First planting of the year!

Welcome back to Reads Retreat. Yesterday the weather forecast promised much but failed to deliver, the sky remained overcast and there was still a chill in the air. And as you all know, I'm still not feeling 100%. But, that doesn't stop the enthusiasm from welling up inside - there so much springing into life in the garden, and I so wanted to do "something" !. A quick trawl through my seed box, and i came across an open packet of Pea seed (v. Kelvedon Wonder) from last year, with about 30 seeds left inside. The bed pictured was home last year to our dwarf yellow french beans, which we were going to plant in the same place again this year, and maybe we still can if i can get the timing right, but we have gambled by planting these pea's now to try for an early crop - hopefully around May time? The bed has been covered in fleece; mainly to stop the cats from shitting in the bed, but also to help keep some heat in there to aid germination. Fingers crossed as always!

Our Asparagus bed has had a generous extra top layer added, mainly consisting of spent compost from last years grow bags / tomato pots, and the bed covered with a mesh frame. We're keeping everything croosed here ! As the plants settled in to their second winter, 8 out of the original 10 crowns we planted were still going well. Now it's just a case of wait and see if we get a crop this year. We should do, with crowns now being over 2 years old. I know its still early days in terms of an asparagus bed, as this should crop for 20 years or so if well looked after!
We'll keep you posted!¬ If you have any tips to help us along, please leave your comments.


The other beds in the garden are nearly all weeded now, and we're covering them as we go with weed prevention membrane. I'm a big fan of this material, it lets the moisture through, but stops light getting in and hence stops weed growth. Also, keeps the bloomin' cats at bay!

That's all for now. Hope you are all enjoying your gardens & plots - there's so much to do.

Finally, a Very Happy Mother's day to all concerned xxx



Take care all,

TTFN.

Spuds are sprouting!

Welcome back to Reads Retreat, where we bring you the good news that our spuds are sprouting already ! I know it's hard to see from the picture, but 3 of the 4 tubers are sprouting. The largest is at the 1 o'clock position in the pic!
It certainly is a reassuring sight, i was beginning to think we had left it too late for these to grow. But, wouldn't it be nice to dig them Christmas morning, and eat them the same day !
Not much else to report from RR. The wind and rain continues virtually unabated, and not much is getting done with the raised beds. If there's an opportunity today, I will cut back the asparagus fronds, and cover the bed with a layer of home made compost.

Hope you will pop back soon for more updates .

Till then, enjoy your gardening,

TTFN

Toms and Leaf Mould !

Welcome back to Reads Retreat, after what seems like a very long time! Our absence has been partly due to the inclement weather, as well as a couple of other factors. Mum #2 has been a tad ill of late, and we have been visiting her on a regular basis. Thankfully she is going home today, and we'll be off to see her soon. I have also been a tad ill, and am just getting over a bout of Viral Pleurisy.
On the garden front, the raised beds are very nearly finished in terms of this years growing. There's still a few Beetroot growing, but that really is about it. The fronds on our Asparagus crowns are starting to yellow, and these will soon be cut back for the winter. Over the next couple of months we'll be adding some manure as a mulch dressing, and we'll probably use the spent compost from our tomato tubs on this bed too. The raised beds have really struggled with the dry summer, and the soil was really baked and starting to open up large cracks. The level of the soil has also sunk somewhat, and again this will be replenished over the winter.
Our previous post regailed the news of our last tomato harvest - hehehe - how wrong we were! The picture above is of our last harvest. There's a good mixture therein, including Yellow Pear, Gardeners Delight, and Moneymaker. Clearly the majority are not ripened, and will be used in green tomato chutney (anyone got a good recipe?), to add to our store cupboard!
The only other item to report today is that we have started collecting leaves to use as leaf mould. There's a lot of praise for this soil conditioner, and although it will take a good year to rot down into something useful, it is free. On that basis we'll give it a go. There's plenty of falling leaves in our driveway, and we'll collect these and see how we get on! We'll store them in a garden refuse sack in the corner of the plot, and keep our fingers crossed for next year!

