ime ready are you!
Our main plot is all ready, but we took on a new 1/2 plot which we barely had the chance to start before the snow started! Luckily it is in good condition so only really needs digging over before spring. ;D
Our main plot is all ready, but we took on a new 1/2 plot which we barely had the chance to start before the snow started! Luckily it is in good condition so only really needs digging over before spring. ;D
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before spring, you can do nowt but try
Lotty was cleared and dug last backend apart from the winter veg, waiting for the weather to dry out a little then I can do one or two jobs that need to be done, :)
1 plot from last year just needs a bit of titivating. New plot has 1/4 dug and a few fruit trees planted. Weather hasn't been kind for digging. Today I shall venture to plots and see if I can get a fork in. If so then today I shall mostly be digging lol
Got it all dug over and edged a month back. Even gave the shed a sweep out.
I'm a very long way from being ready. A lot of it can just be gone over with the digging hoe to get rid of annual weeds, but there's a large patch of bindweed I absolutely have to dig over properly.
Long way to go here too. Firstly I don't do the no crops over winter thing. I still have all sorts of brassica, garlic, shallots, leeks, parsnips, turnips under cloches, scorzonera, salsify etc growing as well as salad plants under cloches. Secondly, we have had frosty ground for a very long time. Today is the first thaw, but there is still some snow on the ground and more snow is forecast. Before that we had a spell of heavy rain and it is just not advisable to dig clay soil when it is so wet. Before that wet spell, every last inch was still in use. There has been no opportunity really, except for digging last year's garlic patch over for lettuce plants and the potato plot for follow on crops.
A dry spell in early spring gets me out and digging like crazy.
No, for the first time my digging wasn't complete before December. :'( :'( :'(
I only dig the beds that will have spuds in and there all done. :)
Quote from: Sparkly on December 26, 2010, 15:01:16
Our main plot is all ready, but we took on a new 1/2 plot which we barely had the chance to start before the snow started! Luckily it is in good condition so only really needs digging over before spring. ;D
absolutely snap here! so glad we got our first plot done much earlier than normal,dont know that happened actually....maybe we are know learning something?
good luck with your new plot for 2011 sparkly,isnt it exciting!!!!!! ;D ;D
Our soil is so light that if I dug it in the autumn I would have to do it again in the spring so I get my sweet pea and runner bean trenches ready but leave the rest till later. Mind you the light soil means it dries out very quick in dry weather it is has disadvantages
About 1/2 of mine is dug. Beans trenches done. The rest is covered in sprouts and psb etc and permanent crops. There is only a small bit still to do mostly the remains of last years brocolli which I was eating until the frost got it. I have never been so ready for next year.
My soil is very light too so I have been incorporating loads of bio material.
Roll on March!
I still have to dig over my new fruit bed (where I used to have a shed) but most of the rest is ready. I will have to clear the stuff still growing though - and my manure still hasn't arrived. I imagine it's surrounded by snow on the farm still.
Not entirely ready but more so than I have been in previous years! I had a plan to go and collect some spent hops every Monday (my day off) through the winter for mulch - I've been once. :-[
Quote from: caroline7758 on December 28, 2010, 14:40:24
Not entirely ready but more so than I have been in previous years! I had a plan to go and collect some spent hops every Monday (my day off) through the winter for mulch - I've been once. :-[
I live in Kent (Garden of England) and have not seen spent hops for many years. When I started 1940's we used to get all you could move in a day for about 10 shillings (50p) times change but spent hops are about the best.
I get them from the small independent brewery in York, and occasionally from one in Knaresborough if I'm passing- free apart from the petrol to get me there. ::)
Don't dig. Everything's under a foot of snow so won't be spreading compost for a while either.
Was doing quite well until the weather kicked in. Yesterday was the first day for ages when there wasn't either snow on the ground or the soil was frozen, but after all the rain we had on Monday night the soil is still waterlogged. Heyho - one day it will be dry and fine - and I shall have to go to work!
I'm not ready... but neither is Spring.. so no rush yet! :)
Not a chance. Had 4 weeks off in November - had non stop rain and snow. Back at work for 2 weeks followed by another 4 weeks off but constant rain and snow again. Absolutely gutted. Was hoping to be all done by Christmas. OH is chuffed with all the bad weather as I have done every job in the house that was on her list.... painted living & dining rooms, passage, staircase, landing, all ceilings, laid new floor in livingroom, laminate in daughters bedroom, electrics in attic and all boarded out too.
Well as I can't get my little wooden sign asking Santa to please stop here stuck in my veggie patch out the back here I don't think there is much hope of digging yet. ;D
No >:(
Stupid snow, very annoyed now, hopefully dry this weekend :-X
Well done the organised people :)
done some digging, but not all, I have onions, garlic and broad beans in....then the snow came!
what realy annoyed me was that my fruit trees and bushes got delivered just before, and even though the ground wasnt totally frozen, it was not the best time to put them in, but as they were bare rooted, I had to put them in .....will have to wait until spring now to see if they survived......
bump
Just one undug bit, and I was all on track to get it all done before Christmas - but then....well you can guess the rest. Since then it has been frozen solid...but maybe tomorrow I will be able to have a go at it!
I'm ready for spring for sure ::)..but as for digging..I tend to do as I need it..those beds that were covered with deep mulch in Autumn were dug first..and those that have winter/spring crops will be dug once they are cleared..others,,well when I get to it..if I do them and not mulch them, I'll only end up turning them over again in spring.
But not being able to do anything at all in lottie for some while due weather..even winter digging suddenly start appeal tempting ::) ;D...anything but not sitting inside...
I hate seeing soil exposed to the elements through the winter, all that soil oxidising, and nutrient leaching!!
;)
A very good reason to keep everything mulched!
green manures!
Still to dig over the potato bed but I am not in any hurry. Got a lot of horse muck to dig in but I will just spread this over until I dig. I still have parsnips from last year in this bed and I may have to clamp these.
Well, I'm more ready than I was before Christmas but not nearly as ready as I had planned! I booked some leave before Christmas with the intention of spending lots of time on my plot clearing the ground (I took on a *very* overground plot last summer), but then it snowed. And snowed. And snowed.
I managed to get a couple of hours in last Sunday, clearing yet more bramble roots and other annoying weeds from the soil. The plan is to spend more time down there this Saturday - so of course it's going to rain cats and dogs. In the unlikely event that it doesn't rain, I'll be clearing a patch of ground ready for my compost area, finishing off the digging and starting to think about edging some of the beds. There's a lot to do :-[
Going to restart the digging soon I hope, got about half the number 1 plot done before the weather turned on us, nearly all of that is under 6"+ of manure too cos I can get all the horse poo I can haul away frmo a local stable... Number 2 plot will be getting a weedkill/cardboard/plstic mulch and plenty of poo to grow potatoes and squash (and possibly sweetcorn) without a full digover.... I've used the technique before adn it works quite well...
chrisc
First weekend on the lotty, plenty to do without doing anything to the soil, install my new upright coldframe /small greenhouse, fill all the pots I will be using for my chillis and peppers put the netting round the fruit cage and just wait for March to come, :)
loads still to do although I don't do a great deal of digging , it is mainly weeding and tidying and prepping - of 31 beds I still have 15 to do, but I know it will get done as always ;D
Loads to do for me as well, but as long as I can keep going steadily I'll be able to keep ahead of it. I'll be putting stuff in from now till late May or so so there's time.
bump ing this up