Nic Dempsey

We had two days this weekend. So we started with coffee on Saturday morning and a plan of attack.

Ma started at the back and I started at the front. My weeding job was easier because the soil at the top is is better condition but that also means that the grass has been having a field day, lots of roots but they were easier to get up. Ma was tackling the area by the apple tree which was a complete nightmare, despite having been cleared already.

I also cleared the bulb bed under the plum tree and took up the poppies that were dying back and I tackled the ‘wild’ area at the front were we have let the coriander, calendula, mallow, borage, orache and verbena self seed with abandon. Lots of them are dying back and going to seed. I don’t object to that but I pulled up the most dead plants and scatted some of the seeds on the now cleared bulb bed. It’ll need some more work later but it’s a little more controlled at the moment. You can see the paths now!

I also watered a bit. At the beginning of the month, it was so wet and now really dry. I’ve resigned myself to a mid week water for the next couple of weeks, as there’s not much rain predicted.

That was Saturday, Sunday was a later start and began with a shed clear out. I do need to paint the shed soon but for the moment we can find everything again.

Then it was time to finish at the back. We put together the compost riddler and finished the weeding we wanted to do around the apple tree. We’ve cleared the space where the polytunnel will be built in the autumn. We’re going to move some of the roses at the back and make a garden next to where the poly tunnel will be, so it was time to cut down the apple tree and cardboard and compost the area we’d fenced off.

We had some used compost from the potatoes and we also riddled the compost in the bin, I can’t explain how pleased I am that we made compost.

We netted it or the wildlife will just dig it up, but I’m pretty impressed. Other than the roses, I’ll have to give some thought to what else we put here. The rest of the back is a confusion of strawberries, boysenberry and weeds, we’ll get to sorting it out next week.

Ma also decided to move all the blueberries to the back, where the poly will eventually be, it’s weird because we’re back to having a plan but needing to wait, which seems to how August and September go on the plot!

We also did some harvesting, kale, chard, carrots, two summer squash, 12 cukes and over a kilo of french beans! The chard was wilty, I think that it’s just been too dry, so I tidied the bed up and we deeply watered it, I hope it’ll recover.

It’s in pretty good shape and we’ve hit some of the things we really needed to do but I have a list of work for September.

• weeding – by the gooseberries and down the side path
• tidy up rose garden and pond area
• strim paths
• raise the height of the netting on the kale and broccoli, they are looking very crowded
• paint the shed
• empty and riddle the rest of the compost
• path by the compost bed – it needs carboarding and woodchipping because it feels like a trip hazard