Abandoning in the gloaming

An eight until eight day. Full on vegetable garden work with just a few breaks to gulp tea and gird loins for another attack.

I started with a mass watering. The hose is intact now which is a thrill and even reaches as far as the grasses above the pool.

Next I earthed up the tatties, good looking successful crop so far in the lower quadrant. I haven’t bothered to net them. And just hope that they won’t be a tasty delicacy for the wildlife.

Sowed more marigolds – I found an extra seed tray full of fledgling seedlings in the potting shed.

Uprooted the brassica row – a shame because there is good eating there. If I had the time to laboriously pick off the little leaves. And after eight solid months of Kale I’m about ready for a break. Shame there’s nothing else right now. The little lettuces are very little indeed. But I have hopes.

Planted 75 cosmos tall sensation mix plants in a long lovely row along the newly laid weedproof fabric.
Then yet more marigolds in an attempt for more symmetry. They will crowd the Swiss chard that I found were hidden underneath the brassicas. But a bit of competition will have to suffice. And who knows, maybe the scent of marigolds will put Daisy off her annual Swiss Chard devastation session. But I shall net those as they have found to be a wonderful tonic after the deer ate all the lettuce. A bit of fibre in her diet.

Then after a bit of raking and minor weeding. It was down with the last of the neat weedproof fabric and on with the construction.

I have four cloches so under one went a very crowded block of Greyhound cabbage. In another the Purple Sprouting Broccoli (glutton for punishment) another to host the Savoy cabbages and the last the kale (Cavollo Nero again). Hopefully as they will be under their enviromesh I won’t have the cabbage moth butterfly infestations like last year.

To finish – and I felt finished by about 6pm, but soldiered on, I loosely netted the entire broad bean and cosmos section of the potager. There is room for bees to get in and pollinate the beans, but hopefully will deter anything larger. I’ll probably get up tomorrow and find it draped over the blueberry bushes on the far side – with tell tale hoof marks in the bed. But you have to try.

And believe it or not after the marathon day I realise that I need to sow more plants. The beetroot have to go in. More beans – the yard long variety – no idea where they will fit. They may go with the corn. Very south American of me. And there are another hundred or so more cosmos plants.

I abandoned in the gloaming; pausing only to marvel at the horizon. Sadly I don’t think I even looked up today to enjoy the spring. Twas head down and full steam fiddly seedlings ahead.