Week 1
We’ve been eating the broccoli and kale this week. I usually
wait until the spring and eat the new shoots but I thought we would make a
start on them as we have more than usual. I’m not sure why but this year none
of the plants got eaten by caterpillars. There’s hardly a nibble out of any of
the leaves. I’m not sure if it was the positioning of them, not putting them in
the tunnel or the fact that Klaus (Laitenbergher, who I bought the seeds from)
has developed a super strain of plants that fight off the cabbage white.
Whatever the reason it means I don’t need to wait for new growth to appear
before we can eat it, which is a first for me. I tend to start off well
protecting the plants but after a few times of nipping off the caterpillars I
get a bit complacent and let them get on with it.
We do still have a few other vegetables for harvesting.
Amazingly the courgettes are still producing and the odd tomato keeps appearing
and the beetroot and spinach are still providing for the table. I am aware of
loads of work piling up, such as weeding and cutting back but I’m going to let
nature do the hard work, then I can just step in and finish tidying. I am a big
believer in just going out and doing even ten minutes work as often as possible
to stop anything piling up on me so I have cleared up the leaves that fell this
week, planted the garlic and brought a few tender plants indoors. It’s not much
but it all helps to keep on top of things.
Week 2
I took a look at the garden the other week and felt a bit overwhelmed. It’ll be a common feeling amongst gardeners I would have thought but I think I have found a simple solution to overcome the feeling of being overcome. Every day I am trying to get outside to just do 10 minutes, I’m not sure what I am going to do, I just walk around until I am inspired. It doesn’t sound a lot and it might sound a bit obsessive (me) but it’s really made a difference over the past two weeks. I find that I am doing small jobs and bits of big jobs and finding them all very enjoyable. I don’t get too achy or tired and I am always leaving something for tomorrow.
If I keep this up I won’t be all seized up come the springtime, which can be a bit of a shock to the system when the digging and weeding starts. Being out for just 10 minutes also means that if it’s raining I don’t get too wet. The job of the day today was getting a bit of room in my compost bins.
The bins were bursting at the seams so I thought it was time to half empty one and put the ‘black gold’ into the beds I have in the polytunnel.
The soil I got from the bins is teeming with worms and looking lovely. I’ll save the other bin for a spring feed in the veggie patch, if I put it in now I would be wary of the nutrients being washed away before the plants were put in around springtime. Two full barrow loads, a bit of spreading and the 10 minutes had passed (well 20 really).
