This year is going to be a bit of an odd year in the growing area. For one reason and another, things haven't gone quite to plan....
First I never got the beds properly mulched over winter. This means that the weeds were not knocked back, and the soil not fed. Then I have been late getting started with sowing. I wasn't too worried earlier, as the weather stayed pretty cold until into May, but visits and priorities delayed it still further and I still have none of my roots seed sowed at present.
I have sowed some bere barley. I managed to clear the bed fairly well of buttercups and silverweed (or so I thought!) by hoeing. I've been given some bere barley seed for trial. I won't have space here for my saved seed, but the plan is to sow those in my kitchen garden this year. The trial bere has germinated pretty well; there has been some vole damage, but they appear to have escaped the birds - maybe I'm getting the trick of it at last! I can see a difference in the colour between the seedlings. I don't know whether it shows in these pictures, but the 'control' variety is a paler colour than the adjacent plants.
control v trial variety colour comparison
There's a good amount of growth on the plants now, although also a fair amount of regrowth on the silverweed (and some potatoes, which were grown here last year!)
grain bed with bere growth
I managed to clear half the legumes bed and sow some of my seed a couple of weeks ago. I did find it pretty hard work with my hoe, so I have bought myself a Fokin style hoe from Ukraine off ebay
I'm hoping these will make lighter work of the weed cutting and take a better edge than my whale tail stainless hoe, which is elegant, but better for stirring soil than cutting weeds. They have now arrived, but I need to find some handles for them.
I made a start on the roots bed. I was going to dig it, as the weeds had got so substantial (and the hoe not then arrived). However even doing this was going to be too much like hard work, so I decided to do a quick chop and drop to reduce the amount of top growth to cut through. When that wilts, I'm hoping it will be possible to either dig it or cut channels with the hoe to seed into. I may revert to sowing the roots up in the kitchen garden instead!
trying to dig the roots bed!
after chop and drop
At the least this bed will have had a good carbon boost from the weed growth. The surface debris and soil fauna is much increased, but getting some bare soil to sow into is going to be a challenge. I'm even wondering whether to try transplants, or just give up for this year and try and mulch it down and have a fallow year.
I am hoping to be able to transplant my TPS seedlings, which are getting a bit congested in their seedsnail, into the potato bed. These have been hardening off for the last week, so are ready to go when I get that bed prepared. I think (hope!) that one isn't going to be quite so bad...
It looks like I may get a reasonable amount of roots seed for next year, all being well. The Swede is now setting seed (flowering nicely in this picture) and the parsnip is flowering, with carrot flowers coming on soon.
I wonder whether Ken's rocket came back? Mine is pretty reliably perennial and is tending to seed around a bit. I'm thinking that in the wrong area this could be a nuisance as the plant has a large tap root like a dandelion. At least the seeds don't have parachutes! I haven't tried eating the leave as yet, but got on fairly well with the flower shoots - just steamed or fried in butter. I thought they were quite strong flavoured, not hot, just distinctive, but they passed the 'husband test' My plants are just coming to the stage for harvesting this year. By eating the flowers, I'll have less seeding around, win-win!
Another view of my experimental edibles secret forest garden (which seems to be expanding!) .This area has a rather cottage garden feel to it as the taller trees are mostly behind me - this is the other side of the sycamore trees in my previous photos. My Kalopanax seems to be blowing in the wind a bit, with a purple leaved elder behind it and a fuchsia just starting to flower in front. The bistort I'm hoping will be an edible perennial grain similar to buckwheat, but so far isn't setting much seed (or the birds are eating it for me!) Lots of sweet cicely (myhrris odorata) with white blossom, and a hawthorne flowering away in the background too.
It would be lovely to be able to seed eveything direct - hell, why not let the plants self seed themselves! However, back in the real garden.... As Mary says above, some plants just won't make it in a short/cool growing season, so if I want runner beans for example, I need to start them off. Maybe in time I can get short enough season beans bred....
I had another thought though, if you're into intensive gardening then being able to transplant vegetables straight into the space left by a previous crop, then you can get a bigger yeild from a small area. I believe Charles Dowding does this quite a bit.
r ransom wrote:This one's pretty small but also the smaller they are, the less like pollen they taste. This tasted like sweet hazelnuts.
This is really interesting - they look just like my scyamore flowerbuds. Pity it is too late in the season to try them (the bees are enjoying the open flowers just now). I'll need to remember to check this thread in spring next year.
Well as suggested above I laid out the shapes in a kind of design. Here it is minus one of the lengths of stick:
laying out hanging mobile design
I then carefully tied lengths of fishing line to each shape. It is quite fiddly to tie fishingline - I hadn't realised! I did lots of half hitches in the hope that they won't just come undone again.
attaching the string to the fishes
Then starting at the bottom as Anne suggested I got that bit balanced, then attached the next layer, then the next. I used a hook on one of the crop bars to hang it from once the mobile started to grow. As it got heavier it became more difficult to bring it away from centre, but if the supporting strings are too close they tend to slip even closer....Eventually I succeeded in hanging the complete assembly above the pond.
first attempt at hanging mobile complete
I'm not completely happy with it. I feel it is too long, and that I should have fewer, denser tiers of fishes. I'd also like more assymetric rods to make the shapes spiral further away from central. I'd quite like the dragonflies at least to have something less bulky as the support rod than the sticks, but fence wire (which is easiest for me to get hold of) probably won't be strong enough for the weight of the hanging.
A graduate scientist turned automotive engineer, currently running a small shop and growing plants on Skye: turning a sheep field into a food forest.
