Monday, June 11, 2018

All the Veg is Planted -Yea!




 Sagina

We have the young baby vegetables planted in place at last. 
Well, apart from some broad beans that are still in small pots. There’s time for those yet and we’ll get those in as soon as I have finished making a wigwam shape out of bamboo poles. I can’t make the climbing structure until we remove last years old broccoli plants, but they are still producing florets. Granted the heads are progressively getting smaller and smaller as we pick away at them but so far they haven’t flowered or gone to seed. It takes me an hour to get a small pan full but I’m not giving up on them yet. It’s always the same with these plants, they do tend to be in the way a bit as we rotate the crops. I’m not complaining though as even a small portion is very welcome at any time of year.

It’s always a relief when the young plants go into the ground as it’s not long before they start suffering when they get pot bound, especially the broccoli and kale as they tend to go to seed really quickly if they are subjected to any form or stress. 

I made the structures for the peas, mange tout and beans a week or two ago and they are happily spiralling their tendrils around the poles and reaching for the sun.  We have parsley coming up, it’s been very slow to appear and I’d nearly given up on them and the ‘pick and come again’ lettuce is doing really well. It’s been kept out of the glaring sun we had last week as they don’t really like it too sunny all day, a bit like my head.

More Seasonal Changes
The tunnel is mostly empty now because it was getting far too hot for most of the plants apart from the young perennial plugs which seem to cope with the 40 degree heat and one of my dogs who for some reason insists on sitting in there. I think it might be something to do with her staring at the two resident frogs for hours. She does the same with cats too until they give her a swipe. 
I also have seven gifted tomato plants filling up the available space and loving the heat. I wasn’t going to grow any this year but I just can’t say no when someone calls around with them in their arms. It’d be impolite to refuse. 

I had to remove the chamomile plugs I have growing as they were starting to get too soft and leggy They have now taken over the patio as the 20 packs are covering every paving slab and available ledge. The patio chairs and now in the middle of the lawn out of the way (and in the shade). The family are very patient with me and let me get on with taking over the place with the small plants. I’ve been a couple of years making my small chamomile lawn and these will be filling in all the gaps in a few weeks so it’ll be business as usual on the patio in not time.  I’ll be growing them under cover later in the year to fill any more gaps that appear in winter but I doubt we’ll be even thinking about the patio then.

Irish Moss
I’ve started to grow ‘Irish Moss’ or pearlwort (Sagina Subulata) in plugs for a bit of ground cover, not for a lawn, more as a rockery plant.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before but Irish moss isn’t Irish and it’s not a moss, but it does cover the ground really well only growing to about 4 cm in height. It’s a plant originating in the sandy, gravel hills of Europe and is very popular with people who have gaps in slabs or a bit of a decorative green space they want covering. The plant is evergreen, has small white flowers and all it does in winter is get smaller and more compact until the warmer weather starts up again. It doesn’t have the fragrance of chamomiles but not everyone wants the sweet smell of apples when you walk on a lawn. I’ve already covered half of the garden with them as we have a lot of cracked concrete to cover, maybe I can cover the patio slabs for next year.

No comments:

More stories

Related Posts with Thumbnails