Raised Beds

As it was a very pleasant morning in Compton, we took the opportunity to construct another raised bed.

.

.

The new bed is the nearest one on this picture and was built around the carrots remaining from the summer sowing and the shallots which were planted in October. 

.

The raised bed behind is one constructed earlier this year where three rows of garlic are being grown.

.

Once these crops have been lifted, the beds will be topped up with a mix of fresh soil and compost and used to grow squash and courgettes.

. 

November wood smoke

We’ve had a productive afternoon down at the patch.  I finally got round to fixing the door handle on the polytunnel and Heather got a fire going to burn the prunings from fruit bushes… there’s something very evocative about Autumnal wood smoke.

.

We have built one of our planned six raised beds in the polytunnel and have sown Winter leaves (mizuna, mustard greens and spinach) which we hope will provide us with a cut-and-come-again leafy greens.

.

Mission Accomplished

The door is on, the floor levelled and the frames for the raised beds will be constructed sometime in the coming weeks.

.

Meanwhile,  there are plenty of other jobs to be getting on with :

• The bed where we will be growing climbing beans has been cleared and two trenches dug out… these will be filled with newspaper and waste that would normally go on the compost heap.  The trenches will then be filled in and the bed covered with a layer of cardboard until we are ready to sow seeds in April.
• The soft-fruit bushes will be pruned back to maintain a good shape and encourage more fruits.
• The step-cordon apples will also be pruned and side branches tied into the wires.
• Another bin will be constructed to hold leaf litter… the leaves will slowly break down to produce a very rich compost.