Just a bit baffled

As I have said before, my opportunities for tending to the vegetable patch are a bit limited these days. It's dark when I get home and fairly soon it will be dark when I get up.

Today being Saturday I had the chance for a look. There's nothing happening much there at the moment, just a some chives and a bit of garlic planted and waiting.

What puzzled me, though, was the green manure - the phacelia tanacetifolia. Now the patch is divided into two distinct halves with a bit of paving down the middle for met to stand on. The phacelia is growing fine on one half, but not on the other. The bit where it is not taking is also the part where I had the lettuce and spinach which didn't take.

Is there something wrong with the soil? And why? It's virtually the same patch, after all. I'm mystified.

Now that's what I like - it's cheap

My friend Steve has been in contact today and has sent me an article from the Guardian about gardening on the cheap. It's fascinating reading and gives some useful and practical tips. Well done to writer Alys Fowler for inspiring me.

Obviously, no sign of the Phacelia tanacetifolia coming through yet. Steve says they're tough buggers and will probably see out any frost. 

Herbs are coming on nicely, though, and it seems highly likely to me that I will have to do something about them soon. Apparently, it's a process called pricking out. No comment.

Hunger stalks the land

The harvest has officially failed.

After taking advice from Susan, I have reached the view that the crops will not come through now after all the rain we have had. As I have said before, it was always going to be risky starting the plot when I did. The gamble has failed to come off.

This morning I gave the unused part of the plot a good turning over. Ditto with the other part, where I had been trying to grow lettuce, spinach and rocket. It all got dug over.

I then scattered the Phacelia tanacetifolia which my pals Steve and Marianne recommended as green manure. Or, as it said on the packet, 'broadcast' the seeds. What a delightful word! Roll on early next year when I'll start again.

With no food growing, I now face a trip to Tesco to top up supplies. Or Lidl as we now call it in these hard times that we are experiencing as the economy plunges downwards. (Hey! It's not my fault, says Mr Brown. Funny that,  I seem to remember he was taking the praise when it was going relatively well).

Or, I could book passage to America and start a new life. Except that I don't fancy dancing a jig in the hold all the way across the Atlantic.

 

Mm...green manure. Something to savour

My friends Steve and Marianne, who know all there is know about growing vegetables, urge me to be optimistic about my little patch. Some seeds might wake up and have a look above ground, they tell me.

In particular, they warn me about autumn digging and leaving the sods bare for winter frost to break up.

Here's what they say:

"Soil is a living structure , and needs to interact with plant roots. Only dig ground and put in manure and/or compost just as you're about to sow/plant crops. If you have bare soil grow a green manure in it. One of the best is Phacelia tanacetifolia, which you might have seen growing on our plot. It's not related to any crop plants, so it won't affect your
rotation. Bees love its flowers. It's incredibly easy to pull up and compost. (Don't try the digging in idea: too much hard work!) Phacelia seed is hideously expensive though, but it goes a long way."

Needless to say, I had been planning on leaving the soil bare. I'd never heard of Phacelia or even green manure. Having boned up on it all, I believe I will give it a go.

They get theirs from the Organic Gardening Catalogue and I reckon I will do the same. In fact, I'll peruse it to see if I can buy anything else at the same time for when I do start planting.