bank holiday weekend round up

Fairly dry Bank Holiday weekend meant plenty of opportunities to work on the plot and visit our local garden centre. So what did we do?

Saturday:

CP spent her time beheading any dandelions. She is really getting into 3D nature art with bits she has scavenged around ours and the neighbors plots. 

I re heaped the mounds of potatoes as the the leaves were poking through on the back two rows of Charlotte potatoes. After many hours of playing with the rotavator Mark had managed to get the last of of the potatoes in earlier in the week, so we now have a full bed of spuds. :)

We started our melons off in the greenhouse and finally decided the weather had warmed enough to get them in the bed. We've not grown these before so it will be good to watch how they develop. 

We picked up a discounted sweet potato at a garden centre a few weeks ago thinking it was a shame to leave it and would eventually find space for it. We have planted it in the corner of the raised bed with the dwarf french beans and mange tout after deciding we had a large section  of their raised bed going spare

KP is definitely developing her green fingers repotting the marigolds she had planted from seeds (with some help from Mark of course.)

We finished the afternoon with a trip to the garden centre. We headed straight to the seasonal clearance section and picked up several pots of various different flowers, herbs and vegetables drastically reduced but with a firm plan of where all will go.

We finished the day with a trip to the pub for dinner followed by a slow walk home enjoying the sunset.

Sunday:

Bit gloomy and drizzly to begin with but then again was a bank holiday and as we all know its not a proper bank holiday unless it rains one day at least! ;) We took the chance to get together with friends and family.

Monday:

Back to the plot for some digging. Cleared the doc leaf out the flower beds and joined the two together again by taking out the walkway that went up the middle. Back breaking work digging one armed. Next job to edge the border and plant the fantastic array of plants we picked up on Saturday.

 

Whilst I was digging a friend came and offered me several Jerusalem artichoke tubers she had dug from her bed that day. Having never eaten Jerusalem artichoke before I thought why not and accepted the offered tubers. Not knowing where to put them and using my bucket for nettle stew, I have dug a hole and given them a temporary home for a few days while I clear an area towards the back of the plot. One thing I am very aware of is that once they get going they grow tall and  dense blocking the sun. for whatever is behind them. Some of them came attached to two and a half foot long foliage. 

JJ planted Rosemary, parsley and basil in our herb bed and Spinach, rocket and more radishes in the salad bed. I will post a picture once they have started to come up.

 The little P's are getting excited about the prospect of strawberry picking and it is looking to be a bumper crop.

Not quite sure how we've managed it but CP hasn't noticed the bean pods growing on the broad beans. Last year she stripped a plant in half an hour!

Our first garlic crop is close. Early Purple Wight bulbs we picked up during a trip to the Isle of Wight last Autumn. We'll be watching these closely over the next week or so.

So that's the bank holiday round up. Thank you for reading, hope you've had a good bank holiday too. :)