Growing

Since my last post, I really haven’t spent much time in the garden – between an injured leg (now recovered), a vacation, and – most recently – a bad cold, I have really been neglecting the poor thing. Taking a walk around today, I feel shamed.

I harvested my last broad beans over 3 weeks ago, but have only just cleared the trough for further planting. Remembering to cut all the stems just above ground level, leaving the roots in place. This evening I’ll dig them well in, as they contain lots of valuable nitrogen.

I had the morning off today, so I thought I would go out in the sun and dig over a couple of my veg troughs, ready for spring planting. The veg troughs being waist height (well, hip height on me) it is fairly kind to the back, using a hand fork and trowel.

It hasn’t been a very productive year this year. It was nothing to do with the weather, or soil conditions; it was simply a case of procrastination and laziness, and not getting things into the earth when I needed to. It’s true that the late spring threw me, but I have nothing to blame but myself. I’ve just annoyed myself by walking around the garden, and thinking what I could have planted to over-winter.

In August, I posted about how some tomato plants had grown amongst my sugar snap peas; due, I think, to seeds making their way into the veg trough via my wormery.

I mentioned that the plants I had been considering weeds turned out to be tomatoes seeded via my wormery. I was right, and I now have tomatoes!

My carrots have come on well, and are a dense thicket of growth. I’ve left it very late to thin them, and was concerned that in pulling up the carrots I want to thin, I’ll disturb the ones I want to grow.