Half a potato farm

I do believe I received a touch sunburn from my gardening sojourn today. What a lovely development. Back aches like billy-o, but you have to invest some pain to get some gain.

I spent the day avoiding Janet who seemed quite chirpy today (the tulips are out – but she is still going on about replanting the fallen pine tree.)

Rino was hard at work with some complicated exchange with a man further down the site. I think Rino either swapped two enormous cardoon plants, or was given them, or gave them. I couldn’t unravel his English today, bless him. But he did remind me that I still have some artichoke plants to come in May.

It was so warm that I had to keep going to the shed to get more water to gulp to slake my thirst. The taps aren’t on yet, so I have to rely on bottled stuff from the shed. It’s a mess in there. I really must have a clean up. But not while there is weeding to do. I’m almost behind schedule now that the soil is warming up. I laboured up and down the soon-to-be potato bed and then started in on the part that will be the flower bed and the new cabbage patch. I kept snapping off tasty little morsels of the purple sprouting broccoli plant as I went past. They have done well over the winter, despite looking straggly. And I have managed quite a crop for a dinner party on Thursday night. I also removed half a dozen leeks. They are sitting in the sink trying to soak away the clay soil as I type. I wish I liked them more – they just don’t thrill my taste buds.

I had a look at the onion sets that I planted and have realised that I really shouldn’t have mulched them before they put on a bit of growth. It’s going to be hard to find them if they get trapped under the black plastic. I will remember that for the next times. Only plant seedlings through the covers.

To take a break from the endless weeding and slug snipping (it’s my new technique – I have a pair of scissors in my pockets and bring them out when I find a slug. Cut in two and on I go) I planted another row of peas. Most satisfying, but I do wonder if any will come up. The mice managed to have a good ravage of the broad bean plants. I will definitely have to fill the gaps. But I’m feeling positive and just have to watch and wait.

No real time to sit down and have lunch (and I forgot to bring any) instead I stalked about my beds and tried to picture where everything will go this year. Here is my tentative plan.

The tomatoes can’t be near the potatoes, but as my plot is half potato farm it’s hard to hide the toms anywhere. I had no blight last year so hope it won’t strike either vegetable this time round. But it was this musing that has brought me to the dilemma. Two gardens (one in France and this one) mean that one is going to get neglected at the same time the other is nurtured. And at this stage David is plotting our decamping to France for the entire month of August. And I can’t quite see how my food will survive a whole month without watering. So I have to hope that most of the crops can cope – potatoes and cabbage – and that the rest will be a gamble. It makes me wonder why I bought those two incredibly heavy grow bags for the tomatoes after all. But I shall give it more thought and try to come up with a solution.

I rummaged around in the shed to see if I couldn’t pot up any more dwarf French beans and leave them in the cold frame, but instead came across a packet of Nerines. Sprouting nicely. Oh dear. The shed is obviously emerging from its winter storage slumber and turning into sauna. I knew I had to plant the poor tubers out, even though I haven’t really made the flower bed yet. It’s going to be a waste if they don’t survive, but I planted them right at the end of the path, just at the intersection, and hope they come up or just prefer their current resting ground. But then who would want to spend their lives in a clay-thick heavy soil with only slugs and mice for company? I ask you.

What I love about home grown veg is the certain frisson of worry about the critters that come into the house. Last night I dumped the leeks in the sink and the purple sprouting broccoli on the counter. Went climbing for three hours; came back and found two rather large caterpillars making a big for freedom across the kitchen floor. Blech.