19 March 2024

Life vs gardening: not enough hours in the day

March is a busy month for me, partly because it's the start of the gardening year for my climate.  But my life is also busy with two birthdays, plus work, school, and extracurricular activities.  Often I feel like there just isn't enough time in the day to get everything done; there's just too much to do.

Close up of a bright yellow daffodil
Only two daffodils this year: not enough! March 2024
I sowed my broad beans individually in pots and toilet paper tubes more than a month ago and finally I've seen a couple start to emerge: about 5 from 160+ (so far).  It's been kind of cold for the past several weeks so I hope they've just been biding their time now that it's warmed up to above 12C.  

I do really need to get some more seeds going, but I've held back because of the cold.  This past weekend was the first nice weather we've had for a while, but it coincided with those unavoidable life events (the son's orchestra concert and the daughter's birthday party).  I did at least manage to drag the husband and daughter up to the allotment for an hour afterward.  And then stopped by after work/school with the daughter yesterday.

Multiple bare brown branches covered in pink blossom
Almond still in flower, March 2024
Luckily seeds earmarked for March usually still have enough growing time when started in April instead, and our two week Easter break from school/work is coming up very soon.  However, I better get most of it done in those two weeks, or I'll have missed my chance.

12 March 2024

At the allotment, March 2024

The son and I have been gradually sheet mulching at the allotment, one weekend at a time.  When are we not gradually sheet mulching, though?  Except in the height of summer, we're always at it.  Winter is the best time for it, but early spring works too.  I've got several large pieces of old carpet I've collected over time which I've laid down on our paths, and this weekend I moved some to the very front of the allotment next to the gravel road.  This is more of a long-term grass control than the sheet mulch, but obviously can't be planted--unlike the sheet mulch.  Instead I'm collecting all my planters and large containers for that front carpeted area this year.  Maybe next year I'll shift it all to a new area and use this area for more sheet mulch and planting.

A pair of untrimmed leeks soaking in a white plastic tub
Lovely leeks, Mar 2024

The only thing really growing at the allotment is the garlic bed, planted out last autumn.  It looks good, growing strongly.  I have a few last spindly leeks and the rhubarb is just sprouting up;  we've eaten both of these within the last week.  I'm ready to get planting but it's still a little cold for most seeds.  Need to wait a bit longer.

I did start 160+ broad bean seeds in toilet paper tubes and individual small pots back in the middle of February but I've yet to see them emerge;  they are still stacked up on my patio table.  These will be the first to plant out just as soon as they show me some leaves.  Hopefully they aren't just going moldy...

Lots of peeled, raw parsnip pieces soaking in a white plastic tub
The last of 2023's (so sweet) parsnips waiting for dinner, Mar 2024
 

I have sketched out a plan for growing at the allotment this year (in pencil, subject to erasure), focusing on just a few main production crops including broad beans and snap peas, corn, squash, tomatoes, leeks and beets.  Then I will also hopefully get my lettuce and pickling cucumbers in planters and maybe I will get climbing beans in the ground somewhere as well (if not, I'll grow them at home in the kitchen garden).  

I haven't sketched a garden plan as such, but I'm also limiting varieties to just a few, mainly cabbage, kohl rabi, zuc and parsnip;  and then following on with late season/successional crops:  radish, fennel, pak choy.  I can't grow these at the allotment because of pest pressure, but the ducks have sorted that out for me at home.

05 March 2024

Feathered friends working (and photos!)

 

A small girl stands inside French doors with a view of a garden and laundry on a washing line outside
The daughter (age almost-4) and the back door
I can go out my back door!  This has been possible since the start of December actually.  And I can take pictures too!  This has always been possible...

The laundry line had to be relocated when the old umbrella-style one broke last year.  Now my laundry sometimes blocks my view of the garden, although this time of year the view is a bit dismal.  Have a look.

A mostly bare garden bed with detritus strewn about, with a washing line full of laundry hanging in front of a house
The not so beautiful view

On the bright side, the micro-climate of the patio does make the laundry dry faster than when I used to hang it out in the middle of the lawn.  

The chickens tractored the veg beds for me over a week or two (chicken tractor on the right, reflecting light) except the far edge at the left, still growing a couple pak choy, fennel, and strawberry plants. 

