Packing the plants in the potager

broad beansYves the chimney sweep was not impressed.  He stood looking at my very crowded vegetable garden and muttered ‘very nice’.

But I don’t think he approved.  It’s not ‘clean’. By which he means clear of weeds, lots of bare earth showing between neatly planted rows of veg.

And to achieve this look one seems to need to be up at dawn and working away with a sharp hoe.

I have decided to go in a different direction.  Flowers are crammed in with the broad beans and peas here for the simple fact is they overwintered quite well and I didn’t want to move them.  peas

Cosmos, coriander, lettuce and dill all self sow where they choose. And I’m so thrilled to have free plants I rarely shift them out of the way.

And then there is the matter of poppies.  They self so too. But have such girth that I do feel obliged to move a few of those wonderful plants.

cabbage inI did a bit of ‘editing’ of the beds where the cabbages are to go. Out came endless plump thickets of sorrel.  We really just don’t eat that much.

And with Gillie’s help, in went about 40 large cabbage plants which have been potted on three times they are growing so fast. Some dill and coriander survive. And once these large poppies flower and then go over I will yank them out.

Tomorrow I must attend to nets. It was cloudy and gusty today, but the cabbage moth butterfly will be up and hunting early in the sunshine.