2020 No Dig. No Guilt. No Stress.

Hello!
Long time since I posted anything on this old blog.  But I'm still here, still growing some food, although it's all been a bit sporadic.
We've had ghastly gardening weather this year with 4 weekends on the trot of storms, the first of which, Ciara, ripped most of my shed roofing felt off.
Anyway, today was only the second day I've even visited the plot this year, so was really pleased and a bit surprised to find plenty of veg awaiting me. I harvested what I could, leaving a few more pickings for later, and started cutting down brambles and mulching the fruit bushes and herbs I found before the gentle drizzle turned into a miserable downpour and I stumbled home with my dripping produce.

Hooray!  My leeks are bigger than felt tip pens!  A few had bolted so I harvested most of them.

So, I had one picking in the summer of this curly leaf kale, when the leaves were big and lush, then the whole lot got savaged by caterpillars.  Now, 8 months later I've left it too late and it's gone to flower.  Actually, having sampled some of the leaves I found them to be tender and mild, so picked them anyway.  Tasting the flowers, I found they were not unlike broccoli, so harvested those too - why waste them - and now the flower tips are gone they may even produce more leaves - is that how it works?

A lush patch of parsley!  Excellent!

Great to see some of the fennel I planted last year has made it through the winter.

Lovely lovely purple sprouting broccoli.  Not sure of the variety I used last year, but the heads were bigger and it wasn't as prolific as previous years.  Probably my favourite winter crop though.  So delicious.

Nice surprise to find parsnips I'd missed in among the broccoli some not a bad size.

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 I covered this bed with cardboard in the autumn.  I'll start layering it up with home compost, seaweed, grass cuttings, whatever I can get my hands on.  Just need to cut the grassy paths first.

In line with my no dig method, I didn't weed out the grass around the fruit bushes, but instead broke down the dead remains of sunflowers and other dead vegetation from last year to smother the grass at the base of the plants.  

Again, used dead grass to smother the fresh grass at the base of this healthy-looking gooseberry plant I bought a few years ago from the Pound Shop!

A week ago I was once again thinking of giving up my plot (I know, I think it every year) .... it all feels so overwhelming at first - but in 2 and a half hours I fell back in love with it.  

After all - it's about producing lovely fresh food, and having feasted on home grown veg in March, I'm all inspired again!

The Covid-19 situation also means there will be more time for pottering in the garden, and I can frankly think of no better way of spending time in isolation than growing food.