PO - TA - TOES !

some of you may recall the televisual delight of the medieval peasant leaning on his pitchfork and spelling out 'Po - Ta - Toes', well if you do let me know where it came from, its been bugging me for ages,

anyways, back to the plot! the spuds are chitting well, so i took the time and trouble today to remove all but the best healthiest shoots. With only one shoot theres only one plant, and so i am led to beleive a bigger yield, rather than masses of foliage

the potato patch is now level, and raked to form a seed bed. A bag of spud fertiliser has been strewn over it, which will be raked in, and then the seed potatoes will be planted at the end of the month.

The last remaining cauliflower plants came out today. None of them looked like they would head, so the leaves have gone to Freddy and the boys to eat. The resulting space on the plot between the broccoli and the spring onions has been dug, raked into a seed bed, and two rows of boltardy beetroot and a row of jolant leeks sown. Similarly, the space where the broad beans were, has also beed dug and two rows of Hollow crown parsnips have been sown, with a faster growing row of little gem lettuces between them.

I was pondering how to mark these rows whilst eating my tea (which contained some steamed broccoli fresh from the garden, including aphids), when an idea popped into my head that would also make use of the triangular wooden offcuts from the timber used to make the chookhouse run - write on the triangular blocks with an indelible pen!

when placed at the ends of the rows, and pushed firmly down, these really do make the whole job look quite professional.

Sams two large tubs are now full of soil, ready for him to plant his carrots and salad leaves. My trouble now is planning where to plant everything, as i haven't enough bed space. Ive marked out a block to be dug for the sweetcorn, and another attempt at cauliflower will go in the small space next to the garlic. Ive also earmarked the unused far end of the plot for sprouts. This just leaves me wondering where to put carrots, squash, peas, beans, onions, more lettuce, calabrese and a few others. So, another bed has been marked out and an extension to the current one. Squash will grow in a large tub, and i think i will try runner beans from a hanging basket.

Looks like plenty more turfing and digging for me over the next couple of weeks. I should be used to it by now, yesterday i turned the middle compost bin, and moved its contents into the third bin. This needed doing to allow me to level the ground beneath the bin, in anticipation of insulating the middle bin to make a 'hot pile', where internal temperature can rise higher than normal to promote microbial activity. The turf i remove from the new plots will go to form an earth wall around the incinerator.