Interestingly enough, Mr Lottie swears that where we overwintered Phacelia was much easier to work than this new plot. My time was spent hand weeding the fruit bushes that we were given last spring. Because they had been donated we had to rearrange our planting plans last year to accomodate them. We placed them at the neglected bottom part of the plot and were rewarded with more raspberries than I could keep up with and a bumper crop of gooseberries which the birds feasted on. We had a very poor crop from the tayberries but I'm hoping that was because they had been transplanted too late.
There's something theraputic about weeding with a hand fork. I'm sure different weed roots are nicely aromatic. I left the miniture sunflowers in the ground over winter as I had read that ladybirds like to hibernate in the dried out stalks. I'm not sure if that was the reason but I did come across a lot of them while weeding.
There's a pretty large gap between the gooseberry bushes and the tayberries. As I was weeding today my mind strayed to green manure. Ideally I'd like to keep maintenance to an absolute minimum where at all possible and bare ground is a perfect invitation to weed seeds. After the success we had with the Phacelia I'm going to try Alfalfa between the gooseberries and tayberries. It's a nitrogen fixer, so should help the fruit bushes. It also grows to 1 metre so can be cut back and the foliage used as a mulch elsewhere. Again, time will tell. I'm in no rush.
I also need to learn about controlling stray raspberry shoots. They're certainly trying to take over any space remotely near them. I'm pretty sure that I read that they act like thistles if you randomly pull them out. Even though this entire area was one of the most neglected parts of the plot, I can certainly tell the difference in the ground. It's true. The hard work really is worth it.
My legs feel like a day off tomorrow. I guess the garlic and shallots will give me a guilty conscience. It's an early night tucked up in bed with a copy of the River Cottage fruit book for me.
Lottie Lover
We've just sown some phacelia as we are trying a few green manures this year - since we stopped using manure we now need to add something the the soil and haven't enough compost. WE're keeping a record of our experiences with green manure here
ReplyDeleteAS for the onions just because other plot holderrs have it on their plots doesn't mean you will. If the ground hasn't been cultivated for a few years you could be OK.
I decided to try the green manure after the local farm doubled the price of manure. As you'll know, clay soil can eat organic material so it seemed the logical solution.
ReplyDeleteThe onions have been planted in the new plot we took over this year when my neighbour downsized. It's the only area that we have forward knowledge about and it definitely has white rot. I have a back up plan in mind though.