Showing posts with label concrete. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concrete. Show all posts

Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Mini harvest time

It's the end of October so time to harvest anything tender that's not already been eaten - such as squashes and pumpkins, ready for Halloween. Here's my mighty squash harvest. Not bad for a year's work, eh?



Mini squash.



Hmm, well maybe not. OK so what else? I also brought in the fast-growing French beans I planted in August (total six beans) and the last of my cucumbers, of which there were three, so a bit better there.  The baby carrots I planted in August all have very promising top growth so I am hoping for great things from them, after my maincrop is finished. Speaking of which, I unearthed a handful of maincrop carrots and also a huge block of concrete weighing about 10 kilos. That might explain why so many of my carrots are forked and stunted (careful how you say that). Bear in mind also, this is not the first crop in this bed or the first massive lump of concrete I've extracted. Oh well. Life is full of surprises, as they say.

On the positive side things are still fairly neat and I have managed to get both over-wintering onions and garlic in the ground nice and early. It's been cold, but not quite cold enough for parsnips - I'm waiting for a good couple of hard frosts to sweeten them up. The tops look good, let's hope there's something underneath, not just concrete.

Only one real job for the winter, build the cold frames I didn't build earlier this year, that might have saved my squash plants. Watch this space.



Wednesday, 3 March 2010

Give me a break!

When digging at the front of my plot I keep thinking 'if only my whole plot had soil like this.' So, as previously discussed here, I decided to move my compost heap away from the front of my plot, in the hope that there would be good soil underneath.  Early signs are good, the soil looks quite crumbly (gardeners say 'friable', not sure why, when 'crumbly' will do). I started with enthusiasm, but I forgot the joys of unearthing buried treasure such as broken glass, rubbish and bricks on a neglected plot. Here is a picture of the giant lump of concrete which seriously slowed my progress with the new bed. Eventually I levered it out with my long shovel, but I can't lift it, so it may have to stay as a 'feature.'