Saturday 23 January 2016

Chop Chop!

Sometimes it helps to be slow. We had a lazy morning and didn't make it to the plot till 2:30 but then the sun was finally managing to break through. We had a pleasant 2½ hours with a temperature of about 9° listening to the red kite calling overhead and the terns (Oops! See comment below) screeching over the canal.
A less welcome sound was of shooting in the distance, but some people do seem to hate deer and pheasants :( It upsets me, but perhaps they were clay pigeon shooting ...
We had our plans for what to do today; Jamie potted on the raspberry bush ('Ruby Beauty' from Thompson & Morgan). It claims to produce lots of fruit even in its first year and we intend to net it so we get to eat more than the birds!
My aim was to clear the two raised beds. The big salad bed was full of weeds and grass so at least now there is an area of clear earth showing! We should cover that until it's time to start sowing otherwise the weeds will take over again quite quickly.
The smaller raised bed still had beets in it... It seems wasteful, but at least the uneaten veggies are perfectly recycled as compost.
Lessons learned: don't grow Cylindra beets in a raised bed and don't leave them to get too big... Look at those prize-winning funny-shaped vegetables! I'm sticking to Boltardy beets this year.
I got chopped out of the photo...but chopping the beets up in a bucket was pleasing and warmed me up so even I took my coat off.
The resulting purple mess was layered in the compost bin with dry waste, like the the dried-out tops of the wildflowers. That should rot down nicely and fairly quickly - though may also prove irresistible to mice!
Another vegetable destined for the compost bin - the swedes. We didn't get to eat any of them - they all bolted :-( Shop-bought neeps and tatties for the Burns Night meal on Monday I'm afraid!

7 comments:

  1. I hope no-one thinks that your plot is a murder scene!

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  2. Looks like a pleasant afternoon. I hope you took some of the beetroot to make soup.

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    1. It looked pretty good but reckon it would have been too woody to eat

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  3. Busy, busy people. I was just looking out at all the greyness and was thrilled to see the woodpecker on my feeder - brightened me up!

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    1. How lovely! I don't think our coconut feeder is in the best position on the plot. But maybe the birds enjoy it when we sren't there

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  4. A correction, courtesy of fellow plotholder, Ted (thankyou Ted!) Definitely blackheaded gulls this morning - shrieking away.
    My Birds of Berkshire indicates that the first common terns arrive from mid-March onwards. Then they colonise the gravel pits and other suitable areas so we then get them fishing along the K&A.

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Belinda