The Vegetable Plot

04/01/2009 at 15:37 · Filed under Veggie Plot and tagged: American land cress, carrots, grow, Jerusalem artichokes, Mooli, seeds, squash, vegetable plot

Today,  it’s time to start planning the vegetable plot.  Our aim always is to make the plot work year round, giving us something fresh throughout the seasons. Now in the midst of winter we have American land cress still going strong also Jerusalem artichokes which can be dug up when needed.  The Swiss chard is hanging in there too. We had a few varieties of squash in the plot last year, which are greatly satisfying to grow and also keep well, as you can see I am still using them in the soup.

We grew carrots in large planters as an experiment, in the past just sown the seeds straight into the earth but we had problems with the carrots forking and carrot fly. Sieving the soil to remove the stones and the height of the planters stopped the carrot fly. So this was a winner…hooray!

We did a similar thing with Mooli (long white radish), having some  black dustbins that were no longer used as we are now in the ‘wheelie bin’ system. The bins washed and disinfected and filled with the same sieved soil as the carrots. Unforturnately they suffered with cabbage root fly, boo hoo, but odd ones survived and grew to about 18″ or 45cm. so definitely something to work on there.

Having sorted  the seeds that need to be sown now, Red Baron onion, West Indian Lemon Grass, Aubergine Thai Green Pea, Aubergine Thai Yellow Egg.  We attempted the aubergines last year but had left it to late so we’ll see if we get them in earlier if we have more success. We try to grow something different each year some succeed some don’t but it’s fun and interesting to explore the possibilities.

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