Week 49 - Bed PC8

The growth of the green manure has come on quite a bit in the last two weeks.

Week 49 - Bed PC7

The last two weeks has seen a significant amount of growth in the cover crop.

Week 49 - Bed PC4

Most of what we have harvested recently from this bed is stunted and poor tasting. It hasn't been getting much attention, except as the subject of lessons on how to make this type of gardening more productive.

Week 49 - Bed PC3

The leeks are growing well in the fair late autumn weather ...

... and we have started to harvest some.

Week 49 - Bed PC2

Two weeks after planting the onion sets are starting to sprout ...

... barely visible in this blurry photograph.

Week 49 - Bed PC1

The garlic cloves planted in this bed are probably establishing the beginnings of the root system and will start to send up shoots in a few weeks.

Week 49 - Bed DD8

The greens continue to grow, and we have been doing some harvesting ...

... especially the mizuna (bottom) and rocket (top) which are really thriving.

The spinach is ready to harvest as well.

Week 49 - Bed DD7

We finally cleared the old pea plants out of this bed and failed to find any nitrogen fixing nodules on the roots. It is possible that any nodules that formed had fallen off when the plants died, but we suspect that the specific bacteria that form these beneficial nodules are not in this soil. This field contains many clover plants which have the nodules, but it is a different but species which forms the symbiotic relationship with plants from the bean and pea family.

This absence would make sense, given that peas and beans probably have not been grown in this field for many decades. The lack of this extra source of nitrogen probably reduced the yield of the peas. We will have investigate how to inoculate the soil before the next sowing of peas and beans.

Week 49 - Bed DD6

The remaining Rhubarb Chard plants have been pulled out, as have the red cabbage plants which had not grown well at all this season. The Swiss Chard and the Brussels Sprouts plants continue to grow reasonably well.

Week 49 - Bed DD5

We have harvested most of the larger leaves of the kale plants in the foreground ...
... leaving a mass of smaller leaves that will continue to grow.

Some of the sprouts are ready for harvesting.

Week 49 - Bed DD4

We cultivated this bed to remove the few struggling seedlings and weeds and sowed two long rows of:

• Aquadulce Claudia Broad Beans (two double staggered rows, 48 seeds) - an excellent autumn sowing variety which establishes itself very quickly and will produce a very early crop. It is white seeded with pods up to 23 cm long.

Before covering the seeds we added soil from another garden where peas and beans had grown earlier in the year, in an attempt to introduce nitrogen fixing bacteria which we have found to be absent from the plot.

Week 49 - Bed DD2

Week 49 - Bed DD1

We finally double dug this bed and cleared the section to the west (left side of photo) of grass which we added as fertility on top of the lower level that we loosened. We added a few buckets of well rotted horse manure, and this bed is not ready for planting, though we should add some more compost or other source of fertility in the spring.

Week 49 - Bed EX8

We finally cleared out the remains of the peas and broad beans, and as with elsewhere in the plots, there were not any nitrogen fixing nodules. It seems that the specific beneficial bacteria that form these symbiotic nodules on the roots of the peas and beans is not present in the soil of this field. This would make sense given that peas and beans have not been grown in this field for decades.
The poor yield peas and beans is probably due to this lack of additional nitrogen. We will have to find a way of introducing these bacteria to the soil before we plant any more peas.

Week 49 - Bed EX7

We finally pulled out the remains of the peas and broad beans at the far end of the bed and found that there were no nitrogen fixing nodules. This was the same with other plots and it seems that this does not have any of the bacteria species particular to the pea andbean family of plants. This absence would make sense, given that peas and beans probably have not been grown in this field for many decades. The lack of this extra source of nitrogen probably reduced the yield of the peas. We will have investigate how to inoculate the soil before the next sowing of peas and beans.

The ryegrass that we sowed as a cover crop is doing well, at least in the area that had been empty, but there is still no sign of clover or vetch.

Week 49 - Bed EX6

All of the brassicas in this bed are growing well in the late autumn weather.

One of the Purple Sprouting Broccoli has produced a central flower head, which is earlier than expected ...

... the Gortahork Cabbage continues to grow ...

... and Brussels Sprouts are almost ready for harvesting.

Week 49 - Bed EX5

We have harvested a few cabbages, which were small but tasty, and pulled a few out that were very small.

Week 49 - Bed EX4

The fleece has already been damaged, possibly by a dog, but it is still providing some protection.

The peas have sprouted and the first leaves are unfolding (though barely visible in this blurry photo).

Week 49 - Bed EX3

The parsnip leaves have really died back in the past few weeks.

The parsnip roots are usually left in the ground until later in the winter to subject them to a few hard frosts. This causes the roots to improve in taste and become sweeter.

Week 49 - Bed EX2

Three weeks after planting the garlic and onions have started to grow.

