the garden either). Putting two and two together, it looks entirely likely that our rusty old barrow, with holes in the bottom, was used as a getaway vehicle. D'oh! Did Phillip have insider knowledge?

We'll let the police know, but frankly we could hardly care less about the barrow: I was wanting to get a new one anyway and then this one would need disposal. I think that the main issue is just how open and visible from the road our garden is. As our hedge grows over the next few years, this should improve significantly. It just takes time...