Our 'Garden' consists of various elements but as yet, even after 4 years, is still in the design stages. We have a decare of land (1000m2 or about a quarter acre), on the side of a hill overlooking the valley and the village of Cherkovo (Черково), not a great deal of space but more than enough for our needs. We have divided this space into zones, some notional and others very clearly defined. I'll eventually complete my design and put it up here once I'm done to save a laborious description, but suffice to say ..... it does or will broadly follow Permaculture principals.
What I intend to do in this page is simply to follow the year from a gardening perspective. I'm going to try (but don't hold me to it) and record the year by taking a couple of photo's on the first, or nearest to the first day of each month to show how the year develops. Clearly, I'm an Englishman, so a pre-occupation with weather is inbred, and I will almost certainly mention how the month panned out in this respect, and I will write about the maintenance, preparation, planting and harvesting we've done through the year. I'll try and develop a structure but I don't yet know what it will be, though I will post in reverse chronological order, so here goes ......................
May 2012
Phew!! This has been a busy month, hence my absence from these pages and the internet, and my neglect of all things human these past weeks ..... sorry all for not being as attentive as I might..JPG)
We've had some casualties already and some non-starters but we're persevering. The Brassicae (or is it 'Brassicas' - whatever!) and lettuce (oddly) do not like the heat so they're being sown in the Autumn this year to over-winter, although strangely, the Brassica has faired better under glass. The Kohl Rabi just will not germinate so I've given up now and will try again in the Autumn.
We've already harvested and enjoyed some Kale, the first in over 4 years, and delicious. We've been gorging on Strawberries and Jac has made 20 jars of Jam so far, with more fruit ripening every day ... and an anticipated 2nd harvest later in the year. We're harvesting Cherries (early, and from our neighbours Orchard) which Jac has also turned into Jam and intends to bottle for pies etc. The Chard is on it's way and almost ready to enjoy, the beets are steaming on and won't be too long, we already have tomatoes on our 'bottling' plants and the cucumbers are growing nicely in the tubs. The spuds are growing like mad, both in the tyre planter and in bags, and the strawberry tub is yielding too. Our sweetcorn is at about 50cm already so our new 'chooks' (Bantams - compliments of Norm & Joan our mates in Detelina when they're ready) will have plenty to scoff later in the year ..... and soooooooo much more.
One of the major achievements this year has been to install drip irrigation across the piece, which has saved us hours in labour and gives a consistent system .... all credit to a neighbour, Graham Wales for steering me in the right direction quite some time ago but the cost, for us, was prohibitive until now.
Anyway, it's coming to the end of the month and my statement at the beginning declaring 80+ heat has gone by the way. We've had some serious rain this last week or so, all good for the garden and Well, but not good for the spirits. On the up side, for the first time in 4 years, we've been visited by Bee-Eaters ..... a stunning spectacle.
April 2012
1st - Is it an 'April Fool' or simply Sods Law!! It was a glorious warm day until lunchtime then all hell broke loose ..... gale force winds and driving rain, Despite that, it was strawberry day today, clearing the weeds and removing the dead runners. The strawberry strategy is different this year. One of the 1.5 x 16m beds will be dedicated to the glorious fruit. I'm going to use The Hill System combined with landscaping fabric to beat the weeds. A number of runners will be potted to replace spent plants next year. I'll put a pic up here when complete..jpg)
The spuds in my 'Henley' style tyre planter are doing well and the shoots now keep breaking the surface. I'm trying to get them [the shoots] long enough so that I can re-direct a couple from each seed towards the side-wall exits before I fill the next tyre. These side-ways shoots will convert to 'shaws' when they've been in daylight for a few days. 'Shaws' are the stems and leaves of the potato plant and the collectors of energy for the new tubers which should grow from the stolons growing sideways from these shoots. The remaining shoots should continue to grow onward and upward until I stop placing tyres, side shoots being exited all the way to the top.
Other than that .... rain stopped play!
March 2012
It seems like an age since I've been on here ...... oh, it has!! I am errant in my duty to inform ..... Ne'er mind eh, I'm here now.This month has been glorious, a little chilly at the beginning but soon hitting 20C+ at times. There has been very little rain, in fact I think it's only rained for one day and that wasn't a fantastic amount. This has allowed almost uninterrupted toil in the garden. I've been concentrating on getting the growing beds prepared and sowing seed. I've got the following on the go indoors:
- Loofah (That caught you on the hop eh - we have a plan!)
