A third vegetable patch!

The plan to create a third vegetable patch began by accident while turning the compost heap next to our other two vege patches.

Dad and I had been piling up grass cuttings and vegetable clippings and it was time to turn the heap. We were amazed to find that the clay soil underneath was very moist and full of worms in a very short time. So dad moved the compost heap over and dug the exposed soil by a spade depth.

Work progressed at lightning speed under the supervision of our cat Oscar, from a high vantage point, so he wouldn't miss anything that was or wasn't being done!

The newly turned heap was then left for a week until the soil underneath was soft enough to dig. This process was repeated until we had our vege patch dug completely.

Then potatoes were planted and seeds sown, including radishes, courgettes, beetroot, bok choy, cos lettuce, snow peas and dwarf French beans.

It took just over a week for the plant life to start showing through the soil.

Then everything started growing at tremendous speed in this hot and humid weather.

I took these photos this morning, a month and a half after the vege patch was completed. The potato plants have got tiny flower buds on and the courgettes have even started flowering!

I can't wait until it is time to harvest the snow peas. Yum! I am still picking snow peas from the first vegetable patch that I planted in Spring, but I am only getting about 5 pea pods a day. I can't bring myself to pull the old plants out because amazingly they have started to flower again.

The mulched area at the front of this photo is going to be planted out with winter veges including leeks. I haven't quite yet decided what else to plant here.

See you next time.

Lots of smile,

Rose x

Garden Diary

Weeded vegetable patch number one. Found some bindweed in it...eeeks!...but managed to pull all the roots out.

Trimmed the Upland cress down to 3 cm as the leaves were large and tough due to the heat and not enough water. I will have to water it every day in this weather.

Pulled out all of the mizuna. Some looked as if it had wilted, but on closer inspection the roots looked mushy. When I pulled up a plant there were hundreds of tiny 2-3 mm long white creepy crawly maggot/centipede? creatures all over the tap root. Yuck :(

I am not sure what or when to plant anything in the mizuna space just in case the horrid white creatures eat whatever I plant there. I will have to do some research on the net.