Big picture, little picture

Having a sense of proportion on a farm is a very bad thing.   And nowhere more so than the top vegetable garden.

I have toiled. I have thoroughly hand weeded forty feet of raspberries.   I have sat back on my haunches and thought, great. Now there’s just the rest of the damn garden to do.

This top vegetable bed is a burden, a neglected patch.   And as a consequence an eyesore.

Only in winter and in spring do I seem to tame it and then proceed to ignore it for the rest of the growing season.   Hundreds of years of farmers have worked this little fertile bit of land. And all I do is harvest asparagus, raspberries when it’s wet enough to water them, and weeds.

So a rethink is in order.   And I have come up with ideas.   Weed it thoroughly, sow red clover, keep up with the two crops that do work here – and my asparagus are divine.   And then devote this year to building up the annoying bank at the top of the bed with compost. And thereby raise the level so I can plant something there rather than just hide it in black plastic.

And the planting is going to be jostaberries. And redcurrants if the seedlings take.

Keep it all to a thick mulch and not try to grow and fail with potatoes and cabbage. Oh, yes, and also grow those tall achillea gold plate flowers which have been banished from the wildflower beds.   I’ve already transplanted most of a row up here and the colour should be fun in summer.   And serve to hide what’s going on behind.

There I feel better already. So what am I doing indoors (apart from charging up my mp3 player?) time to get back out there and get on.