That's all for now folks, but pop back soon for more updates from Reads Retreat.

TTFN.

Oh no, more snow!

Welcome back to Reads Retreat, our home plot guide to growing your own veg in Raised Beds. (Picture taken this morning, trying out a Sepia filter on my digital camera).
As you can see, the snow has once again returned, but thankfully at this time of year, it won't pose any problem as the plot is mostly dormant. There's a few straggly Leeks left to pull, and some tiny Beetroot waiting to get picked and pickled. All that's really left then is the late winter clear up. The bed at the back is the newly planted Asparagus bed, planted using the Lasagne bed technique to get the ground into shape as the plants grow. As i can't get out to the plot or the allotment, I may take some time out to sort the box of seeds out? That'll pass an hour or so!

Pop back soon for more updates from Reads Retreat.

TTFN

Lasagne Beds - April Fools ?

Welcome back to Reads Retreat, our guide to growing your own veg in raised beds.Earlier in the week I took delivery of a new order from Victoriana Nurseries, who are based at Challock in Kent. In the past I have ordered only dribs and drabs from this renowned supplier, And I have been eagerly watching the postman for a few days now!

This latest order included a Red Currant Bush (v.Rondom) Bare Rooted, a Rhubarb Plant (v.Victoria), 10 off Asparagus Plug Plants (v. Jersey Knight), a packet of Climbing Pea Seeds (v. Victorian Colossal Climbing), and a packet of Sweetcorn seeds (v.Swift Early).The package that arrived was somewhat larger than I had been expecting, and I was not sure how well the plants would have survived the postal service. Imagine then my delight when I opened the packaging and found all was well. This order had obviously been packed by someone who cares about what they do for a living. The Rhubarb plant looked fresh and full of vigor, as did the redcurrant bush, the latter having it's bare roots neatly enclosed in a polythene sack. The asparagus plugs were also well wrapped, undamaged, and still in their original "plug" shape, in spite of the fact that the root balls were quite moist. The accompanying packs of seed, like the rest of the produce, came complete with detailed information on propagation and growing, not the sort of thing you come to expect of plants by post. To say that I was impressed would be an understatement.Having ordered this lot a few days earlier, I had been kept away from the veg beds and the lottie, by the continued cold spell, and was keen to be doing some sort of "Gardening". With that in mind, I had been browsing the Feb 09 issue of the "Grow your own veg" magazine, which i got as a gift subscription from wtb. It was in there that I chanced upon an article entitled "Lasagne Beds". After checking the front cover to make sure it was not the April 1st Edition, I eagerly read on.

This bed system is utilised mainly where you want to create a Raised Bed, without digging and weeding the soil to start with. Often the hardest part in creating raised beds is the soil preparation required before you start; which is often hard work, especially on hard compacted ground that has never been worked. All you need to do once you have constructed your borders (I use scaffold planks) is cover the base with a good thick layer of newspaper, use a watering can to fully soak the paper, then cover with a layer of general purpose / home made compost to about 2" depth. This layering is then repeated until your bed is filled to the level you want. When you have finished, you will have a good layer sufficient for seed sowing / plug planting, and the "Lasagne" layers will rot down whilst at the same time preventing the base layer of weeds from growing, by excluding light from them. At the same time, worms will thrive in this new environment of moist soil and get to work breaking all the humus down. Newspaper also contains the trace element Carbon, which is useful in sustaining healthy plant growth.

The Raised Bed at Reads Retreat that I am going to turn into my Asparagus bed will use this method to top dress the existing bed content. Last season I grew my Climbing French Beans in this space, so the soil that is already there contains a large amount of organic kitchen waste, as well as the Nitrogen bearing roots which I left in the ground this winter to rot down. The reason I'm trying this layering method is that I hope it will help keep the weeds down which in turn should mean that I can leave the bed alone for a greater amount of time. At least the weeding wont be such a chore, and the newly planted asparagus plug plants shouldn't get disturbed too much.

Watch this space to see how I get on. Pictures to follow!

TTFN.