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While our rainfall this winter has been above average, it's not been as bad as other areas. But the soil is completely saturated, here you can see the pounding it has received, resulting in puddles leaving smooth soil behind.
I really don't like to stand on such wet soil, but the parsnips I have been unable to dig because of the wet have started to sprout so they had to come up.
There were rather more parsnips than expected, here is the pile. It's vegetable cobbler tomorrow, then mashed parsnips, then roast parsnips.... Tender and True is the variety, they do well for me as long as I sow them at the right time, when the soil is warm and damp, but not wet.
Here you can see how wet the soil is - this is a boot print, you sink in by 3 cms at every step. Dreadful.
The soil is too wet and cold to sow yet, so I have put a couple of cloches on one bed to start the warming and drying process so I can get the garlic and broad beans in this month. This bed is the driest and has the lightest soil of the whole plot, so it should be ready in a couple of weeks.
At the weekend I went to the plot to dig up the last carrots from 2013. These carrot are huge and they have stood up to the wet weather well. They are Autumn King, which is definitely the right carrot for my conditions on wet clay. Sown and grown entirely under insect mesh until winter to protect from carrot fly, they have been my most successful carrot.
I still have some parsnips in the ground but it is really too wet to get to them at the moment - some of the beds are covered in puddles like this. I am hoping it might stop raining, but at present I'm just grateful we're not under water completely like so many people in the south of the country.
My seed order has arrive so I'm itching to get out, just need the weather to improve!
Happy new gardening year 2014! The winter has been mild but very, very wet and the soil is so saturated I can't get out yet but at least I can start chitting my potatoes.
Here they are, Desiree and Cara. Looking forward to a new gardening year...
Last week I chose a sunny day to clear out and repack the shed for winter, making sure it was watertight. No sooner had I got everything out than the heavens opened and a heavy shower ensued. Anyway, I eventually got everything back in and tidied, but in the process found this.
I knew I had a mouse in the shed last year, as holes appeared in my hessian potato sacks but in the process of tidying I discovered that a mouse had used the chewed up hessian to make a little nest in a plant pot. In the photo you can see the hole in the middle where the mouse slept. There was a surprisingly small entrance at the end to access the nest, and it wasn't until I pulled the stuff out that I realised what it was! Very snug.
If you are lucky enough to have fine, sandy soil then you may not appreciate what an achievement it is to grow such big carrots on clay soil in northern climes! I have spent 10 years trying to grow carrots here and finally I have succeeded. The secret was (a) forget about early carrots as the soil is too wet and cold and (b) cover them with insect mesh the whole time to keep off the carrot fly. The seed variety I used is Autumn King and I will be growing them again.
It's been a good year for root crops - I checked the parsnips as well and while this is a small one picked from the edge, they are a good size and length and will keep us going up to Christmas I think.
I have picked 4 pumpkins too, this was the most orange, the rest are ripening. We also have 4 marrows.
Another experiment this year was chilli peppers, which were reasonably successful, one was even trying to turn red but there wasn't enough time before the weather turned for the worse.
And the tomatoes (Totem) did well, some of these are now eaten, the rest are ripening and will be eaten shortly! A good year indeed.
