Wednesday 30 March 2011

Wet

So the rains came, and my partner left and now it's that strange moment of dislocation between one established pattern of existence and the other more self-reliant mode where it's just me and the cats and certain forms of thought are closed off.



I took advantage of a brief gap in the inundation to try for a picture of a puddle just to prove a point, it really did rain today, but water is strangely passive and lacking in dynamism when it's just lying there. Not one of my best shots.

It's not all misery though. Yesterday I sowed the first round of green manure on the designated plot and the rain will get that settled in nicely. This particular area of land is quite impoverished after some careless treatment in the last couple of years so in late June the sowing of clovers and legumes will be turned in. Shortly after that another green manure, Phacelia will be sown. That can grow on until the autumn and then I'll cover it up until next spring to allow time for the plants to decompose and be incorporated into the soil by worms. I've kept back a sprinkle of the crimson clover to plant elsewhere as the flowers are extremely ornamental although it's not usual to allow green manures to flower for best effect as soil conditioner.

We planted the first few rows of potatoes, Swift, Shetland Black and BF15 and the rest of the land is prepared for me to complete the sowing over the next couple of weeks.

Also nearly all the tomato plants have germinated, even the old saved seed from market fruit. Which is gratifying if they can all be brought to maturity. We decided eventually where to site the greenhouse and as soon as it stops raining I'll need to clear the site in preparation as the tomatoes will be ready to go out into it within a few weeks. The green house is one from the garden in the UK, dismantled in January and transported over for reuse. Only a budget affair we plan this time to erect it on a dwarf wall to increase the headroom which will make it more pleasant to use.

Despite the almost summer-like weather the beech trees are still holding back on their new leaves. They could be very wise, it's still possible for temperatures to plummet in the next month. Mustn't get too ambitious before the season is properly started.

2 comments:

Sarsparilla said...

Are you okay, Cat? You sound pensive.

Catofstripes said...

Fine I think, thanks. Probably just a little melancholic that day because of the rain and change of company.