After the hectic summer’s growing season, we’re moving on to tackling big jobs (the big cutback continues) and sowing what we can for the winter.
We’ve cleared some of the raised beds, inside and outside the polytunnel, and covered them with agricultural plastic to help retain nutrients during the winter months.
We’ve planted onion sets and garlic in raised beds outside, and mizuna, mustard and ‘Brighton’ winter lettuce in the tunnel.
We’ve got plenty of Thai and Italian basil, chillies, peppers, ‘cerise’ lettuce and spinach still going in the tunnel; and carrots, parsnips, kale, sprouts, cabbage, leeks, beetroot, parsley, coriander and a few potato plants growing outside. We finally tackled the compost heap we started in June 2020 – bagging what’s usable, and creating a new three-bay system. Though it’ll only be a drop in the ocean of what’s required for establishing our new no-dig growing area on the ‘lawn’ at the south end of the garden (above). So far we’ve just covered over the area, c. 15 metres by 3 metres, with agricultural plastic, but will add cardboard and a thick layer of compost in the coming months, ready for spring planting. We hope that this expansion will mean we have a good supply of vegetables year round.
Ballyer Backyard 