Potager planting

Now we are almost up there with ‘the dog ate my homework’. But if you could see the inky black clouds outside my window…. There is a monster storm amassing on the horizon and heading our way.

So that means the Great Unplugging of the Appliances and no internet for the rest of the day. And no Tuesday blog post.

So one last check of lightningmaps.org to calculate how long I have and off we go.

Planting time. Cramming time. Crops are going in at a steady rate and things are looking lush with all this rain.

I found myself wandering about this afternoon with another tray of courgette plants wondering where I was going to shove them.

It was that cursed event where none of the courgettes germinated the first time. So I overcompensated and did way too many a few weeks later. If all goes well, we will have lovely golden courgettes bursting everywhere.

It’s the same with the cucumbers. I wanted to try a few different varieties. And they all germinated. So I am now the proud custodian of a cucumber bed. These ones are planted in pots. With their bottoms removed. It slows down the mole rats as they don’t seem to like the plastic barrier.

I’m just relieved the mass of plants in the potting shed are going outside.

Mind you, it’s getting crowded. And the bed I planned to put them – up the top of the main potager next to the cut flower patch where all the flowering parsnips are growing has become a no go area.

Someone beat me to it. The dreaded mole rat. Here is an action shot of a felled parsnip.  I went in to lunch and when I came it was down. Roots munched.

Grrrr.

I’m consoling myself by cutting armfuls of sweet peas each day. Every plant overwintering nicely in the cold and the snow. I do love self-seeders. It saves this annual dance from potting shed to plot.

And if you are fanning yourself from the shock of seeing my planting technique fear not.  It’s not all mess.

Here are my tomatoes. Next to my broad beans.

Restraint. Poise. Elegance. Mulch!

I’m aware that tomatoes always need more room than I give them. And the deer don’t seem to like munching the leaves so I can afford to have them exposed like this.  And that way I can keep proper care of them.

Pinching out the sideshoots before they get out of hand. Under planted with  basil and some small pepper plants. (Capsicum varieties).

The runner beans are to the left. We harvested our first sugar snap peas and broad beans last night (the consolations of not cooking with electricity – distracted by fresh veg in a sea of coriander and basil).

Some of the basil took a beating. When hail storms are threatening I can feel them quivering with fear. Or is that just the mole rat under the soil eating the roots?