First venture to the plot for 2009!
Well, we ventured up to the plot on Saturday for the first time in a long while … it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might have been!
The soil is pretty wet at the moment, no big surprise there though given its clay and has been raining a bit recently. Though the bits that got well dug over last year and milled with my Wolf Soil Miller are actually in quite good condition. Applied some lime to bits of this and some compressed chicken manure fertiliser which then got dug in. I think lime is supposed to be applied late autumn really, but it should be fine and I’m sure we’ve got a few frosts yet!
Cut down the raspberry canes to ground level, the should be dormant by now … need to have a good weed in-between them before they grow up again for this year. Also weeded amongst the winter onions and shallots that went in late autumn. Looks like maybe the pigeons have been pulling some out as there are a few gaps.
Trip to both Wilkinson and Ashwood on Sunday to purchase various bits – Wilko for seed trays, some seed potatoes and red-onion set. Ashwood for compost and a few other bits and pieces … luckily it wasn’t one of their Hellibore weekends (they start next weekend, 31st Jan) so it was quite quiet there.
Incidentally, from last year’s crop, we were a little disappointed to find that the leeks we grew had been infested with some sort of larvae, probably some fly that goes for the allium family. When I did some googling late last year, there was some suggestion that a particular fly lays its eggs in August/September time, so I think some sort of fine netting will be needed this year!