Lovely Rain

This rain we're having is a godsend - its coming about half an inch or more, about once a week, enough to slowly build up a nice soil moisture bank that should take us through the next few months. To help it along, I have been taking some water thats pouring out of the gutters and pouring it into the ground at the top end of the garden, where it will hopefully build up the water levels even more. Because the rain was so strong today, I took the opportunity to shake out some fertilizer so that it could soak in nicely and not burn the plants. Not too much though, I'm trying to keep as organic as possible. I'm not a purist though.

The photo shows my recycling plant - the compost piles. These are largely kitchen peelings, lawn trimmings, weeds and leaf sweepings. I contain these in wire mesh cylinders - easily and cheaply made with wire mesh from a hardware store. These take surprisingly long to build, as the stuff rots and compacts quickly. I turn the heaps every couple of weeks or so, to re-oxygenate the piles - more often when the grass clippings are fresh. It also helps to mix the ingredients.

The peas sown in early Feb are now also putting in their first pods, and are about 3-4 feet high. The broccoli rabe has finally taken off, and may be harvestable soon (the crop isnt huge, but I should get a meal or two out of it - it was really a test run to see how well it grows here in Almaden. Meanwhile, I have been engaging in plotting my next moves in this bed - I've planted out some jiffy-pot-grown sweetcorn (Kandy Korn hybrid, Ferry-Morse) and filled in a few holes with seed, so I should have a little-staggered crop. Corn has to be grown in blocks, as its wind-pollinated, and the bed is fairly narrow, so I've been planting through the peas, broccoli, as well as in the bare spots. The plan, when these are starting to take off - say a foot high - is to plant runner beans beside them. The beans can then climb the corn as they grow. Hopefully.

I have plans to do the same against the fence - this time with a mixture of sweetcorn and sunflowers.

So far, from the Xmas sowing of peas, I have had 3 meals - or rather, 2.5 (the first was rather thin). I have at least one more coming, and probably one after that. Then, its off to the compost with the rest - and the soil will have plenty of nitrogen added by the peas. I hope to get these peas finished shortly, so I can plant other stuff in that bed - either Zucchini, or maybe salads (its getting quite shady now that the tree above it has leafed.

Zucchini ready for planting out shortly

After the slugs got my purchased Zucchini plants, I sowed some seeds in Jiffy plugs inside, where they sprouted rapidly. On the weekend, I transferred them to pots, where they are currently putting on their first true leaves. The corn and sunflowers I sowed about a week later are currently germinating, and I'm in the process of putting the corn in the bed next to the house wall at the moment. My plan is to shade my window and keep some of the summer heat out, and at the same time to use the corn as support for some runner beans I will sow later. The Sunflowers I'll put against the neighbours fence, again as support for more runner beans. At the base of both, I plan to plant other vegetables, either lettuce or swiss chard (I have transplants waiting to go of both), or the zucchini. This squash/corn/bean combo is an ancient Indian trick, as the beans fertilize the ground, the squash shades it, and the corn provides support for the beans.