Two small fennel plants growing in mostly bare ground with some wire surrounding some small pak choy plants behind
Feathery fennel in front, pak choy fortress at back

I've sent those four hard working chickens back into the yard with the rest of the flock;  we started the tractor with the four non-laying oldies, but their work ethic was pathetic so we swapped to the younger still-laying hens who completed the job admirably.  I may let them have another pass before I start planting--it's a little cold for most seeds still, and there are still a few weeds here and there.

A colorful hen perched on an oil drum inside a chicken yard, with other chickens on the straw beneath her
Three of the four oldies in their yard

The two ducks have had a good amount of free range, slurping up all the slugs and snails.  I like to have them out on patrol, but they poo so much!  So I lock them back in their large yard for a week out of every three, to give the rain/worms/etc time to clean up.  Incidentally, Boy Duck is obsessed with the new back door:  he comes charging up to it several times a day and pecks it with his muddy beak (Girl Duck has absolutely no interest in it whatsoever).  I should have chosen a brown door instead.

Two duck eggs in a secret nest surrounded by ivy
Thank you, Girl Duck!

27 February 2024

Trimming and planting trees

The whole family worked to trim back the very overgrown hawthorn hedge last weekend, collecting a very big pile of sticks and branches for next year's wood pile.  We treat this hedge more as a coppice, and it's on a 5-7 year cutting rotation.  We cut a few last winter too and this winter took down the rest.  South facing, it has let in a lot of light!  But I liked tall green wall it gave us as well, so I don't mind the overgrowth either.  I expect a lot of new growth this spring.

The husband was in charge of the electric saw, I commandeered the loppers, and the son was on transport duty.  The daughter helped by digging holes quietly in the far part of the garden, away from all the sharp stuff.  

I mentioned to the husband that the laurels need it too, but not until later in the year;  they are part of the same hedge, both planted by a previous owner.  Although laurels can be cut back hard too--even to the ground--I don't coppice them in the same way as the hawthorns;  unlike the hawthorns, they grow in the shade of the mature horse chestnut tree and block out the view of at least three neighbors.  A welcome privacy feature, I treat them as an actual hedge and try to just trim them back every other year or two.

And on the subject of trees, the husband also planted out a pot grown quince that I started from seed several years ago;  our local greengrocer used to sell quinces, and over a few winters I scattered seeds in several planters on my patio, with fingers crossed.  Well, two are still alive:  one that was planted out last year (and we'd thought died in a hot/dry spell, but happily has new growth) and this one, a year younger.  The first is planted against the fence and the second is near the chicken yard, free standing.

20 February 2024

February sowing and pruning

More than a hundred broad bean seeds later, I've almost run out of small pots.  Hopefully they sprout quickly so I can transplant, otherwise I will run out!  They are all stacked up in trays on my patio table now, waiting for a leaf or two to emerge.  I don't normal start these in pots, but I decided to try it this year, to improve on survival rates (I would estimate that my usual pre-sprouting and then sowing direct sometimes results in 25% or less survival:  pretty bad).

I sowed some warm season seeds in trays for my kitchen windowsill for later pricking out:  tomatoes, chilis, etc.   I used to sow these individually in modules but I don't bother now:  it takes up too many trays.  I sow at least two or even three different kinds of seed in a tray with a little stick as a divider, and label which side is which;  I will prick them out into modules or well spaced in trays and then pot on to small pots as they grow.  These take a lot of babying!  But I like growing and eating them.

In anticipation of an apple harvest this year--my little trees have produced biennially ever since I planted them and last year had no apples--I very lightly pruned them, taking care not to cut any branches with buds on them.  The Sparta tree had twenty or more water sprouts without any buds; the Laxton Fortune is less vigorous (and a partial tip bearer unlike Sparta) so I took only about three smaller branches off, all of which were growing too high/in the wrong direction.  Both trees grow against my fence and I prune/train them down to within my reach, about 2 m tall;  this is only necessary once a year to keep them in their allotted spaces.  Luckily the growth can be kept in check easily with a pair of hand loppers.

I also pruned my fig tree and its companion grape vine, trying to keep them both within their own spaces too.  I have to be careful not to let the vine overspread onto next door's conservatory--which it is planted next to--but onto its own arbor.  To that end, I keep it pruned down to one main stem growing up one of the arbor supports.  I have to pull off wayward shoots during the growing season too, about once a month.

