Fish Nets, Tights and Stockings in the Garden

This week has really been a massive week. We've done a lot of hours and covered quite some ground in that time. I've also been busy most evenings writing a business plan, reviewing what needs to be done and how to do it over the next years. As the summer drives on it becomes apparent that things can only move slowly in a garden, ambitious projects and developments take time and careful planning.

The herb beds are coming along and there is a plan to grow squash in them this year to 'test the soil' and see what weeds we're up against before planting any perennials. All the herbs we are going to use have been planted into the garden to develop and over the autumn and winter we will dig them up and transplant them if the ground is ready for it; that's the 'plan' any how.

I've also been very busy spraying the gooseberries with all sorts of biodynamic concoctions to try and remove the sawflies. It's proving to be quite a time consuming crop, I had the sense today that we are getting there. Today I'm spraying three lots of 24 hour nettle tea as a way to control the population of the caterpillars, this is why I mention the stockings. We need to use a pair to strain the tea before we spray to remove all the plant debris. The fruit is looking well and swelling up after a quite some rain this week, but now the sun is blazing and the fruits are ripening. We managed to get a Horn Silica spray in on Wednesday morning to aid with the ripening process.

Now that the fruits are ripening, the birds are getting hungry and I'm getting worried. For some reason the pigeons took a real liking to the white currants, they are far from ripe but they were trying to eat them anyway. So the nets have gone up, quite a task with two guys and it took us a day to do it finishing at 10 pm last night and then spending a few more hours this afternoon finishing off the joining and weighing the sides down.

The whole place is looking very different now and we have all sorts of lovely things popping up everywhere, the scorzona has germinated and there are hundreds of cavlo nero plants and Purple sprouting broccoli literally jumping out of there trays, and the lettuce is exquisite.

After this busy week I know that next week will be the same, thank god for Colyn. He's being a great help during this busy period.

Happy gardening everyone!
Rob

Green Fingers

What a day. The tractor didn't sell on Ebay after I turned down a generous cash offer. Someone decided to hide my waste bin that goes outside my house and the gooseberries are getting a really hard time from the caterpillars.

I've now re-listed the tractor and have bids starting on it again, but more quickly than before, and I'll phone the council and get a new wheelie bin, but what to do about the pests on the plants?

It's really a tough one, I was squeezing them all today (it took about 3 hours to go over all the plants) which is why I talk about green fingers because after squashing thousands of them your fingers go green... It isn't the most pleasant job in the garden but it seems that it is a necessity if I want to get a decent crop this year. Each time I'm checking them there always seems to be a few more. There is a spray called BT (Bacillus Thuringiensis - biodynamic friendly) which should deal with them but I've used it on them and it didn't seem to do much, even though Stein (the local biodynamic fruit grower said it would). So its the in between the finger method for me.

The garden is getting very full now, we may even run out of room for plants. There are some lovely beds ready for planting into this week and lots of good looking cabbages and kale plants waiting to go out too, as well as the squash and courgettes needing to be potted on.

This morning I was harvesting, Perpetual spinach, corriander, lots of salad leaf, chevil and rocket most of which went into a meal of curry and rice with salad. I'm looking forward to my rhubarb coming back again so we can start having crumbles again....

Baby weather affecting the gardening

I always remember a saying I picked up at school about the weather, they referred to wet and windy as baby weather, and we have been having quite a lot of it recently. We really needed some rain but now it's here we really need it to go. Beds need to be made, grass to be cut, nets need to get put over the fruit bushes and there is even a bit of weeding. At least all the planting and sowing that happened last week is getting all the benefits now.

Its quite amazing to see the fruit bushes now some of the branches of blackcurrants are almost breaking under the weight of the fruit and the strong winds haven't been helping all that much.

This weather has given space to get round to doing other jobs which maybe wouldn't have happened for a while, the old Fendt tractor that has been in the garden has gone up on Ebay and there has been a lot of interest from people both who want to use it and just to tidy it up as a show piece, I'm planning to put the money from this into a newer one which has a front loader and is more powerful so we can get more of the field work done quicker. The bidding finishes in 5 days and I'm really looking forward to see how it all works out.

