As I said yesterday we have been preparing the veg beds. Well after a trip to the local farmers market we now have 100 onions and 20 leeks planted.
At the same time we harvested two boxes of bonitos (a type of sweet potato) and planted two small rows of potatoes (the ones leftover from planting the terrace behind ours with one of our neighbours.
Now all we have to do is hope they all survive so we can eat them.
The start of the year is always busy in the garden. February is the time to try to get the vines trimmed, even if we don’t seem to get much from them. This year I have decided it is time to do something better with the ground that the vines use. So the top terrace (well the top relatively flat terrace that is. There is one above it but that has a 45 deg slope), has been designated the main veg patch. This one has house water so we can water the veg during the summer, that is as long as we don’t use too much water.
Growing plants from seed has met with mixed results in the past. Due to ether the cat digging them up or the lizards eating the new plants the moment they decide to poke their luscious green heads above the soil. To provide some protection to the seedlings I have build a wooden frame with a fly mesh attached to the top . This goes over the seedlings and not only provides protection from the cat’s but also seems to provide a slightly damper micro climate for them. See images below:
I am in the progress of digging the ground to provide 3 veg beds on one side of the terrace and some small beds on the other. See below. Note that the area at the rear belongs to a neighbour and we have gone halves on a crop of potatoes (we supplied the seed potatoes and fertilizer and he provided the land and man power to plant them and then we will go halves on the crop).
We are still going to use some of the lower terrace for larger crops and to plant 100 onion sets. in the bed that has been provided. The far bed is bonito that needs harvesting (a bit late I think but we should still get some).
