Spade Work : From Plot to Plate

Survivors

If these were my children they'd be taken into care and I'd be up before the court before you could say 'deadheading'.

I can't say these auriculas have thrived but they have survived neglected by the ivy clad fence only to be rediscovered today when I moved a table so as not to disturb the nesting robins when we sit out for a drink in the evening.

I'll have to tidy them up and pot them in attractive terracota pots maybe even display them in mini auricula theatre made from wooden wine boxes?

Asparagus varieties

For several years now I've enjoyed a decent harvest of Connovers Colossal aparagus.

But I'll probably be giving up the allotment to my neighbour next season  as I'm going to concentrate veg growing efforts at home. So I'm looking for recommendations as to what variety I should plant in the new asparagus bed.

Connovers Colossal has done well for me but is there a 'if you had space for only one variety' that you would recommend? Of course I could always plant several crowns of different varieties but which ones?

Time Taken

It's been a busy week and we've tried to pack a lot in as we leave in less than a week to cycle the Via de La Plata from Seville to Salamanca. Seventeen days away from the garden so there was plenty to do. All my seedlings will be looked after by friends who come to stay and look after the house and mind the dogs.

Catching up on the gardening magazines last night I was struck by the references to 'weekend vegetable growing', 'the one hour a-week allotment' and my favourite ' low maintenance gardening'. Yeh, like there is something called 'safe smoking'.

So I thought I'd look back over last week and tot up how much time the garden took up. As it was Easter we had two extra days. Heaven, but hell as it hailed, snowed and rained on Saturday and Sunday.

So here's the tally. The Friary garden. A quick trip there after Easter to inspect some cherries that aren't performing well. Patrick, one of the friars, offers us soda bread, tea and fruit cake. Energised by this and with tools in the car we are sucked into an hour tidying and pruning the Cloister garden.

The allotment. Dropped by on the way to the Friary and it's clear the grass needed mowing. I tried to skin it as we'll be away when its starts growing strongly. While I'm there I prepare 3o feet of potato trenches for a main crop, sow Red Baron oninon sets and harvest my first rhubarb of the year, Timperly Early. Two hours.

The home garden. More potatoes here, 40 feet in all to grow earlies and salad potatoes. Ten foot rows of mixed lettuce, cornsalad and wild rocket which I'm hoping will germinate and grow away whilst we're gone. Also ten foot rows of peas, Norli, Taiwan Sugar and the vigourous climber Ne Plus Ultra. And finally I transplanted the sweet pea plants I'd hardened off. They are now tied into netted wigwams and hopefully will make it through the cold spell. They are from saved seed so I'm looking forward to see what colours emerge. Three hours all in.

Six hours in the garden over a weekend. Is this average?

Anyway no time to stop now as I've got to box the bikes for the trip. Buen camino and I'll be back in three weeks or so.

On The Table 22 March 08

The white hellebore, front left, dominates but we've combined it with a plant more usually used as a ground cover, Brunnera or Siberian Bugloss with its forget-me-not like blue flowers as a display this week. 

I don't know which varieties these are as we've inherited them with the garden but Brunnera also comes in white (not pictured) and pink (in the background).

I suspect they won't last long in the vase but it brightens the table on a dreary day. In the garden Brunnera likes moist soil, will tolerate some shade and flowers March to May with its leaves making a good ground cover.

On The Table 15 March 08

The cornus stems (right) which I used to prop up the top heavy amaryllis have set leaf. Just shows how easy it is to propogate some plants. All I did was spring prune them and place them in the potting soil. In a few weeks they'd taken.

Fragrance during the week was provided by this hyacinth (below left) a present a couple of weeks ago from a writer friend who came to help bathe the dogs. She's working on a book and wanted the experience so she could write about it. We were only too happy to oblige with that chore.

Anyone writing about dish washing, household cleaning, ironing  or lawn mowing? We are happy to oblige. Please form an orderly queue.

It will be a week since my last visit to the allotment and I'll probably have to fix the netting on the cages and clear up debris since the storms we had at the start of the week. Fingers crossed there's nothing else.

On The Table 8 March 08

Hyacinth, anemone, daffodil, snowdrop and muscari provided a colourful, miniature and fragrant display this week.

On The Table 3 March 08

In the previous On The Table I wrote that this week was going to feature daffs, daffs and more daffs. It does - below. Meantime this, left, is a bit of a cheat. It's never been near our garden but has been on the table for the past couple of weeks.

Amaryllis is the sort of plant that looks as if it's taken more steroids than an unclean Olympic sprinter. It has gotten so top heavy that I've staked it with the cornus stems I was eyeing up.

It's no surprise at this time of year that the fresh pickings of the week were daffodils from the allotment.  

Potato Experiment 2008

This year I'm experimenting with getting more seed potatoes from a bag of tubers by cutting in half a couple of  tubers of each variety that I'm growing (Home Guard, Charlotte and Cara). I'm aiming to get decent sprouts on each half and will let the wound heal and then plant out as normal. I'll mark the row and see how they do compared to the tubers I'm planting whole.

I'm interested to see if any rot while healing and whether you get a larger or smaller yield or bigger tubers or just more but smaller ones. 

I'm also holding back a few Charlotte tubers to plant in August, hoping for a crop of new potatoes on December 25th. But I'll make sure I've buried some from the summer harvest in a sealed bag filled with sand just to make sure I have this Christmas treat whatever happens to the late sown crop.

On The Table 25 Feb 08

It's a compilation and it was all cut on one day but it's still a record of what was growing in the garden last week. And it keeps us looking daily to see what's new.

The skimmia (rear) and the miniature daffs (front) are repeat guests but the flowering plum (centre) is new. It seems incredibly early but the weather has been mild.

This week it looks as if it'll be daffs, daffs and more daffs but I've been eyeing up some richly coloured cornus stems for contrast.

On The Table 16 Feb 08

These appeared in the lawn at the start of the week - a sure sign that the mowing season will get under way shortly. I decided to dig some out and bring them inside and they were an amusement for several days.

I don't mind them in a lawn, along with buttercups and the odd dandelion. In fact I do like them in a lawn as they add colour. - They all get knocked back anyway when you mow.

Sure, a manicured, weed free, sward can look great but I'm not putting in the work that involves. Our own lawn will gradually shrink as more of it is set to shrubs, ground cover or turned over to growing vegetables.

While not strictly 'on the table' this week I've included this shot of a magnolia about to flower, as it will probably do over the weekend while I'm away - unless the forcast frost gets it first.......