My first rose on the roof terrace
A lovely sunny day; I made the mistake of opening an email from John Collee just before heading out. Ugh, months of work to do in just one email. I was celebrating sending him a huge swag of climate change work (new documentary film) by coming up to the garden for a good long session. But now I had just a shortened session as I knew what the next batch of work would entail. Hurricane Katrina, macroeconomic consequences of reinsurance industry’s woes, the American car culture, evangelical Christians’ attitudes to climate change, deforestation, coal remarketing, biospheres, air travel pollution. The list looked endless. Sometimes you can just yearn for a simple life – tending crops, sowing seeds, killing slugs. Sigh.
Anyway; this time I was prepared to see all my plants blighted. But the slugs seemed to be only working their way down the basil seedling row. Planted 11, only three and a half left. I’ll have to sow more and keep on persisting. I had a good look in the carrot patch – can’t see if there are any seedlings coming up as there are a few weeds that may be carrot-like. So I just watered it and hoped for the best. Some of the other seedlings needed a bit of watering as well: the celeriac is thriving. Only one is looking a bit chewed, but the other little plants are growing determinedly. Pepper plants still alive, and the beans and peas are putting on growth.
I planted a row of coriander seeds, a row of soya beans, half a row of more peas to make the row complete, and half a row of beetroot. I did wonder if I’m just putting out the equivalent of slug pet food by sowing more seeds, but I can’t give up now – I’ve waited too many years for this.
The cabbages now have a very nifty looking cage. The enviromesh fits together nicely (with about a hundred safety pins rather than being sewn together I’m ashamed to say) and everything around the sides are tucked up with long planks of wood. I can’t make it slug-proof as they sleep in the soil during the day and are probably going to enjoy a life safe from the threat of overhead birds picking them off whilst munching on brassicas leaves. But the kale are growing well.
Next I made a widely optimistic attempt at building up the bean supports. They are all being nibbled by something, so it’s a race to see how fast they can grow before succumbing to whatever is eating the leaves. I tied five little rows of string up along all four sides of the bamboo supports – making good horizontal supports for them when they reach the dizzy heights of about three feet. The sweet peas are all growing, and hopefully will start to take off. They get plenty of water from my watering can, and the soil is nicely moist.
I next did my sowing of the red clover in a patch of spare soil, casting the seed rather deftly over the not so perfectly raked soil. Hopefully they will cope with the imperfect growing conditions. The soil is so rock hard that as much as I water it, then bash it with the back of the fork, I just can’t get it to a fine tilth. But hey, I didn’t even know the word tilth existed until a few months back.
To finish – four trips to the trough to fill up my bins with water. Rain is forecast this weekend, but I find if I do the watering trips each time, then I’m topped up and ready for any contingency.
Back at home I’m delighted to say that I have my first rose on the roof terrace (with the promise of plenty more, and my herbs have all survived and thrived after a long cold winter outdoors.
Vegetable: Coriander
How many?: 1 row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 3
Vegetable: Beetroot Bolthardy
How many?: half a row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 2
Vegetable: Soya Beans
How many?: 1 row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 4
Vegetable: Red Clover (green manure)
How many?: 2m sq patch
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Above potato bed
Vegetable: Peas Kelvedon Wonder
How many?: half a row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 4
Vegetable: Basil
How many?: 8
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: Unheated windowsill