The last winter pruning to do is the roses and currants (black, red and white).  I have some nicely rooted redcurrant cuttings from two years ago that need transplanting;  it's so easy to get currant cuttings rooted:  take some pruned wood, stick it in the ground, leave until next winter.  I save all the other woody prunings for my kindling pile.

13 February 2024

Starting off the new season

At the weekend the whole family went up to the allotment for a bit of sheet mulching, the first visit there since the end of December.  Not much had changed, other than the garlic sprouts being marginally taller.  We had to track down a couple of composter lids which had blown away (one near, one a bit far) and get the roof back on the chicken house--luckily all chickens are safe at home though their roof here needed a quick fix recently too.  I brought home three leeks;  there are about three still growing, my total for this season.  

Also at the weekend I got down my boxes of seeds and went through all the packets, throwing out some very old seed and organizing the rest by which month I will sow it:  I have little dividers marked Jan-June.  I also threshed the few dried bean pods I'd saved in the summer for seed--when I have a lot of bean or pea pods I put them in a cloth bag and whack it with a stick like a pinata, but there were only a few dozen so I just broke them open by hand;  I'll look forward to sowing these in April.

I have several packets of seed to sow indoors this month: tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, chilis, eggplant; and broad beans outdoors.  In the past I usually pre-sprout the broad beans in a small plastic bag of damp compost in my garage;  once most of them have a little white root sprout, I sow them in the ground.  While pre-sprouting is more successful than just direct sowing them straight from the packet, it's still hit and miss--mice/birds/slugs/whatever seem to get a lot of them anyway.  I'm going to individually sow them in pots and toilet paper tubes this year using my waste wool method in the hopes I have better success.  It's more work to have to transplant 150-ish starts but if that means I get 150 plants, that's worth it.

We gave the chicken tractor a quick tune up (it needed a little bit of waterproofing material on the roof ridge), and after more chicken wrangling than seemed strictly necessary, it's up and running.  My veg patch at home needs some serious scratching and pecking, so half of the flock is hard at work while the other half (the newest rescues) are looking on longingly from their yard--it really only fits four chickens at most.  I still don't know which is preferable to a chicken:  the very small tractor which gets fresh ground every day, or the much larger yard which gets muddier every day (though we also raked in a pile of garden debris at the weekend so it's not quite as muddy now).  In one they have enough space to walk about five paces one way and three the other, but like I mentioned it has fresh plants/grass/weeds/bugs every day;  the other they can run laps and flap up to different levels if they like, but it's a mudbath this time of year.

06 February 2024

Eating all that squash

If you recall, I really outdid myself with squash in 2023.  We are down to 12 from 21 in total, still hanging out in the living room:  the "small" ones are lined up on the windowsill and the remaining four Big Ones in the corner on their own cotton mat.  Many of the "small" ones are actually bigger than those I have grown in previous years--I would call them "big" if it weren't for the massive ones on the floor!

So how to get through (at an estimate) around 150 lbs of squash?  Well, first off it's luckily a very good keeper.  The son and I harvested these in mid-October and the majority of them have stayed perfectly sound with no special treatment.  A couple started to develop a soft spot, but were discovered quickly;  after cutting out the soft spot, the rest of the squash was still good to eat, which we did.  

The big squashes have been mainly simmered in the slow cooker, pureed and then frozen in muffin pans to make nice little portions.  We do this for quite a few things;  after freezing, the "muffins" go into a freezer bag.  I can take out the portion I need easily.  I particularly like to put a couple into a stew to thicken it up, and if paired with a tablespoon of vinegar, makes the stew look and taste as though it has tomatoes in the broth.  Not sure if it would work as a tomato substitute for something like pizza, but maybe I should try.

The puree is also a tasty side vegetable in its own right, particularly with some butter swirled in, and I have used it in place of mashed potato for the top of shepherd's pie too.  It's rather like sweet potato in taste, color and texture.  Of course it makes a great pumpkin pie too.

The smaller, easier to chop squashes--i.e. the ones that don't require a hatchet--are very nice cut into bite size pieces for stir fry, stew, curry, etc.  Big or small, I don't peel them as there is no difference in taste or texture with the skin and flesh.  However, I don't bother trying to cook/eat the seeds as they have a very woody outer casing;  I have some saved for this year's planting, but the chickens can have the rest.