RAIN IN APRIL!
We did have 3 dry days in March so finally got some planting done – onion sets and the first 2 packets of parsnip seeds sown. We also got the brashings and prunings burned in a fine bonfire one lovely dry evening. The tiny trees we planted 8 years ago are now 20 feet high and it was time to prune off the lower branches to let in air and ensure decent quality timber – this is the process known as “brashing”.
One big plus of all this rain is the ease with which it allows the deep-rooted docks to be weeded out. It never ceases to amaze me how many new docks appear in soil which has been dutifully and carefully kept weed (and dock) free for more than 10 years. There must be billions of dormant seeds of all sorts lying in the soil. Over the winter a fairly generous spread of new docks have sprung up – about 2 wheel-barrows full for each 150 square metres of garden. I reckon my careful weeding process (always done before rotavating) takes about 2 hours for each of the 4 main beds. Quite a pleasant job on a winter's day although your boots get pretty claggy with wet soil.
We've planted 5 more fruit trees this winter – plums, mirabelle, black and white mulberry, pear and greengage. Unfortunately we now have a few hares which have somehow found their way into the garden – they've been munching the daffodils and damaging the unguarded young fruit trees. The plum blossom is out and the vines are sprouting in the greenhouse so spring is clearly under way. No doubt we shall have a drought next!
MAY WAS COLD
The very cold spring is rolling on! The compost has been spread, the docks weeded, the rotavator applied and the first batches of seeds sown. The apricot and plum blossom has faded while the apple blossom battles on under fierce April showers.
Peas, French beans and runner beans will be sown in May, but we already put up the string loom for the runners (well done Cecily!). We've sown 2 areas with wildflower mixture and planted 5 new fruit trees. We now have a lovely big resident hare in the field, so tree protection is required.
Yesterday I took two and a half hours to grub out and tidy the 10-year-old raspberry bed which had become hopelessly choked with weeds (as raspberry beds always do). I'll transplant the best of the canes later today.
Free Scything Workshops
As the popularity of the traditional scythe continues to grow, I will be conducting several free scythe workshops this year. Anyone interested please get in touch via the website – likely dates will be in late May and early June.
WET WEATHER CONTINUES IN JUNE
Slugs and more slugs – never seen anything like this in 30 years of gardening! Beer traps, sacrificial planting, careful tilling and hoeing, plenty of toads and frogs but still they munch and munch our little plants. Mercifully they don't like beetroot or parsnips and the peas seem to be just about holding their own but the bean crops are being devastated as well as salad and carrot.
Fortunately we've had a few days hot dry weather and this has allowed us to hoe and make a slug's life more difficult. The second sowing of runner beans is doing OK and even the second sowing of French beans is making headway.
Half the salad crop has been eaten and most of the carrot seedlings alas. Here are a few photos taken on 4 June.
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