- Various Brassicae e.g. Cauli, sprouts, calabrese, cabbage khol rabi
- Chilli's
- Tomatoes (Salad & bottling)
- Cucumber
- Rhubarb (from seed)
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| Well-worn tyres! |
- Autumn sown Garlic & Onion (doing well)
- Peas with white & pinto beans
- Carrot and red onion (companion planted)
- Kale (under cloche)
- Broad beans (under cloche)
- Spuds (only 4) in tyres ... yes tyres! An experiment. They're well worn so all Cadmium should have oxidised, but just in case, they're lined too. I'm going to use a similar method to that used with the Henley Potato Towers to save a long explanation. If this works I may make towers for next year, I think shipping the Henley one's to Bulgaria would be impractical .... unless someone knows different(?????). Why all this trouble ... two words ... WEEDS & COLORADO!! A further experiment is to grow the remaining main crop seed potatoes in .... wait for it ........ grain bags!!!! I think I'm going to track this method in a separate post.
We've built a small raised bed using (re-claimed) blocks we've had laying around. This is for Parsnips, trying to avoid forking. That said, my growing method is changing completely this year. After a fair bit of research, it seems that Parsnips must remain moist at all times during germination. It takes roughly 21 days to successfully germinate Parsnip, that's a major overhead on the watering stakes soooooo, a little birdy tells me that if I lay planks over the seed after watering and remove them after 21 days they'll do better ... we'll see!
Everything we're doing is broadly based on permaculture principles as I've said but, my military background comes to the fore with a deepset need to have straight lines and tidiness .... and that's the way it stays! I don't really care if I get more edge if they're not straight, I don't really care if some weeds are good for aerating the soil, I don't want them. They'll be mulched to death and all the plants will be sown/planted in straight lines ..... live with it LOLOL.
What else? Salad tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, other salad vegetables, chillis and herbs are all being grown around the house in zone 1 using pots, grain bags and a keyhole bed (seperate post to follow). Oh, and finally, we've sown grass seed for the long awaited lawn, yet another separate post to follow.
That's it for March with only one day to go ................... don't forget Earth Hour tomorrow night, we're committed, are you?
February 2012
Here we go, another month closer to spring, and the mercury is sitting at -14C as I write, but the sun is shining, happy days! Time to get sowing some seed, indoors of course and (I don't have one, but) in a propagator, mine will be home-made.
Pause - Got to go cut wood 'er indoors is making me feel guilty so more to follow later, ta! ta!
I didn't get back to this in February because sadly, the lovely Stella, Jackie's wonderful Grandmother died on 31st January in her sleep. She had quite an innings at 101 years young and this is my very modest tribute to a wonderful lady. I personally didn't have a great deal of opportunity to really get to know her but she always had a positive outlook despite her sometimes obvious frustration and discomfort. A comment she made many years ago during a journey in our car, I think to Jac's parents anniversary party, allows me to say that I know she was always gladdened by the sight of green grass and blooming flora, her favourite being Lillies. R.I.P. Stella, we'll miss you.
January 2012Pause - Got to go cut wood 'er indoors is making me feel guilty so more to follow later, ta! ta!
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| 13th January 1911 - 31st January 2012 |
What's going to happen this month ...... not a fantastic amount I shouldn't wonder. Our winter has been pretty settled but cold, hitting -10°C and more at times though up to now, we've had almost no snow to speak of, which is unusual. Could this be the calm before the storm I wonder. That said, there's little that can be done in the garden at the moment apart from tidy up when it's not too cold, and plan for the warmer weather which usually comes towards the end of March beginning or April. This year I intend to start a fair few bits off inside, in 'bog roll' pots but I'll get into that later. Here are a few pics as a taster ..........
Oh, and they're dead easy to make :)
The remainder of the month has been spent tidying, laying a bit more 'muck' in preparation for Brassica and the Spring. The temperatures have hit as low as -15 on our thermometer and expected to fall further in the beginning of February so the ground has been too hard to till, which was one of my tasks this month. One piece of work I have busied myself with is my planting plan for the year. It's a bit more ambitious than last year and much of what we will plant will come from seed, which I will start sowing at the beginning of February. I'll bung a link to my planting plan at the end of the month, together with a link to my garden plan/design. Clearly, the latter is work in progress and doesn't yet completely follow Permie principles.
Oh, lest I forget, I kicked off my first HugelKultur bed this month too ..... that'll be a separate post. Credit goes to Paul Wheaton for getting me hooked on this principle. No doubt a visit to his Blog (he doesn't like them), Website or Forum will likely give the impression that he's intent on world domination, and that view may not be mistaken. Despite this not so evil intent, the amount of information this guy spews out is phenomenal, and mostly fantastic guidance to those trying to follow the 'Permaculture Way'. I have many thoughts and more to say on the topic but it's probably better that I leave people to form their own opinion.
Here are the links to my 2012 planting plan which is based on USDA Zone 7 equivalent, and my ongoing garden plan/design.
If I remember anything else I'll chuck it in later but I think that's pretty much it for January, the only thing to do now is to .......................... Stay Warm!!
