Thursday 30 April 2009

Brassicas all settled in

Here are the brassicas which have taken me all week to plant out, due to rain, work and other inconveniences.


Starting at the back, under the enviromesh is my purple sprouting brocolli - which I promise to stake as soon as it gets too tall, and to feed and mulch in autumn and spring, and generally take better care of this year. Next are winter cabbages, then romanesco, cauliflowers and calabrese, and at the front, Greyhound cabbages, with some grass clippings around them, as I had to trim the edge to make room for the netting. I didn't have room for all the plants, so I have kept some in reserve, in case of casualties. I think I have probably also planted them all too close together, it was too tempting to try and squeeze in as many as possible.


Here are the broad beans, flowering promisingly - they will need some sort of support, one is already starting to lean over. On the far left you can see a row of lettuce seedlings. Comfrey and rhubarb in the background.



The early potatoes, after several earthings up. You can see the peas behind. I spotted the first maincrop potato today too.


Onions, shallots and garlic, and a row of spring onions seedlings, which are too small to see from here. And some weeds.


This daft sparrow spent a whole day sitting on the cherry tree, which is just outside the kitchen window, twittering to its own reflection, and providing me with a perfect photo opportunity!

2 comments:

marigold said...

Hi. Where do you get those nice looking blue things for the brassicas? I'm tired of using bramble branches for my netting!!

Rachael said...

Hello Marigold - the blue hoops are made from water pipe. You can get it from Wickes and other builders suppliers, I cut mine up with a hacksaw.