KW-25 The plot thickens

Let's look at the garden!

For the first time in a long, there is this morning a very evenly weighted competition between the human faculties for what is feeling more ancient and subdued - is it the stiffness of the body or the dullness of the mind that is will win by nightfall? Yes, it is 6am and I’m already looking forward to bed time tonight?

Soft fruits. Abundant, but not pretty!

It’s the middle of June and I can’t quite work out where we got so far behind in the garden. None of the beds is full, and I can’t quite figure out where we misstepped. We have had quite a few rainy days, sometimes very heavy, and that stopped play for a while, and keeping even a little bit on top of the mowing has been virtually impossible. Rain, sun, rain, sun for the whole of spring means less digging than required, and more growing of the grass than called for.

So today, for my own peace of mind as much as anything else, let’s do a run-down of all the growing areas starting with a bed-by bed look at the potager.

Potatoes. I got 8 rows of potatoes in quite quickly, I think. There was that nasty cold morning which set everything back, when they has just started to poke their heads through the ground, and I needed to earth them up before they noticed that their green haulms had been knocked back by Jack Frost. They are recovering well, with almost the whole bed coming back to life quite nicely. Unfortunately, I really need there to be 10 or more rows. I didn’t have time to plant all the tubers - I remember it got very wet all of a sudden - so I went off to do something else and they never got fully filled in. Since Year One at the Barracks, I have always had enough potatoes, and I think this will also be ok - we have fewer visitors coming this year, so more spuds for the pirate in winter. It’s not great, but it’s not a tragedy. They are all pretty heavy croppers, so fingers crossed.

Potatoes. Recovering quite well. There are a few clear gaps, but this could have turned out MUCH worse. We are happy with the potatoes.

The Roots. We have garlic, onions and carrots in large numbers. These really are the important ones, coming in just behind the big three (potatoes, tomatoes, beans) in importance. They are also very easy to harvest and store, so even though the roots bed only looks half full, we’re not worried here either. It is too late for most of the rest of the roots bed, but we can probably squeeze in some small bulbed, fast growing stuff like swedes, beets, pak choi, or spring onions in there, that should bulk out the variety, colour and textures quite nicely.

The Mixed Salsa bed. There will be no capsicums or chillis or aubergines this year. We have 30 or 40 tomato plants out, but nothing else. I’ve not even started to clear half of the bed from it’s winter cover of green manure / weeds. If I get cracking with it this week, then there may be time to throw in a few rows of sunflowers, but not a lot else. There are plenty more tomato plants that could go in, so we might just go crazy with those!

Greens. We have a tonne of lettuce in many different shapes and colours in the greenhouse, and four rows of the same doing nicely in the bed. Most of the brassicas are out, and there are definitely enough of them to keep us happy all year. But here again, only half of the bed has been cleared, and this one is, by far, the worst of the lot. I can’t see it being finished unless we get quite an influx of volunteers ready with their garden forks.

Peas and Beans. I just about filled it up last week. There is still a bit of room, and we could definitely squeeze in another couple of rows of fast growing peas, but I seem to have lost the seeds. I swear I had them on my desk and ready to go, but they have been swallowed up by the infinite void that takes things and doesn’t bring them back again. But, the bean gate is more or less full, there are two rows of single bean poles, and one long arch. Two rows of dwarf beans, two of dwarf peas and one of climbing peas. None of them has started push its brave first sprouts through the stony clay soil, so who knows, they might have all been eaten by mice. That would be a great disappointment. I guess we will know in the next few days.

The Pumpkin Patch. The last of the six year crop rotation, I have pumpkins galore ready to go, but so far, just eight plants in the field. They are doing that pumpkin thing of looking all healthy and nice above ground, but not even attempting a new leaf. They do this for several worrying weeks sometimes, while the transplanted roots try to get a good grip below ground. If the slugs find them at the this stage, we will have no pumpkins. As soon as they start putting on new green growth above ground, they will quickly multiply faster than any amount of slugs can knock them back, and we are on the express bus out of worrytown. They really should start that jump into hyperspace this week. There isn’t looking to be a great variety in pumpkins this year, but the variety in the ground is one of the best storers, and if each one puts on four or five plants, we’ll be eating one a week until April or May next year!

Peas and beans. Number two in the Most Important Things.

The Orchard. The frost that did for the potatoes was not as bad as last year’s late snap, and most of the trees look like they are going to be producing something. It’s not going to be a glut year by any means, but it is looking very positive for our first ever pears, and seeing as pears might well be my favourite tree fruit, this is a good thing!

The Soft Fruits have not had much love this year, but on Sunday, two backpackers turned up from the universe, looking to stay a couple of nights in exchange for some grubbing around in the dirt, so we are going to assign them the soft fruits. If they do well there (and I think that they will), we will have at least some lovely photos to show for it. And probably a ridiculous amount of jam again.

The Pig Food Fields. I had, as always, grand plans for the pig food this year. Again, it has turned out differently than expected, but in a really interesting way. But it’s getting quite late, and and the piggies still haven’t had their breakfast, so I’ll tell you of the continuing pig food plan next week. I think it might turn out to be the best year yet.

I hope you all have lovely and fulfilling weeks It’s a crazy world out there, and what with all the geo-political awfulness, it’s not the worst idea in the world to take some time in the garden, find a little peace, and maybe create a little something to look forward to. Take care of each other.

Your loving Pirate Ben

xoxo