Another year begins

Finally time to get back in the garden getting everything ready. Great to finally have a few dry days, been such a wet winter here. So many weeds have taken over in just a short few months of neglect. Its great that to have at least something still growing - tried purple sprouting broccoli for the first time last year and its looking good so far - hopefully will be able to get a few dinners out of it in a few months. We had a bit of trouble in late summer/autumn keeping the butterflies off it from laying their eggs - fed quite a few caterpillars.

I dug out my purple bed in preparation for March/April planting and had a lovely surprise. I had left 3 potato plants in the bed that never got picked as all others in the bed were tiny and had left those to grow meaning to pick them at the end of the season. By this stage I had assumed that they would all have rotted but to my great surprise, there was a great collection - easily enough for a few dinners for our family of four. I think as the raised bed is so high, it saved them from rotting.

 

Bed ready for some compost - weed free and turned over. Only 4 more beds to go ...

The last of the leeks - very tasty and  they have done well despite the neglect through all the wet weather.

Started digging over all the outside too - this may not look much, but I have been slowly digging over a section a week - will all be done by the time its needed in March/April. I had compost down and some cardboard in some of the sections to help limit the weeds and I have to say, it did a fairly good job. Taking it slowly to allow the muscles time to remember what its like to do work! My poor hands were a lovely red colour after the few hours work.

Split my rhubarb plant - probably a month or two late, but better late than never. Covered them both with a nice heap of manure to help protect from the frosts. Picked a nice corner that will get plenty of sun in another month or so when the sun rises. The other has full sun even at this time of year and has shelter on three sides, two walls and the small "glasshouse". 

Time to get planning on what I am going to put in each of the beds this year. 

Another pick

Finally got to pick something other than my lettuce and radishes at the weekend. There was the broccoli which I had a post on  (click here), but also got to pick my second batch of rhubarb at the weekend. This was a pleasant change - I can't wait to pick more veg - patience is a virtue that I need more of !

As I wasn't planning on using the rhubarb straight away ( which would be what I would normally do), I tried freezing it. I had never done this before ( I followed advice from Piers Warren book "How to store your garden produce"), but it was so simple that I think I will try again later on in the year.

The difference compared to freezing the broccoli, is that there is no blanching needed ( it can be preformed if you wish to keep the vibrant colour) - all you need to do is chop into usable sized pieces and freeze (similar to the broccoli - I stacked mine individually initially and then bagged them up when frozen).

Also below is a photo of the potatoes that had the blight (just started on the leaves) in the pot - very small, but after boiling for about 10 mins, they were delicious! So tender.