Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Time for the vegetable garden.


Last year was a dry run. I grew(successfully!) Spring Onions, Beetroot, Carrots and tons of Tomatoes. The Broccoli was enjoyed by the entire Essex population of Cabbage White Butterflies, who decided to have an orgy on my leaves and produce millions of hungry babies. I gave up fighting them in August and handed the Broccoli back over to Mother Nature.

This year I'm terrified. I'm no longer a beginner. I should know what I'm doing.
I don't.

I have decided on one variety of tomato. I grew ordinary salad tomatoes, plum and cherry last year and the cherry toms were divine. I'm going to stick with them this year. I'm also going to grow Spring Onion again(easy peasy!), Leeks, Onions, Lettuce, Potatoes and a couple of Swedes and Cauliflowers.

So I'm working out what needs doing in what months, and I've realised I'm already behind. I haven't bought my spuds yet, and they need sprouting at the end of January. I also need to dig over and fertilise the vegetable patch, and enlarge it. It needs to be double the size. I'm also worrying about what to do when we go away in August. Two weeks is a long time, I can't expect friends or neighbors to look after the plants for two weeks, especially not at the busiest time for harvesting. Can you hire people, like you do to cat or dog sit, but to plant sit?

1 comment:

Dan said...

Who would have thought the rolling plains of Craylands was a haven for vegetables :D

Good luck with it - nothing quite like fresh homegrown veg.

And no, I am not plant sitting.