2014 is running away with me

This year I've had a whole new bunch of changes to my life, altering the amount of time I have to spend on my plot, and how much time I find to write a blog.  Doing a degree at university meant there was no time for an autumn tidy up or a winter dig, and when I would normally be getting to grips with the garden in the early spring and sowing seeds on my window sill, I was in the throes of writing essays galore.

Luckily for me, this was also the year I was asked if I could spare a bit of land for some friends to grow a few veg, which I willingly agreed to.  Mother in law May cleared the polytunnel too, so I had no excuse to give up on the garden.

In March, I made it over to do a bit of digging and to assess the situation.

I was relieved to find my polytunnel was still standing after the extreme winds we had had, although the doors were once more in tatters at one end.  Decided to purchase some proper polytunnel plastic as the coloured stuff just goes brittle in the sun and needs replacing every year.  Paid £26 from Amazon in the end, and although it is thinner than the original body of the tunnel, it will hopefully last longer than a year and there's plenty of extra for when I do need it.

Inside the parsley was the only thing alive, and it was thriving.

Outside the leeks were not very fat, but looked healthy enough.  A lovely surprise was the purple sprouting broccoli.  I'd been given a few plants the previous summer but thought they had been decimated by caterpillars as the last time I'd looked the leaves were like lace.  Fab to find out that they are really hardy and had thrived through the winter.  I pinched out the top sprouts and the side shoots grew bigger, eventually giving me three dinners worth of purple sprouting.

The amount of work to be done was quite shocking however, as the brambles and nettles were threatening to take control of the place, and without a winter dig the beds had disappeared into grass choked meadow. 

 I matched the work my friends had done by turning over the soil in a bed, then went through a section of it very carefully til it was suitable for planting then got a couple of rows of parsnips sown and sowed my broad beans directly into the soil.

A rough dig over was hard going since the whole plot had turned into a field.

Much later than last year, I sowed my precious parsnip seeds into the soil I'd worked.

Inside the tunnel I threw in some carrots and spinach and vowed I'd come back really soon to carry on the daunting work that really needed doing, but relieved that at least some things had been started off.  

It was, in fact, a month before I really had the chance to come back and get to grips with the place.