Thursday 11 May 2017

Ready Set... Go Go Go



Edinburgh has had a terribly dry, dull, cold April and early May this year but things seem to progressing even before the promised rain of this weekend.  My early early row of potatoes has started emerging (and are being dutifully mounded). I've never been keen on watering spuds but I made an exception for the really early ones and they seem to have responded.

The Potato Patch

As you can see there are a lot more yet to emerge. Even the weeds have been discouraged by the conditions!


The soft fruit area is getting a move on too and soon I will have to sling a net over the newly painted wooden frame



Soft Fruit Cage

The redcurrants are shaping up nicely....


,,,and so are the gooseberries:


Three rows of raspberries seem to have sprung to life.

Raspberries
Not forgetting the strawberries

Strawberry Patch
Next door to the soft fruit the alliums are leaning to the light source from the south. The latest planting of sets is to the left and that's two rows of elephant garlic on the right with ordinary garlic between it and four rows of onion sets in varying degrees of development as some were presprouted at home and others set out directly.
Alliums
Squeezed in at the end I've recently planted out the first leeks (Jolant). Not sure where I will put the next lot (Musselburgh) when they are ready.

Leek planting and Rhubarb
Maybe I have been over generous in the space allocated to carrots. All the more because they have to be netted. I really am trying to make a success of carrots this year, being one of the crops that we eat most of all the year round, and yet they did miserably last year. (The tunnel to the left is sown but the hooped tunnel is going to house our main crop - and, hopefully keep out the root fly.

Carrot Nets
These peas and broad been are squatting between the weed suppressant fabric for the brassicas and the WSF for the cucurbits. The runner beans and French beans have been allocated another similar sized area on the other side of the brassicas which is currently still covered with WSF - which won't be removed until the last moment before planting out.

Broad Beans and Peas
It's the bit with the bricks in the foreground here:
Room for Brassicas and Beans
With these preparations and the sowing and growing in the greenhouse at home, and the promise of rain this weekend,  it really is all about to go in a clatter!



Go Go Go






4 comments:

  1. Have you time to head south and make us a fruit cage?

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    1. You can take it as a measure of how far behind I am that it has taken me until now to get around to retreating the wood!

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  2. We need some rain and a bit of warmth to get things going. I really will have to get our red currants covered.

    We missed out on the showers that were forecast on Friday.

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    Replies
    1. I guess these are safe from frost - but I am not so sure about the blueberries which are in full flower.

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