Garden Diary: 26th October 2020

 My outdoor nursery looks like this:

It contains mainly flowers with lots of calendula and wallflowers in red, white and purple:

I have pak choi in pots:

Because the ones I put in the ground ended up like this:

The vegetable plot looks like this at the moment:

We are eating spinach, carrots, various herbs and leeks:

The leeks are not as long as I'd hoped, I obviously didn't earth them up as much as I should have.

My purple sprouting broccoli was decimated by the caterpillars of the White butterfly but they have come back nicely so I am hopeful of a harvest:

This week I've planted some of my garlic, Iberian Wright and Messidrome. This patch was previously used for peas, and I've been adding seaweed and compost from emptied pots since the peas were removed. The soil is looking really nice, with tons of earthworms. Garlic is a hungry plant. I still have quite a bit to plant. I won't do it all together, but will interplant among all the beds. I find a polyculture bed, which mixes varieties of veg, herbs, fruits and flowers goes a long way to reduce pest damage, as it increases the likelyhood of the presence of predatory insects. It also looks great.

Getting ready:

In place:

Covered back over and fallen branches used to make a boundary so I know where to weed:

Covered with my own hay from my grass meadow:

 

And topped off with a thick layer of seaweed. This will protect the soil and prevent it from washing away and leeching minerals. It will also decompose slowly adding organic matter to the soil.

I've also planted some broad beans in two different beds. I had great success with my beans this year, not least because of the hard work I put into them.

In the front garden I have done a lot of work which is completely unseen at this stage. I have planted loads of spring bulbs and wildflower seeds and will let the grass grow long around them. I have also made a little structure using stones and soil and have planted a little cutting of campanula. Here is what it looks like presently, but I am anticipating success by next spring/summer:

And that's all folks. Till next time..