Raspberries

Kate and I have spent the past couple of days preparing the new raspberry bed and then planting a single row of 32 canes.

As ever in the garden, we started off with a patch of land that had been wild meadow for the past couple of years.  The soil here is chalky clay and very heavy.

The berry beds had already been marked out as part of the earlier preparations, 2 beds running north/south,  each 7m (23' 6") by 1200mm (4 ft) with a 1m gap between them.  I quickly decided that it would be better to use the land as 1 bed 15m long by the 1200mm and so changed the marking.  It meant we lost an access into the middle of the vegetable plot but I don't think that matters.

We had already planted a redcurrant bush at the north end of this bed but the change in length made no difference to that.

Next we started to work the soil.   Clay that has not been touched for a couple of years takes quite a lot of moving but we decided to use our power rotovator and soon started to break up the surface.  We had also decided to turn in the existing grass as a green manure.    After several hours of walking up and down the bed following and quietly coaxing the rotovator to work the area I wanted we seemed to be making some progress.     I operated the rotovator while Kate wheeled barrow load after barrow load of sand up for me to work in.

The composition of the soil improved in front of our eyes as the sand and grass worked it's magic on the heavy clay, and by the end of the day we had a bed with a much lighter and more workable soil composition.

The next day we returned and spent the morning reworking the bed a little more before resetting the rotovator to a narrow setting to allow us to work a deeper trench in the middle.   All the time we were adding sand, dry grass and compost to the mix.

After lunch we laid out the planting of the 32 canes.   This involved measuring the position of each cane and then digging a small hole sufficient for the root structure of the individual cane.   Once the canes were set in the hole to the right height the hole was filled with a good compost to give the canes somewhere to start their new life.  The canes were placed 400mm (16") apart.

Once all 32 had been planted we simply cut the canes, where necessary, back to 300mm (12") above the ground and finally spread a well rotted manure and compost mix in between the plants as a top dressing.

M. Gary

When I moved here a few years ago, I became the owner of the garden and a couple of fields. I was very soon introduced to Monsieur Gary, the farmer who worked these two fields. M. Gary doesn't pay any rent for these fields as, under French law, it becomes complicated if he does, but as I have no desire to take on the task of managing them, I'm happy for him to relieve me of this work.

M. Gary is now 86 and recently, following a small heart attack, decided it was time to wind down his farming activities.  Part of the winding down process was to return to my care one of the two fields he tended.  This is the location of the new vegetable garden.

Over the years, we have become very friendly with M Gary and have, from time to time, been delighted by the gift of a melon or some other thing he has grown.  M Gary tells me he isn't an organic farmer, he just doesn't use anything manufactured on his land, preferring his own compost, his own farmyard manure and saving, from one year to the next, his own seeds. He's not allowed to put the "Agricole Bio" symbol on his produce because he isn't licensed, but to my mind, he is just as much, if not more, of an organic farmer as anyone.

Because he has been farming in this area longer than I have been alive he has become a constant source of advice and information to me, and so it was, that when we decided we needed some old straw and some farmyard manure, Kate and I paid him a call.

Once we had made him understand our needs he quickly offered to drop off a bail of straw next time he was passing and he also said we were welcome to collect a trailer full of his farmyard manure, although it was fresh!!!!! Whilst we were chatting, Kate asked if he had any eggs but he sadly explained that he didn't have any available at the moment.

The next day we drove up into his farm where we found him standing in a hole almost as deep as he was tall.  He explained that since our visit he had decided to make a new vegetable patch and that he was digging a hole to plant one of the trees that would form the periphery. He pointed to the others he had already planted and showed where the rest were going. We continued on our way and soon had a trailer full of straw and manure just waiting to be composted.

Back at the garden we were able to unload the trailer into the new compost bin we had built....  one of a row of four!!!

The next day we were again working in the garden when M Gary appeared with his tractor and our bail of straw....  I hadn't realised quite how big a commercial bale of straw is these days.... but we soon had it in position alongside the compost bins. In the conversation that followed, M Gary proudly announced that if we called up later that evening he would have some eggs for us.

As the afternoon's work drew to a close, Kate announced that she was off to make a curry and I decided this was a good time to go and collect our eggs.

As dusk fell I drove into his yard and saw him in a barn illuminated by two very old, very dim, light bulbs.  This was a barn I had never been in before and I soon discovered why.   As I walked in, M Gary was sitting on a low stool, on the far side of a large cow, which he was milking.  I didn't even know he still owned any cows, but he soon informed me, as I watched him milk, that it was his last cow and that it was to go on Sunday,  as he was no longer going to keep cows.

If I can manage it, I shall go to the farm tomorrow and watch M Gary milk his last cow for the last time. A tribute to a man who has farmed all his long life and is so much a part of our landscape.

Asparagus....

We recently bought some asparagus crowns and have spent the past couple of days preparing our asparagus bed before planting the crowns.

The new vegetable plot is made up, largely, of heavy clay and I took the decision, early on in the preparations to prepare individual beds as needed.   For the asparagus we decided to remove the first couple of inches (50mm) right across the 1200mm wide bed.  Next we dug a trench, 600mm (2ft) wide,a long the middle of the bed about another 150mm (6") deep and then finally we dug the deepest part of the trench, again along the middle of the bed but this time going down about a further 300mm (1ft).

Once we had finished excavating, we filled the deepest part of the trench with well composted manure.

Using clumps of the hard clay, we then sat the asparagus crowns on individual islands about 100mm (4")above the manure and in-filled to the level of the crowns with a mixture of clay, sand and dry grass cuttings.

Next, we piled compost on the crowns to just below the finished level, again filling all around with a mixture of clay, sand and dry grass.

Finally we put a layer of leaf mould over the whole thing.

In the trench we planted 11 green asparagus (Verte Grande) and 11 white asparagus (Argenteuil).

It was nice to actually get a vegetable growing in the ground at last.  The  preparation of the land has only just begun as we are preparing the beds as required.   I have marked out all the new bed positions and, of course, had already planted a redcurrant bush in the berries bed.  But this was the first vegetable to go in.

Next I prepared two beds for potatoes.  Here I just mixed sand and dry grass cuttings into the clay to a depth of about 200mm (8").  I shall now leave these two beds exposed to our frosts for a few weeks until I am ready to plant the potatoes, when I shall loosen the soil once again.

In each corner of the whole vegetable plot, I have constructed a quadrant shaped bed.   Today, Kate and I prepared the first of these quadrant beds and planted a bay tree in it.    We also planted about 6 small evergreen trees in this bed which I want to hold for a year or so, until another part of the garden is ready for them.

News about seeds

Some days ago, I posted about the Bloggers Seed Network.

I am pleased to say that I have since been in touch with "Miss Fuggles" of "A Blog Called Fuggles" and have arranged to receive a nice selection of her home saved seeds.  I shall be proud to try and grow these on during the coming year and hope to be able to report many successes in the forthcoming months.

Miss Fuggles is providing me with,

• Pea Bean,
• Poltschka Bean,
• Black Valentine Bush Bean,
• Kaibi Round Pepper,
• Purple Ukraine Tomato
• Veeroma Tomato,

all of which I'm looking forward to arriving in the next few days.

Patrick at Bifurcated Carrots has also agreed to let me have some Yacon tubers which he tells me will be here in a couple of weeks.

As well as all these,  Kate brought me a collection of seeds from the Hills and Plains Seedsavers in Adelaide.

Many thanks to all of you for your help.