More
bamboo structures, this time for sweet peas.
It seems hard to believe, but it’s a bit late for sowing some annual
flower seeds. I was at the garden centre
at the weekend with most of the local population who wanted to get out of the
rain and spent a happy half an hour looking at the sowing and planting times on
the backs of the packets. Most of them had to be in pots by April so I think if
we want a flush of colour in the garden it might have to be perennials this
year.
I did have a few trailing perennials in baskets last year,
I’m not sure what they are, but I think they were blue. I have divided them up
into 10 pots and they are doing well. It’s still early enough to plant most
salad crops. I eventually bought a packet of radish and some very attractive
pick and come again mixed mustard to add a bit of spice to the summer salads.
Inside or Out?
I’m finding it an enjoyable task deciding what to grow
inside or outside of the tunnel. I am, as always, edging my bets by sowing
leafy salad crops such as spinach both inside and out and I’ll probably do the
same with courgettes. The sweetcorn is inside as will be the tomatoes when they
are big enough to plant into the ground.
Water Sparingly
I’m being very sparing with the water in the tunnel. I have
the beds planted up in very neat and tidy rows, which is unusual for me as I
usually just plant in clumps cramming everything into raised beds. I am giving
the plants a bit more room and leaving enough space between the rows to get the
Dutch hoe in to keep the weeds down. The same system has been applied to the
peas and beans too. Planting the seeds in these tidy rows has made it easier to
water and weed. I made small trenches (about 1”deep) then just poured water
into the groove. I then lightly scattered the seeds in the row and covered up.
The visible wet soil helps me to continue watering just where it’s needed,
leaving the rest of the bed dry, which I am finding is keeping the weeds down.
As the plants mature I will no doubt have to water the whole bed, but for now,
in this damp weather, it’s keeping the tunnel far less humid. I have hoops at
either end of the beds with string tied to each side to finish off. This tells
me I have planted there and hopefully will keep the dogs off.
More Bamboo
My obsession of making structures from bamboo has continued
this week. I had a few shorter pieces left over after the peas and beans went
up so I have been making towers for the sweet peas to grow up. They only go up
to about three feet but are reinforced with some green jute string. Things like
this bring out the landscape designer in me as sometimes I prefer to just have
the structures than have plants growing all over them and covering things up.
Don’t tell anyone that though.
U turn
Last weeks wet weather uncovered a bit of an issue with how
the tunnel was set up. When the plastic
went over the structure I chose to dig it into the ground. I thought that would
give it more strength. The plastic goes into a foot deep trench and then soil
is backfilled into the hole on top of the plastic. To keep the plastic in place
it was recommended that it be in a U shape and the soil filling the centre.
This might work on an open space, but on my giant raised bed it looks like the
water had nowhere to go and the area around the tunnel filled up like a
swimming pool. I had a few floating nasturtiums. I did come up with a simple
solution though. I went around the perimeter of the tunnel with a garden for
and plunged it into the ground about 6” away from the tunnel making holes in
the plastic underground so the water has somewhere to go. Like a very wise
builder I worked with recently said. “Everything can be fixed”
I can plant herbs around the tunnel now.
