Winter has arrived although I have yet to see any snow the overnight temperature is plunging below zero. Decided it would be prudent to cover some of my globe artichokes with fleece and the rest with straw. The plants are still young and hopefully I should pick my first ever homegrown globes later this year.
Meanwhile my garlic is doing well and actually needs some cold weather to encourage it to form bulbs. This is my first successful attempt at growing garlic, my earlier effort last Spring was a total disaster with not a single one appearing. I now realise that I planted them too deep in a heavy soil. This time I chose a bed with a lighter soil and planted more shallower.
There is a video on YouTube that shows you: How to plant garlic video
The mild weather continued over the weekend and I managed to do a few hours digging on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Part of the motivation is simply to get outside and enjoy a bit of fresh air and exercise while clearing away last year and preparing the beds for a new growing season.
The other key factor is my freelance lifestyle rarely provides a routine so I have to seize the day to work on the plot when an opportunity appears. Quite often I chip away at it with a few hours here and there, it also guards against becoming too ambitious and over doing it.
One thing I have noticed this year is the digging is easiest in the beds that have been cultivated the longest. So for anyone starting off with new beds the hard work you put in the first few years will be rewarded.
Time now to head out and finish off digging another bed. I will soon be ready for my delivery of compost.
Sunshine and a free afternoon was an invitation to step outside and start digging over one of my free beds. I am still contemplating my planting scheme for this year and with the offer of some free compost considering growing my potatoes in planter bags. This will make sticking to a crop rotation routine easier.
My garlic is coming along nicely and a look at my rhubarb revealed signs of life, I think in a few weeks I will divide the crown and move it to a new fruit bed I intend to make when the compost I have been given arrives. Possibly not the right time technically to split and move the rhubarb but with the weather being so over the place, do the seasonal guidelines matter that much?
Found my Horseradish root, I am not sure whether the leaves die back in winter or whether they have been ravaged by slugs. There were some promising shoots on the top so I divided my large clump into three and planted into a bed with lighter soil. The top of the roots looked nibbled which at the moment I am blaming on slugs. It seems they like the taste as much as I do.
As soon as I began gardening I was touched by the generosity of other gardeners being offered seeds, plants and now a truckload of compost. This is going to make a big difference to the plot and allow me to improve the beds that have a heavier clay soil. If time and weather allows I plan on moving out some of the soil and replacing it with the compost.
A very enjoyable start to gardening in 2013 - fingers crossed that the weather is kinder this year.
