tidying up

A tidying up day today. The ground is sodden but there are still things that can be done around the garden. I had hoped that some of the greens would have survived the harsh weather but calabrese and cabbage are just a mushy mess so I’ve pulled the roots and disposed of them. Swiss chard has mostly blackened and died but at least the leeks are looking healthy. They’re all I’ve got left on the plot apart from a few small turnips so my plan to defeat the hungry gap has been thwarted again. Good job I’ve still got plenty of stuff in the freezer.

sad calabrese

Two new fruit trees I planted last spring have not done as well as expected so I worked some bone meal into the top few inches of soil around them. Hopefully this will encourage root growth. I also did some pruning on the a couple of the mature apples and added the twigs to my ‘hedgehog hotel’. This is a pile of stuff at the bottom of the garden which offers a home to all manner of creatures during the winter and which will go through the shredder once the warm weather comes and my little friends can survive in the open. As well as the hedgehogs we have a healthy frog population which helps keep down the slugs.

In the afternoon I collected a couple of sacks of seaweed to add to the compost heaps. I have a lot of nicely rotted compost ready to incorporate into the soil as soon it dries out a little then I can start the whole process over again. I noticed while out that there are some piles of wood ash from the cutting and burning of gorse on the marsh. I’ll collect some next time I’m out as it’s a valuable source of potash for the soil.