Coriander & Spuds
The West of Scotland is the sunniest, warmest part of the UK, this weather. It's a puzzle to me why on a fine spring evening like this, the allotments are almost deserted. But they were tonight. Maybe it's just not a regular evening kind of thing for some people?
Anyways, I did a bit more digging over in the West bed, gradually heading south. I'm planting brassica>companion> brassica et seq. So far that's rows of neeps, oregano, cauliflower, and tonight a row of coriander, from the Real Seed people, said to be slow to bolt, and to give leaves rather than seed. A few years ago I got a kilo of coriander seed from a Chinese supermarket, and sowed the lot. It germinated fine, but shot away, set masses of seed, and fell over. The chickens got the benefit of most of that.
I was going to plant a row of komatsuna, but realised I wasn't 100% sure if it WAS a brassica, and it didn't say on the packet. (It is; I'll plant it tomorrow).
A pair of greenfinches landed in the garden, checking out the undeveloped real estate, no doubt. Maybe they've heard about the gorse. Cheered me up, I've not seen greenfinches since they were regular visitors to our bird table in Hampshire in the early 70s.
And finally, as the sun set, to the 5 rows of 2nd early potatoes planted on Good Friday, to weed. Hmm. Hard work, and a couple of lessons learned. 1st, these were planted to early, when the ground was still quite wet, and it's dried hard, especially where I'd used the planting board; and maybe because I wasn't taking enough care, or maybe because the earth was wet, but I've left a lot of stones and other debris in there when I turned it over. 2nd, the 11ft+ beds are slightly too big to get into the middle of with the hoe from each side, so I need to think of maybe a walkway of some sort, (stepping stones?) up the middle, cutting it into 2 beds of 5-6ft on either side.
It's a good feeling though, all weeds vanquished, tatties growing without the competition for a while anyway. This was the area where I grew the comfrey I brought from the original Pig Sty Avenue last year, and there were several volunteers. It really will grow from a piece of root the size of your little finger tip. They were relocated at the path edge.
Anyways, I did a bit more digging over in the West bed, gradually heading south. I'm planting brassica>companion> brassica et seq. So far that's rows of neeps, oregano, cauliflower, and tonight a row of coriander, from the Real Seed people, said to be slow to bolt, and to give leaves rather than seed. A few years ago I got a kilo of coriander seed from a Chinese supermarket, and sowed the lot. It germinated fine, but shot away, set masses of seed, and fell over. The chickens got the benefit of most of that.
I was going to plant a row of komatsuna, but realised I wasn't 100% sure if it WAS a brassica, and it didn't say on the packet. (It is; I'll plant it tomorrow).
A pair of greenfinches landed in the garden, checking out the undeveloped real estate, no doubt. Maybe they've heard about the gorse. Cheered me up, I've not seen greenfinches since they were regular visitors to our bird table in Hampshire in the early 70s.
And finally, as the sun set, to the 5 rows of 2nd early potatoes planted on Good Friday, to weed. Hmm. Hard work, and a couple of lessons learned. 1st, these were planted to early, when the ground was still quite wet, and it's dried hard, especially where I'd used the planting board; and maybe because I wasn't taking enough care, or maybe because the earth was wet, but I've left a lot of stones and other debris in there when I turned it over. 2nd, the 11ft+ beds are slightly too big to get into the middle of with the hoe from each side, so I need to think of maybe a walkway of some sort, (stepping stones?) up the middle, cutting it into 2 beds of 5-6ft on either side.
It's a good feeling though, all weeds vanquished, tatties growing without the competition for a while anyway. This was the area where I grew the comfrey I brought from the original Pig Sty Avenue last year, and there were several volunteers. It really will grow from a piece of root the size of your little finger tip. They were relocated at the path edge.
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