Week 52+7 - Bed PC1

The garlic has grown well over the winter months, despite the frosts, wind and heavy rain.

Some of the young garlic plants have been pulled up by birds, but most of them have produced at least 2 leaves. The effect of the heavy rains on the surface of the soil is very visible. The hard rain drops break up the structure of the soil and flood the surface, which produces a hard capping of silt (there is very little clay in this soil) which cracks when dries. This cap will not prevent the garlic from growing but it does reduce the amount of rainwater that can enter the soil and will cause a certain amount of erosion from the beds into the paths. Careful cultivation to break up this cap will also cover the garlic bulbs, many of which are now standing proud of the surface.

Week 52+7 - Bed DD7

This bed is still fairly bare but the clover is starting to grow now that the weather is starting to warm up a bit.

Week 52+7 - Bed DD6

The Brussels Sprout plants in the foreground have not grown very big this season, and we missed harvesting many of the sprouts at their prime.

Week 52+7 - Bed DD2

We cultivated the soil around the garlic plants to kill off the weeds that were starting and to allow the rain to penetrate into the soil instead of running off the bed.

Week 52+7 - Bed EX8

The cover crop of grass continues to grow. It does not really matter if this is from the cover crop that we sowed a few months earlier, or from seeds within the soil, as they will both do the same job of preventing nutrients from leaching away in the heavy rains providing additional carbon to be dug into the soil later in the spring.

Week 52+7 - Bed EX7

The ryegrass cover crop continues to grow and will be dug int to ad fertility later in the spring. The north end of the bed is empty because the cover crop failed to sprout under the remains of the peas and broad beans.

Week 52+7 - Bed EX6

We left the remains of the harvested cabbage plant in the garden, hoping that this tall plant will produce a number of smaller heads.

The Purple Sprouting Broccoli at the south end of the bed has produced a central flower bud that is quite wide and segmented (though barely visible in this blurry photo). This might be due to damage caused by caterpillars earlier in the season.

Another broccoli plant has produced a more typical central bud.

Week 52+7 - Bed EX5

After tidying up this bed there are only 3 cabbage plants left, and only two of them are going to produce a head of cabbage.

The one cabbage plant is starting to produce small but tasty flower shoots.

The chard plants had a lot of old torn and rotting leaves removed to reveal a younger heart of leaves that are in much better condition - it is a shame that no one in the group seems to like chard.

Week 52+7 - Bed EX4

We carefully cultivated the soil surface to break up the hard capping that had formed through the heavy rain and the abrasive action of fleece being blown around by the wind.

The extent of the growth of this sacrificed pea seedling after 14 weeks can be seen in this (blurry) photo. The plant is being held at the soil level. The damage to the leaves can also be seen.

Week 52+7 - Bed EX2

The section of the bed in the foreground is missing some garlic and a few onions, probably due to curious or hungry birds pulling them up.

The onions have started to produce the third and fourth leaf.