The Potato Patch

We finally managed to make a start on the potato patch! There isn't a 'completed' photo as we haven't managed to finish it! The going was heavy to say the least. As our vegetable garden is being 'reclaimed' from the Mother Nature, we are essentially having to dig out a field. This is the lat of the big beds this year. We hadn't meant to leave it so late - trying to do the digging when the weeds weren't present, but with so much other stuff to do it has been put off and put off and we are paying the price.

This picture shows it about half done (maybe a wee bitty less). It took us 5 hours to get to two thirds done! We may get it finished during the week, but work beckons, if not it will be added to the ever growing list of things to do this weekend!

Farm guy did most of the work as I was busy over here....

The pea tyre, in the background, was looking a bit sad, so it got some nice horse manure, yum yum. But the major project was to prepare the bean tyre. Mixing up some nice compost with a bit of horse manure.. do you see the theme? We have sacks and sacks of horse manure and no horse.... Farm Guy Dad has his own farm and lets out a few of the fields for livery, so he is always good for some bags of horse manure! This will get the runner beans and possibly some trailing cherry tomatoes - we are getting 9 plants from my mum (who deserves a blog name - Farm Mum! Ta Da!). Yes we like to for nice even numbers like 9! The tyre will need to wait until next weekend as the beans are hardening off at the moment in our little plastic greenhouse, they were spoiled beans, growing in the living room on a nice warm window sill, so they need to get used to real life!

Growing Guide - Garlic

Garlic is not everyone's favourite, we all know someone - or ARE someone - who says "Eugh, Garlic? No Thanks" but as many cooks out there know some garlic in a dish is a great way to bring out the flavours of the
other ingredients, and it doesn't need to stink out the kitchen! Others love the idea of the garlic hanging in their kitchen in the plaits or wreaths, never to be used just to decorate. So whatever your reason for growing Garlic I know you will find it an easy and rewarding plant to grow!

Time to Plant Out

Garlic is planted straight out into the garden, there is no need to start it off under glass or on that trusty window sill! You are best to plant out your garlic cloves in the Autumn as this allows the best chance of the bulbs being subjected to some cold weather and frost. Garlic likes to be made cold and this 'chill' will give a good bulb formation the following year.

If your soil is prone to becoming water-logged then you may decide that the best time to plant out is January or February, to catch the cold but miss the rain! Alternatively you can add some horticultural sand to your soil to try and aid drainage.

When you are ready to plant split the bulb into the individual cloves and ensure each one is planted with the pointed end upwards. Make sure that the cloves are planted 2.5-5cm (1-2inches) deep and around 15cm (6 inches apart). Bulbs can be bought from you garden centre or from online sellers or catalogues. Supermarket bought stuff... you can give it a go but success rates will vary as many supermarket types are not suitable for this climate. The bulbs from the garden centre are not expensive and you will be guaranteeing a good crop.

If you plant out in the Autumn you will begin to see growth by January and in Spring some high nitrogen feed can be beneficial. During its growing period garlic likes a good amount of water but you should tail this off around May as the foliage starts to die back and the plant finishes its growing.

Harvest Time

Once the foliage is almost completely withered, around May and June, it is time to lift the bulbs. Make sure this is done on a nice sunny day so you can leave the bulbs on the surface of the soil for a day to dry out. If rain is likely to be a problem them move the bulbs into a greenhouse or cold frame to dry for a couple of days.

After this the bulb is ready to store. If you wish to create a display from your Garlic then remember to keep the stems intact.

Problems and Issues

There isn't much that can disturb your garlic. Water logging and/or over watering at the wrong time can cause the bulbs to rot. Beware sheep, this was our only problem, sheep apparently like garlic plants, so if you have a bad case of sheep infestation then things may turn out bad!

Growing Guide at a Glance

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

Sow -In

Sow -Out

Plant

Harvesting

Planting Out - Roses

	There had been a sale on in one of Farm Mum's plant catalogues and she had decided that this was a great opportunity to increase her flower stock. I had a peruse through the catalogue myself and spotted a selection of climbing roses that I knew would come in very handy around the new garden - in particular around the new vegetable patch. I am calling it a vegetable patch but am hoping to make it a nice place to just go and sit, so some inspirational colours and scents can only enhance that! I love roses and was unable to bring the ones from our previous house, the time of year when we moved I was too worried that the shock of digging them up would kill them and I would rather that they stayed and where enjoyed than risk them dying! So it was a perfect time to re-acquaint myself with some roses. They were delivered bare rooted and were all ready for being planted out. There were four different ones in the pack, all the same "type" but a nice selection of colours and styles. Farm Guy Dad had brought down some bags of horse manure (he lets out some of his fields for livery) so the roses all got a nice dose of this in the newly dug hole and around them once they were in the ground. Three headed to the vegetable garden but one was kept (the white one, called - Iceberg) and planted in a nice deep pot by the back door, perhaps I can convince it to grow up a cane and give a nice display to the visitors. I am hoping that they have a good scent on them but there are so few roses now that do have a scent that I may be unlucky, guess I will have to wait and see!

Fencing - The Big Job...

So, you may be aware that we have a big ol' field out the back of the farm, extending to about 13 or so acres. The plan in the short term is to let this field out (probably to the local dairy farm) but we wanted a bit of space for ourselves for various possible projects, a favourite idea is a small orchard in at least part of it. So what was needed was a fence, right across the top of the field. And So Farm Guy and Farm Guy Dad (who is actually a Farm Guy too!) set out to put up a nice stock fence... I supplied the food...

First thing was to put the fence posts in all the way across the field, in a nice straight line, and bang the posts in with a variety of tools. They had a mel (large hammer) and "a metal thing with handles" (yes, that's the technical name) which you slot over the top of the post and kind of thump it down. The mel was needed as some of the posts proved just to wide to fit in the handled thingy!

About half way across we wanted a gate, this will line up with the gate that currently leads to the Farm and will allow us to get any machinery/animals/Santa's sleigh through into the main part of the field. As a result some nice 'stays' were needed to help support the gate posts, although we are not hanging the gate yet - we need something even sturdier to hang it but this will do for now.

And here is our completed fence with gate (tied) in situ. All the grass on this side is ours to play with and everything beyond is up for rental grabs! Hopefully this will have some nice calves on it soon and we can get all 'bovine'.