Harvest Time

The harvest it feels may be on its way, Colyn and I have been working very hard to prepare the ground as well as we can for lots of transplants and direct sowings. The manure we spread has been cultivated in and beans have been planted on part of that. The brassica crop is sitting out growing slowly and should be ready in a few weeks, weather permitting.

This morning I was checking the ground to see if, after the rain it was ready for some cultivation. The rain really softens the soil and it has been very rocky for the last week, when I have been making beds the soil was watered and then worked to avoid too much dust and make it easier to work. It was after the inspection still too dry but maybe I'll get a chance later today if we continue to get the drizzle we are getting at the moment.

 

When I was coming back up I noticed that the spinach was looking rather tasty and decided that today was the day to get the first harvest of baby spinach leaves for the kitchen salad. I didn't manage to get bucket loads but when I added some baby lettuce leaves and finished harvesting the rocket from the cold frames it looked like a genuine contribution to the salad for lunch.

Next week I'm hoping that the chervil, coriander and dill will have developed more and that the chard will be good to harvest. Its up hill from here on and I can't wait to be providing the college with all the leaves it can eat by the end of the month in proper biodynamic form. (Lets hope the slugs don't beat me to it).

Blessings on the meal.

Biodynamic Prep 501 in the morning

The soft fruits are really looking quite beautiful now, the grass is under control (at the moment!) and they all have a good dose of the biodynamically prepped manure and compost to help to stimulate the growth. They were flowering a couple of weeks ago, as shown on the photos but now the bees and insects have been busy so they are all starting to bear fruit and some of it is getting rather plump.

So what to do next? The usual thing to think about at this stage of growth is a biodynamic preparation, Horn Silica spray (501), on and around the bush to help the plant utilize the warmth and light of the coming summer. The stirring took place early in the morning when the sun was coming up and then applied before the sun had developed much warmth on the plants. I will try to continue the application of this biodynamic prep up to the point of ripening to enhance the quality and flavour of the fruits.

Elsewhere in the garden I now have a full time helper in the form of a 1st year Biodynamic Agriculture Course student. It really makes such a difference at this time of year because all the usual jobs are completed a lot quicker so the development and creation of new areas can continue through the summer. We did a big sowing of the winter crops last week, all the brassicas and some leeks are being started and we continue to sow lettuce and herbs every two weeks to have a continual harvest.

I tried a little bit of direct sowing in the field last week with, rocket, radish, cress, turnips, beetroots and carrots it will be interesting to see how they develop against the weeds. This year and I suspect for many to come there is a real weed problem, especially in the top section of the garden, so it will mean hand weeding on the direct sown crops. This is really a job we would like to avoid simply because it is very time consuming and rather dull. The solution with the first flush of weeds, if the weather allows will be to prepare a bed and stimulate the weed growth then cultivate the bed to kill off the first flush (always the worst) and transplant into the soil a week or a so later, this gives the plants we want a better chance.

My mother asked that some planting dates were on the blog so I'll put them up for the coming two weeks....

Northern Planting time.... until 14.00hr Saturday 9th May.

Then again from 21.00hr Tuesday 26th May.

Fruit 2/5 @ 8h until 5/5 @ 17.00h and 12/5 @ 10h until 14/5 @ 17.00h
Root 5/5 @ 18.00h until 8/5 @ 9.00h and 15/5 @ 19.00h until 17/5 @ 6.00h
Leaf 10/5 @ 19.00h until 12/5 @ 9.00h and 19/5 @ 7.00h until 22/5 @ 2.00h
Flower 8/5 @10.00h until 9/5 14.00h and 17/5 @ 7.00h until 19/5 @ 6.00h

If you have any queries about this please just email or make a comment and I'll answer your questions
Happy planting from the 'Carson Garden'