The Here And Now

These pics was taken this morning showing the bare bones of my plot in all it's glory. To the right of the bottom pic we have the 'Salad Bar', 3 baths filled with compost which normaly hold vegetables for the creation of wonderful salads. Currently the third bath contains a redcurrant and gooseberry that were given to me and have overwintered there while I dig out a bed for them. This bath is soon to be conveted into a sand pit so my daughter won't get bored after 10 minutes and want to go home. When she's too old for it I'll empty it on my sticky London Clay soil in the forlorn hope that it will do some good. Just behind that are the galvanised water tanks with slabs over the top which currently serve as my dining table and chair.

Comfrey and horseradish front my plot because these beds often get run over as drivers reverse onto them. The arch of rusty metal is meant to be a barrier but it doesn't seem to work!

As I clear an area I tend to create a bed, edging it with some bricks or wood from my pile of 'to-be-recycled' items left by the plot's former owner. Paths are normally slabs overlaid onto landscaping fabric. Bed size is arbitrary, giving a rather haphazard layout. I think the polite design word currently used for my plot is 'eclectic'.

I'm currently still cropping leeks and chard and that's about it. The rhubarb is coming through and the overwintered brassicas are now putting on a growth spurt. Next week, all being well, I'll start planting out my onions and garlic which I started last year in pots. Also my early spuds will get to make contact with mother earth in the very near future too.

The very top pic shows that I've still a lot of digging to do. The top end of the plot is basically 2 or 3 layers of carpet that has bindweed and grass growing through it. Back-breaking to get off but the soil underneath is very easy to work with little deep-rooted perenial weeds to dig out.

As there is a lot of bindweed and a bit of mare's tail on the site I won't use a rotovator for a few years until I get most of it out. I prefer use a fork and some grunt work and get out the roots in one long strand, rather than pick up hundreds of little chopped-up pieces of root. I saw a neighbour make that mistake..........