Completed digging... really

Courgette bed

I've written "that's the last of the digging" posts before, but this really is the last of the digging for this growing season. I'd planned to put some courgettes in bed zero when the turnips and spinach currently there had come and gone, but the almost continual overcast of the last few weeks has meant that they've hardly grown at all.

My courgette seedlings are now getting too big for their pots, so I had to dig a new bed for them.

The other advantage of a new bed is that I can take a couple of inches of earth from it to mix with the pig manure, which will give me enough soil to earth up the potatoes. That's tomorrow's job though.

Digging finished

Small bed for runner bean wigwam

The last of this year's planned digging is done, a small bed under the apple tree for runner beans. I've dug in some of the compost from the first heap since beans are greedy plants, but I had to pick through it and put a lot of half-rotted stuff back in the heap. I should really have waited until it was all properly composted. 

The beans will be planted in late May or early June, so there is time for a quick crop of something else. I'll probably transplant the turnip seedlings there.

Overflow potato bed

Potato bed

Doing some calculations on the back of an envelope, I found that there wasn't enough room in the two beds earmarked for potatoes for all the seed potatoes I've got chitting on the windowsill. The early potato plants need to be about a foot apart each row, and the rows need to be about two feet apart, the maincrop potatoes want slightly more space than that.

To take the excess, I've dug a new long bed. It's a bit wider than I need, and I will plant the potatoes on the north edge, and use the other half for short, fast-growing things - possibly radishes, or maybe more lettuces.

That is almost all the digging I plan to do this year, the only thing left is a small bed (about four feet square) for a runner bean wigwam. I'll probably put that in the space between beds four and five. The beans won't be going in until late May, but I ought to dig it soon and mix in some organic matter.

New bed dug

Bed 11

After making a dog's dinner of a job interview this morning, I took advantage of the sunny weather and indulged in some therapeutic digging. Bed eleven is done, and will probably be used for lettuce and other salad leaves, since it is on the shady side of the garden, like beds nine and ten.

Lettuce bed

New bed, intended for lettuce

I finished digging a new bed today, which I'd started a while ago. Frost delayed more work for some time, but the last few days have been mild and the ground has now thawed out. This bed is intended for lettuce, rocket, and other salad leaves - it is more shaded than the other beds, and lettuce doesn't need full summer sun.

Garlic growing, new bed dug

Yesterday I dug a new bed, 6' by 4', labelled '0' on the map. I also cut a small round area of turf out for a raspberry cane, which led to me removing a lot of blackberry roots near the holly bush. The ground was quite wet due to all the recent rain, which made cutting the turf much easier, but meant that I couldn't use the soil sieve. I just picked out the biggest pebbles. Beds 5 & 6 are the most thoroughly de-stoned, because I dug them just after getting the sieve! I will plant carrots and other root crops in them because they don't like stony ground.

About half of the garlics are now showing growing tips, and almost all of the onions now have at least a couple of inches of green shoot. Because a few got broken by some trampling animal, I hammered in six pegs around the bed and strung wires between them about 4" off the ground. I hope they will keep cats and foxes off.

Garden layout

Here is an updated garden layout diagram, showing the new blackcurrant and other features such as the former site of a shed, now just slabs, and the compost heap.

For the thrill-seekers, here is a picture of the compost heap:

Compost heap.

Modified plan

Bed one now has 60 peas in two rows, and I've planted cabbage seeds in half of bed three. Having done that, I realised that 6' x 6' is too wide, and it is going to be difficult to get to the plants in the middle.

I've modified the plan for the higher area, beds five to eight, and I am going to make them only 4' wide. I'm also going to leave a small path in the middle to make access easier, so the new plan looks like this. Having a path between beds six and seven also means that I can grade and plant five and six before having to dig the last two, which is good because I have some Japanese onions and garlic which I want to put in soon.

Yesterday I bought a soil sieve, which speeds up the stone removal process, and leaves a lovely fine tilth, which will be good for the alliums and also for carrots.

Another job done today was removing the large sapling near bed one - I thought it was a maple, but in fact it was a sycamore. I was thinking of planting a hazelnut tree there, but reading up on them I find that they are self-infertile, so I would need two. There are also a lot of squirrels in the neighbourhood, so it might be a lot of money and effort with no crop to show for it. This part of the plan requires further thought, but there's no hurry - I don't think this is the right time of year for planting new trees.

Third bed

I've drawn a diagram (not very accurately) of the layout I want to make - the eastern beds (1-4) at the bottom of the garden are on slightly lower ground, and receive the best of the sunlight, so I've started there. So far 1-3 are de-turfed and have had the bigger pebbles removed. Tomorrow I intend to dig and de-pebble bed 4,  and grade the whole patch. That'll be a big job, but I can't plant in any of them until it's done. After that, I'll sow seeds in all four beds:

1. Winter grazing rye, a green manure.
2. Brassicas, initially kale (Nero di Toscana) and cabbage (Advantage F1).
3. Winter grazing rye.
4. Legumes, initially broad beans (Aguadulce) and peas (Meteor).

The kale should have been sown by the end of September according to the packet, but with the weather being very warm (and forecast to stay warm for a while) it should be OK, I hope. That's why I'm in a hurry to get the first four beds dug, de-pebbled, and graded.

I'm not sure yet about the higher section (beds 5-8) - I will probably plant alliums, try to prepare a bed for potatoes, and do at least one and maybe two more beds of rye. This is just a place-holder and soil improver until it's time for the main planting season in Spring.

Horrible looking thing, with glove finger for scale.

De-turfing the third bed today, I saw  more ants than in either of the first two beds, and I saw black ants among the red ones. Some ants steal the pupae of nearby ant colonies of different species, and when they hatch the abducted ants work in the abductors' colony. I assume that's what happened here.

Right in the middle of the ant colony, among all the eggs and grubs, I found this horrible looking thing. Looking at images of larvae on the web, I think it was a stag beetle larva. I say was, because it was gone by the time I'd taken the camera back inside - I expect a bird ate it. I'm sorry about that, because they're a declining species.