The sun starts to shine and I start to feel energised again. I was at the plot more and started to get things sorted. My partners had got everything dug and the potato trenches were in place, while my corner of the plot still looked neglected. I had not dug or covered the plot so there was a lot of weeding to be done.
A couple of satisfying sessions of digging and weeding left my pitch ready for business. I decided on repeating the successes of last year i.e. squash and cucumbers. In addition, I planned to improve on the also-rans – cabbages, carrots and kale.
My plot partner had acquired a mini greenhouse that someone was discarding and he said I could use it. This helped with my plan to grow more from seed.
I also chose to leave the fruit twigs in place. Although they weren’t dead, the blueberries and blackberry canes that I planted last year don’t seem to have grown at all. The Goji berry on the other hand has shot up.
We visited a nursery in the spring and I came home with some cabbage and onion seedlings.
A big shift in my approach was to include some container crops after the carrot failure of the previous year. I got some of those felt buckets and planted carrots, peppers, beetroot, spinach and garlic, I repurposed some old storage tubs to plant yellow and red onions.
As well as the containers, I planted red cabbages under the mesh brolly and under the mini polytunnel there were savoy cabbages and courgettes and one aubergine plant – I’m nothing if not optimistic.
So by the end of May, I was really happy with how the plot looked and the prospect of what was to come in autumn.
To the roots of it 