Feeding the soil and planting some more

The ground’s a little warmer so I’ve been doing a bit more work. Bearing in mind that the produce we grow feeds us, we need to think about feeding the soil. As an organic gardener I tend not to use chemical fertilizers. I make my own compost and I buy some well rotted manure every couple of years. I’ve put some of this onto the SFG (see photo below) and dug it into all but the corner SF where I have planned to grow carrots (They don’t like it). The advantages of incorporating organic material, compost or manure, is that it helps the soil structure and water retention and worms love it.

The broad bean plants are still alive and today I’ve planted three more. This time I’m planting seeds which are quite hardy. Just make the holes with something like an old broom handle, about 2cm deep, about 10cm apart, pop them in and cover.

In the next square I’ve planted 3 onion sets. Really easy; ideally space them about 20cm apart, but as space is limited I’ve squeezed them in 10cm apart along the north-east edge of the SFG. In the centre of the SF I’ve pressed in a single garlic clove to see what happens! (see photo 2) This leaves a bit of space in that SF for some onions I have been growing over winter from seed, I’ll wait until it warms up a bit before planting them out.