Norm's Diary

Late Spring start to kitchen garden

Tried rotavating veg plot but ground too wet and soil balled around the tines.

Sown directly in cold frame 1 row of mixed lettuce and 1 row of Salad Bowl lettuce.

Chitting second early potato 'Maria'

Earthed up 1 deep bed in preparation for potatoes.

Bought 4 25kg sacks of potting compost from Grangärden.

Bought 1kg stuttgarter type onion sets.

Preparing for Peas

My tall "Telephone" heirloom pea seeds are from some I saved in 2007 so I thought it best to chit the seeds first before planting. I do this between two pieces of kitchen wipe wetted on a plate and left a couple of days. I keep the tissue moist but not swimming in water. Here I peeled back the top layer of tissue.

I used my measuring stick to mark out two trenches 1.4m apart. Dug trenches just one spit deep and about the same width.

I lined each trench, first with a barrow load of old strawy sheep manure topped with a bag of composted cow manure.

I then pulled the soil back into the trenches.

The next job was to construct a rough arbor with old birch trimmings and string.

Now the hard work is done, I will plant only the pea seeds that have started to sprout. As soon as the plants emerge I will string up the arbor to provide support for the pea vines. I have never tried this before but the theory is the pea pods all hang down inside the arbor and I hope to be able to walk underneath and pick them easily.

New Kitchen Garden takes shape and planting out Snowball Cauliflower

Last year I allowed the pigs to plough up a large area which I intended to be used as a kitchen garden. They did a great job of eating all the grass, roots, old overgrown fruit bushes etc. In the process they manured the land for me. My plan was for this

I had removed my rhubarb plants and stored them over winter in trays in the shed. They have now been planted on the left strip of land and have started to shoot. Bed 1 will be planted with root crops, bed 2 with peas and beans and bed 3 with brassicas. So a 3 year crop rotation is the idea. Other crops are grown in the greenhouse and covered raised beds as well as a herb garden. Today I planted out my Snowball cauliflowers 4 rows of 8 spaced 50cm apart and 50cm between rows. These plants were sown in early February and have been in the cold frame since they had seed leaves. I staggered the rows so that the plants are diagonal to the ones in the adjacent row in order to maximise space for each plant.

Each plant was firmed in with my knuckles so that they would not flop over in the wind. Rain is forecast but if it doesn't come I will need to water each plant station.

Planting Leeks

The leeks that were sown into a deep tray indoors were first hardened off in the cold frame for a couple of weeks. By now they just look like thin, weak and wispy green stalks. They will be planted out 9 per square in my polythene covered square foot garden. After a quick clean up of the square, I first add a top dressing of fresh compost to put nutrients back into the growing medium that was depleted by the last crop. I press this down by hand to make a firm surface then dib nine holes roughly equally spaced.

Carefully tease the leek seedlings apart and just drop them one by one into the holes. Don't try to fill in the holes nor try to push the seedlings into the holes.

Your square should look like this when all the nine seedlings have been dropped in.

Pour water into each hole, this not only waters the plant but in the process drags the seedling down into the hole and settles the roots. Again, do not fill in the holes! They should be left to fill naturally with successive waterings and the leeks will eventually grow to fill these voids.