Wednesday 10 October 2007

Week 23

Saturday, 9th June 2007

When I got to the lottie I noticed that a few of my white onions were going soft. After speaking to Ron the Chicken Man I decided to lift all of them and dry them out in the greenhouse. Lost about 6 onions in all. I have left the red onions in as they do not appear to be affected and the garlic but will watch them closely. I then re-manured (with chicken poop pellets), the spot where they had been and planted out the Bicolour corn that I had ordered from Real Seeds. Also planted out a few rows of celery and the squahes in between the corn. Once the corn is a little bigger I will be planting Borlotti beans next to the corn in a “3 sisters method” that I believe the old Indians in America used”. They will provide me with lots of beans for soups in the winter. It is also good for the little space I have. I just hope that I have not made a mistake planting three different kinds of corn but hopefully as I have staggered their planting and tried to leave as much space between them as possible they will not cross pollinate.

Today we also managed to get the flower bed dug and planted up. We dug in all the home made compost from home and then covered it with a ground sheet and planted the dahlias and chrysanthemums through it. It is really starting to look pretty. I just hope that they take and we will have armfuls’ of flowers for the vases at home.

Maureen managed to get all the hanging baskets planted up and strung them in the fruit trees, they really look lovely and hopefully in the Summer will provide lots of colour as well as be a deterrent for the black fly. They are a sacrifical crop and hopefully will encourage the black fly to them instead of to my lovely beans. Talking about beans, we had to erect quite a strong barrier as the rabbits had shorn off all the runner beans that I had planted and then I replanted almost the entire runner bean frame. So fingers crossed we might even get a bean or two on our plates.

I notice that the second sowing of broad beans have been attached by black fly. I will have to remember to bring some soapy water with me when I next visit to spray on them. The beans are starting to form nicely on these plants. We also managed to weed the carrot bed where I had such a bad germination and replanted more carrots. Maureen has challenged me! See who can grow the best ones! Well with my track record she is sure to win as nuts are nuts. Anyway I sowed the new fresh seed that I had ordered from Real Seed so maybe we will be lucky and get some carrots. Got a lovely bunch of sweet peas off the lottie which I gave to Maureen for all her hard work. She also got the only two lettuces that had come up.

Sunday 10th June 2007

I only managed to pop down to the lottie after church but Maureen and Vaughn had been there for a couple of hours and Vaughn, bless his soul had cleared all the wood that I had piled at the compost bins (and in my way), up against the back fence out of the way until Nick can make my bed borders. Maureen had cleared the pea bed and we quickly had a whole new lot of peas planted up. Just hope the sky rats and partridges don’t get them all. These should be ready to harvest July August.

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