Week 45 - Bed DD2 Planting

We double dug the bed and added 100L of well rotted horse manure to the lower level of the bed. This will help to build up fertility through the full depth of the bed, but this bed should be top dressed with more in the spring. Into this bed we planted:

• Messidrome Garlic (22 rows of 6 cloves = 132 cloves) - a large overwintering garlic variety, with regular bulbs that are pink or pink marked.
  

Week 45 - Bed EX4 Planting

Nine weeks after sowing the winter crop of carrots, we have given up on them. We raked the bed, removing the few straggling carrots and weeds and prepared two long trenches into which we sowed:

• Douce Provence Pea (.5 long double row) - hardy round seeded traditional French pea, can sow Oct/Nov for overwinter crop, excellent crop of tender podding peas on plants 1M high
  
• Meteor Dwarf Pea (1.5 long double rows) - an early hardy variety ideal for both autumn and spring sowing, grows to 35cm high

Before covering the seeds we added soil from another garden where peas had been grown this past year, in an attempt to inoculate the soil with nitrogen fixing bacteria. Both of these pea varieties are hardy and can can be sown in the autumn for harvesting earlier in the spring. The site might be too harsh for these peas but it is worth the experiment, and it will enable the inoculation of the soil with the nitrogen fixing bacteria.

Week 40 - Bed PC8

A clean freshly dug and newly seeded bed.

Week 40 - Bed PC7

A clean, freshly seeded bed.

Week 40 - Bed PC6

We have given up on this bed for a while now. There looks to be stuff to harvest, but anything that we have has not tasted great, or has tough.

The kale is small compared to other plants of the same variety in the other plots.

The Brussels Sprouts are beginning to form at the base of the leaf stems.

We harvested the last of the beetroot (the pink ringed variety) but they did not taste good.

The perpetual spinach plant suddenly seems to be doing well.

There are some patches of mealy bugs on the brassicas, which we brushed off.

Week 40 - Bed PC5

The growth in this bed has really grown to a halt. A few plants struggle on, but nothing is doing well. We continue to pull up the plants that go to seed, but this bed needs much more attention. We have basically given up on it for the year.

We pulled up one of the beetroot to see how it tasted raw and it was disgusting, inedible really. This is what happens to many vegetable that or are stunted because they do not get what they need from the soil.

Week 40 - Bed PC4

Despite the lack of growth, there is a great mix of leaf shapes and textures in this bed.

Week 40 - Bed PC3

The leeks seem to have recovered quickly from being transplanted, and if we get some decent weather they will continue to grow right through to winter.

Week 40 - Bed PC2

We finally dug this bed, well most of it, burying the sod but we did not dig through the compacted rock pan about 30cm down due to lack of time. This will have to be broken up if the bed is going to be productive in the future.

Week 40 - Bed PC1

The two nights of early frost that we had last week have put an end to any further growth in this bed, which is a shame because another month's growth would have allowed some of the fruit to mature.

A few small Ebisu pumpkins have grown, and they do not seem to have been affected by the frost. We will wait a few weeks to see if they mature at all.

The darker patch on largest of the Uchiki Squash shows that it has been damaged by the frost. Even if the fruit had matured it will not keep at all with frost damage and will likely start to rot. We will pick it in a few weeks to see what happens.