Potato beds

This is plot D consisting of four beds for our seed potatoes. We're in the process of covering them in manure and raking it in.

Free fruit

That's the blackcurrant on the left and the redcurrant on the right. The second photo shows the main gooseberry next to the compost bins that came with the plot.

Acquisitions

We're keeping an eye on our spending, recording every single purchase. This week, we compared prices of seeds and decided to order a number of vegetable seeds from the Organic Gardening Catalogue to add to our small collection. We also bought six 56 litre bags of organic gardening manure (for the potato beds) and four 2.5 bags of seed potatoes from Notcutts, one each from the "first early", "second early", "main crop" and "late crop", to be harvested in July, August, September and October respectively. Or so we hope.

We also bought two 6 pack autumn raspberry canes in containers. When we showed these to B, he told us about another plot he has just cleared, previously tended by a Canadian. B suggested we could help ourselves to the fruit bushes he had dug up from this plot a few weeks ago. B thinks they're good enough to be re-planted.

Well, here's a photo of the 'Canadian' plot without the blackcurrant, the redcurrant and the mother-and-baby gooseberry bushes!

Lots of rain

This is what the lower end of the plot looked like on 16 January. One of the beds was completely flooded. The wheelbarrow belongs to D and was put together from three defunct wheelbarrows. We're allowed to borrow it whenever we want.

A bath has appeared

Our greenhouse has gutters but no water butt. So it made sense to ask B (who has lots of bits and pieces on his plots) if he was aware of any going free. By 8 January a tin bath was sitting there next to our greenhouse. It's apparently very resistant to frost. Well, not quite what we had in mind but we are getting used to the idea. All we need to do now is to find a downpipe diverter and a cover to stop evaporation.

December 2007

Here is a short film on our progress.



The to-be-cultivated part of the plot consists of plots A, B, C and D.

During 2008, we plan to grow:

A - peas and beans
B - miscellaneous/short-lived crops
C - roots
D - potatoes

Each of these plots is to be divided into four beds, so 16 in total. The idea is to have a raised beds system consisting of beds of 1.2 by 2.4 m with paths in between for easy maintenance. We're still debating how to separate the beds from the paths.

The first beds of plots A to D have been dug over, sown with Italian rye and covered with a white fleece to keep undesirables out. The rye is supposed to represent a "green manure", to be dug into the soil at a later stage.

Our immediate plot neighbours have been very welcoming. There is B who kindly lent the bricks to keep the fleece down. I asked him if he knew of any second-hand water butts. And there is D who has given us the use of his shed, the one marked "Ladies". On the remaining side is J - we have not met him yet.

End October 2007

This is what the plot looked like on 30 October 2007.