This season of gardening is all about small gains. I work hard but I never get everything I planned to get done, done.

So let’s start with what I did at the weekend.

I really wanted to get the arches up and I needed to give one of the strawberry towers some attention. So I started with the strawberries which led to some weeding. And then getting the arches built and in place and, with some help from Sue and Richard, netted. It looks much better than I expected and I have a plan for better netting next year but this is a great £70 solution for now.

I ‘paid’ Sue and Richard with rhubarb and they went home leaving me to get on with some more work. It was more weeding of the middle paths and planting in that area. First up, the sweetcorn, it’s planted way too close together but I ordered some that died. Then I ordered a different type that arrived out of its container and they send me another batch but six of the first lot survived and lots of the second batch were double planted. Which is a long winded way of saying that I have about 24 sweetcorn plants in that bed and the plant is to sow some beans (Cherokee Trail of Tears) in there too for a two sisters bed, if I had any little winter squash I’d probably try and cram it in but that’s pushing it, even for me!!

I also bought some more asparagus to fill the gaps in the asparagus patch so I put in three to fill the gaps, that leaves me with seven more in pots, I’m wondering if I should put them in the other strawberry bed.

I cleared the two beds and all the paths to the asparagus patch and at some point over this week hope to have sow chard and beetroot in them and maybe fennel with the chard.

I edged the asparagus patch with some chamomile. I had a lot of plants sitting on the table in trays and I really wanted to get most of them planted out. So I took all the heath pearlwort I had and made a ‘lawn’ next to the new herb bed and with the last of the erigeron. That part of the plot is looking really good, there won’t be any more wood chip until after the open day but I think that’s the only thing that would improve its looks!

The dahlia bulbs were all planted out, they were sale stock so it’s late to plant them so I’m trying not to be too hopeful!  

On Monday, I needed to go and water (I can’t remember it being this hot this early!) and got caught up in the ‘I’ll just do one thing’ trap. All the tomatoes in the polytunnel are now planted out! I’m working on, really filling the beds to see if that helps with weed pressure, so both of the tomato beds have basil, chives (bought from the herb section of Sainsburys and Waitrose and left on the plant table at the plot to acclimatise and then divided before being planted out) and marigolds interplanted. The last three tomatoes, went in the bed with the walking onions in them. This bed also had a volunteer tomato plant and a lot of tree spinach in it.  The onions have been flowering like mad and have fallen over, so the bed needed some tidying up before I planted anything.

I have this idea that I’ll plant things next to the beds between them and the path. It’s never worked on the edge of this this bed. Chamomile, dead. Santolina, dead. Thyme, dead. You name it, it didn’t like it. What that does mean is that the soil isn’t terrible because I do keep topping it up every time, I try something new. I didn’t want to risk another dead plant, so I took a bunch of the flowering heads of the walking onion and planted them in that space (and in a corner of the actual bed) in the vain hope that I can break the curse and because I think they’ll be good there.

That done I also removed all of weeds and some of the tree spinach and planted the rest of the space with tomatoes, basil and, as I’d run out of chives, coriander (also from the supermarket) and marigolds. There was some coriander left and that went into the bed next door with the courgettes (but the time the courgettes are big enough the coriander will have flowered and seeded and unlike some plants on my plot (borage and nigella I’m talking about you) coriander is a gentle self-seeder, so I don’t mind so much.

Lots has been done, there is lots more to do but the plot is starting to look like it’s cared for, the best medicine for the garden is the gardener!  

There are only five more beds to sort, two to be planted up and three to be cleared and planted up. One of them will be easy, it’s a clear up, plant some lingonberry bushes (don’t ask but my plant buying is not out of control, I stop anytime I want!), cardboard around them and then mulch with compost. The others just need clearing and topping up in preparation for the cottagers kale and the 9-star broccoli to go in.

That’s the first thing on the list for the weekend, and then the work list is long. I have three weeks until the open day which breaks down for me into two Sundays and however much I can get done in the evening before it gets dark (on Monday night I got home from the plot at 9.55pm!).  Before then I would like to do the following:

 

• Sort out those last five beds
• Pick blackcurrants, which are ready impossibly early
• Weed the gooseberries
• Weed the paths at the front of the plot
• Rehab rhubarb, this is just because is so dry, I want to pick the dying leaves, water really heavily and then mulch with compost 
• Weed the main path and the sides by the beds and make a dent in the cinque foil
• Plant the nepeta
• Sort out the broken arch by the rosemary and decide what to plant in the boxes
• Weed and tidy the iris beds
• Pot up the basil, coriander, and parsley
• Pot up the cottager kale and 9-star broccoli
• Paint the shed

It’s a lot but I think I could get quite a bit done before the open day.

I’m almost out of compost too. I had 50 bags in April and I’m down to about 16.

Also on the agenda is thinking about space, the was given two grapevines a while ago that need a spot. I do have a place for winter squash that is coming because mine died but I do also have a bunch of stuff that I have ordered with no real plan. Two kiwi plants, two climbing roses, 20 leek plants (I have a place for those), 10 kale plants. Yesterday, I agreed to take six tomato plants and six more pepper plants from a friend…which I have a plan for depending on when they arrive.

My mantra at the moment is ‘everything will be fine’!