4th November 2018 - Another bed in 86a

Here we are at the end of the season but there's still loads to do for me, particularly in 86a.  This week it was littlest L's birthday and so I didn't get up to the plot at all yesterday, which was a shame because we had the Bonfire Night party and from what I hear it was a brilliant night with around 100 people coming along.  We have a second bonfire in December for the Winter Solstice, so I'll be hoping to go along to that one.

Up at the plot today I wanted to get my second bed finished because I had planted all of my onions into the bed on 85a and the extra ones I'd put into individual cells.  Some of them had started to sprout and so I really wanted to get them into a bed before they got too big for the cells.  I hadn't counted them but I actually had 112 onions the needed to be transplanted.  I also had 3 garlic bulbs that I wanted to get planted, I didn't count them but I did manage to get them all in.  This year I decided to try soft neck garlic because while my bulbs grew well last year I struggled to keep them and I read that soft neck keep better than hard neck - I have no idea why (if anyone does please feel free to let me know).


I also had some leeks that I was hoping to fit into this bed but they wouldn't fit and so I've put them into root trainers.  I have no idea if they will be OK but they were unhappy and getting root-bound in the pot they were in.  I'm hoping that they'll be OK in the root trainers because they'll have more room to grow and because they're now planted individually when I do have room to plant them they'll be easier to put into the right place without disturbing them too much.  I'm also going to add toilet roll to help blanch the stems, it's not something I've done before but I'm hoping it will work.

I now have 2 beds actually growing things in 86a.  I'm getting 2 more bags of topsoil delivered (hopefully) next weekend to fill my last large bed and then the leftover will have to wait until the other beds are made.  I'm hoping to get 10 more scaffold boards for Christmas and 5 more bags of topsoil.  My plan is to have all of the beds in place and ready to go for next spring. 

I have used the Grow Veg garden planner for 3 years for 85a and I am going to set up a plan for 86a.  I haven't decided yet whether to do it as 2 different plans or to put both of them together on one plan.  I think it will be easier to do it as one plan but I don't know if I can extend current plan.  If you don't use it, I would very much recommend it.  You can get it as a free trial to start with but it's worth the £19 per year subscription.  As part of the planner you can get a list of plants/seeds that you need to make the beds but it also tells you where you can plant things, based on your previous planting to help you with your crop rotation.  You also get regular news and offers.  

I will share my plan once it's done but until next time...
Happy Gardening x