Shoots and leaves...
The whims and woes, highs and lows, of trying to grow fruit and veg in Nordic latitudes.
Got up late (it's Vappu - the May Day holiday) and decided to repair the holes in the polytunnel. Standing outside the cabin with the sun shining on the plastic tunnel, it appeared that the poles had ripped through the sheeting on the roof of the tunnel. With wails of impending doom we ran into the tunnel only to discover that the tunnel was in fact intact - an optical illusion, rather weird. But anyway, we fixed all the small holes on the sides of the tunnel with the magic tape from the UK.
Then Peter dug another drainage ditch through a very damp area towards the southern end of the tunnel. Meanwhile I split and transplanted some perennial herbs: chives, sage and tarragon. We are extending the vegetable garden and will change the layout of the whole area. Obviously the asparagus, rhubarb, garlic (planted last autumn) and the sorrel will stay where they are but everything else has been cleared out and we are redesigning the beds before we install the new fence. I moved the "green" blackcurrant outside the garden where all the others are. We dug up one blackcurrant that looked like it had big bud mite and threw it in the bin (not on the compost). I'm amazed at how good the earth is in the vegetable garden now compared to a few years ago when we first started growing vegetables here. We must be doing something right. Peter also spent a few hours on the tractor (the neighbours must love us) ploughing the lower fields on the Rosendal side. The earth there is rich and fertile, way better than the clay in Ovanträsk. These are difficult fields to manage as there is willow and marsh tea pushing through all over. We are going to try planting clover and using the fields to graze the sheep in the autumn. Before we can do that we need to widen the ditches around the fields so the sheep can't wander into the forest.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
July 2020
|