Week 47 - Bed PC8

There has not been a lot of growth after 8 weeks, and most of it seems to be weeds. The grass has sprouted, but there is no sign of the vetch and the clover in the bed.

Week 47 - Bed PC7

Eight weeks after sowing the grass has sprouted, and the clover in the paths is growing as well, but there is no sign of the vetch and clover that was planted as part of the Landsberger mix.

Week 47 - Bed PC6

Only the few brassicas are worth keeping in this bed, everything else is not worth keeping around.

Week 47 - Bed PC5

Some of the plants have had a late season growth spurt, but none of us want to harvest anything out of the bed after the horrible beetroot!

Week 47 - Bed PC4

The few dill plants have gone to seed and the carrots are struggling, but the parsnip seems to be growing well and are now dominating the bed.

Week 47 - Bed PC3

The leeks have grown quite a bit in the nine weeks since they were transplanted, but we did not plant them early enough for a big crop.

Week 47 - Bed PC2 Planting

We finished digging the bed (one spade depth) and incorporated 70L of well rotted horse manure. Into the resultant raised bed we planted a scattered mix of:

• Red Onion Sets - overwintering bulb onion (not sure which variety).
• Senshyu Onion Set - a Japanese overwintering variety, semi flat shaped with yellow/brown skins which mature in late June.

We ran out of sets, but most of the southern 2/3rds off the plot is covered.

Week 47 - Bed PC1 Planting

We cultivted this bed, removing quite a bit of stone from the lower level, but have not yet added any additional fertility. We will need to top dress this bed in the spring. Into the prepared bed we planted:

• Messidrome Garlic - a large overwintering garlic variety, with regular bulbs that are pink or pink marked.

Week 47 - Bed DD8

Many of the greens in this bed have grown very well, especially the rocket and mizzuna which have filled the one section. the corn salad failed to sprout, and some of the chard plants are missing - though I think that this might be due to careless weeding.

Week 47 - Bed DD7

There is some new growth on some of the pea plants, but most of the pods have been damaged by frost. The clover has sprouted but has not grown much. We sowed this cover crop too late in the season.

Week 47 - Bed DD5

The brassicas in this bed continue to grow and develop and we have started to harvest some of the kale leaves in the foreground.

The Brussels Sprout plants have not grown very large but the sprouts have started to form and will be ready to start harvesting in a few weeks.

Week 47 - Bed DD4

With the exception of a few scattered seedlings, nothing has grown in this bed (or else everything that sprouted has been eaten). This is possibly due to the cool conditions, or the low light levels under the fleece that covered the bed for a few weeks. A polytunnel might have helped. We will likely resow this bed with some overwintering plants.

Week 47 - Bed DD3

We pulled out the overgrown borage plants a few weeks ago, and the overshadowing effect on bed is clearly visible. The leeks in the centre of the bed are significantly smaller and are a much lighter colour.

Week 47 - Bed DD1

The bed is still empty waiting to be double dug.

Week 47 - Bed EX6

The caterpillar season has ended! Most of the brassicas seem relatively unaffected, but a few are very stunted.

The Gortahork Winter Cabbage is starting to form a head. This should get quite large, judging by the size of the plant, and will be ready to harvest later in the winter.

Week 47 - Bed EX4

As the weather is getting colder, we decided to cover this bed with a fleece to create warmer conditions for germination and to protect the seedlings from the strong winds and frost in this exposed plot.

Week 47 - Bed EX3

The parsnip leaves are starting to droop, allowing the leeks to poke through to full sun again.

Week 47 - Bed EX1

The plant on this bed were cleared a few weeks ago and the grass that had grown around the edges was dug up and piled on top. The two big stones were dug out of the adjacent bed EX2 when it was double dug. There is a lot of stones in this field (most of them much smaller than these) that form a dense layer about 25-30 below the surface.

Week 46 - Bed EX2 Planting

We cleared all of the dying plants off of this bed to prepare it for planting overwintering onions and garlic.
This bed was originally dug less than 6 months ago as a rough lazy bed by turning over the sod and loosing up the surface without adding any additional fertility. A very quick method of starting a garden, but not the best for the first planting. This time double dug this bed and removed a number of large stones and many smaller ones that had formed a hard pan about 25cm below the surface. This would have prevented the roots from easily reaching deep in the soil and restricted the availability of nutrients and water, reducing the yield and possibly stressing the plant during droughts. The original sod was mostly decomposed, but remnants of the roots still remained.
We mixed in approximately 60L of well rotted horse manure and created a relatively smooth seedbed into which we sowed one long row each of:

• Messidrome Garlic - a large overwintering garlic variety, with regular bulbs that are pink or pink marked.
• Red Onion Sets - overwintering bulb onion (not sure which variety).
• Senshyu Onion Set - a Japanese overwintering variety, semi flat shaped with yellow/brown skins which mature in late June.