Beds two and four ready for spuds

Ready for spuds

I was feeling the after effects of digging yesterday, and I was going to take the day off, but the weather was so good (and promises to turn colder and rainy soon) that I went out and dug bed four. 

Both two and four now have the green manure (forage rye) dug in, along with a few handfuls of slow-release fertiliser pellets. You're supposed to dig compost in a month or two before planting potatoes, but mine isn't ready yet. I picked out stones as I went, and the soil now appears to be good tilth, with some organic matter, which should be ideal. Fingers crossed.

Potatoes are traditionally planted on Good Friday, which is April 6th this year, but mine might go in earlier if it is warm.  They are chitting nicely, and apparently you only need to wait for the soil to warm up.

Green manure

Green manure, cut and ready to dig in

The potatoes currently chitting on the windowsill are going to go into beds two and four, where I was experimenting with green manure. The forage rye I grew there got to about 6" high, growing quite thickly over the area. It needs to be dug in about 4-6 weeks before the following crop, so today I cut it down with shears. I'll let it wilt for a few days, then dig the beds over.

I don't think it was worth it in terms of time and money - the soil appears to be in good condition and green manure is really a treatment for heavy clay soils or nutrient-poor soils, so I think I just made a couple of extra tasks for myself. Next year I doubt I'll bother with green manure.

Leaf mold

Making Leaf mold

I gathered together the fallen leaves from under the cherry and apple trees, and bagged them up into bin liners. The weather has been very wet recently, and the soggy leaves will rot down in a year or two to make a fine soil improver called leaf mold. The leaves directly under the cherry were still dry, so I moved them onto the grass to get wet, and I will bag them in a couple of days.

This was brought on by today's purchase of a spring rake. £2.99, made in China. It has a slightly flimsy feel, but worked well enough.

Beds five and six

In progress...

... and finished.

Beds five and six are done now, and with the help of the soil sieve the top 6" or so are largely stone-free. The soil is soft and well-aerated, with some structure - it forms crumbs about the size of a pea quite easily. Looking at descriptions of soil types in a gardening book I think it counts as a sandy loam.

The first signs of germination of the rye appeared today - a lot of the seeds have sprouted tiny roots. There is no sign that birds or mice have eaten any, so I sowed bed four with the rest of the rye.

I have marked out the last two beds with string, and I will plant them with alliums as soon as they've been dug. Beds seven and eight are noticeably sunnier than five and six, so the alliums are going in those. I need to find plants that can be sown now, and don't require full sunlight, to go in five and six. If there's nothing suitable I may sow more rye, or try another green manure crop.

Start

The garden as it was initially

This is a blog for recording my progress in turning a long-neglected garden into a vegetable plot.

The part which receives the most sunlight is shown in its original state, as it was when I moved in. The area is very uneven, due to the presence of many red ants who have made ant hills everywhere, and the vegetation is mostly couch grass, which is notoriously hard to get rid of.
The soil is very light in texture, that is to say that the particles are large (mostly sand, not silt or clay). This makes it easy to dig, but rain sinks through it very quickly and leaches out nutrients. The pH is 7.0, so it is neither acid nor alkaline, which should suit most vegetables.

Post-strimming, with two beds dug.

I got someone in to strim the area, and cut back the large Buddleia bushes and brambles in the soon-to-be-vegetable plot. It made the area look enormous. Gulp!

Before winter sets in, I hope to dig eight 6' by 6' beds, in two strips of four - there is a noticeable change in ground level where the apple tree is, so I will have an upper area and a lower one.

Here are the first two dug, and a third area also marked out with string. Notice the large ant-hill in the un-dug third bed. There were only a few ants in the nearest bed, but I saw a lot more digging the second.