Entry tags:
Blackcurrants planted
I hope the web sites that said Ben Sarek only needs to go three feet apart as opposed to the more normal five feet were telling the truth...
Anyway, we've planted our two blackcurrant bushes 3 feet apart with all of our remaining compost in the soil around them.
The autumn fruiting raspberries, four very sorry specimens of Autumn Bliss, have been planted with compost in the trench below them.
All the raspberries and the blackcurrants have been mulched with grass clippings supplied by the lady next door who doesn't even have a compost bin. It's mostly indended to surpress weeds, but should also add organic matter to the soil and maybe a little nitrogen.
The onion sets are in. 3 rows of white onions, nearly two rows of red onions (and a few white at the end) and a row of garic (with a few white onions at the end).
We're trying a green manure. Trefoil has now been seeded over 6 square metres that we don't expect to use for a long time (and we'll probably put some fenugreek on another patch that will be free for a while). The plot desperately needs organic matter and green manure seems one good way of supplying it. Another form of crop rotation - it will stop nutrients from leeching out the soil (the plants grab the nutrients and hold them safe), some of the manures will add nitrogen to the soil, and all of them will protect the soil from rain, encourage wildlife and provide organic matter when we eventually hoe them in.
At least, that's the theory... Let's see if any of them actually grow...
Anyway, we've planted our two blackcurrant bushes 3 feet apart with all of our remaining compost in the soil around them.
The autumn fruiting raspberries, four very sorry specimens of Autumn Bliss, have been planted with compost in the trench below them.
All the raspberries and the blackcurrants have been mulched with grass clippings supplied by the lady next door who doesn't even have a compost bin. It's mostly indended to surpress weeds, but should also add organic matter to the soil and maybe a little nitrogen.
The onion sets are in. 3 rows of white onions, nearly two rows of red onions (and a few white at the end) and a row of garic (with a few white onions at the end).
We're trying a green manure. Trefoil has now been seeded over 6 square metres that we don't expect to use for a long time (and we'll probably put some fenugreek on another patch that will be free for a while). The plot desperately needs organic matter and green manure seems one good way of supplying it. Another form of crop rotation - it will stop nutrients from leeching out the soil (the plants grab the nutrients and hold them safe), some of the manures will add nitrogen to the soil, and all of them will protect the soil from rain, encourage wildlife and provide organic matter when we eventually hoe them in.
At least, that's the theory... Let's see if any of them actually grow...