Friday, June 14, 2013

The last collars are on

I've added yet another collar to the swedens during last weekend (8/9 june) making the total collar tower 4 high. That's 80 cm. I also raised the congos up another collar bringing that total to 3. That tower is 60 cm high.

We've decided to leave it at these heights so the plants have time to develop all those roots that should now be down in the towers. No use creating huge root systems that don't have any potatoes on them after all.

So from now on it's watering every evening and letting the plants flower. After that, keep watering regularly untill the plants have dried up yellow and then it's time to harvest! Can't wait to see whether or not the stacking will have worked. And how many kilos of taters we'll get from our towers.

The strawberries are still going strong and so are the beetroots. The first very tiny strawberries have already been harvested. And eaten. Forgot to take a picture, sorry :-P But we are getting a lot more by the looks of it. Bigger ones too.

We've been raising up a few tomato plants indoors which have now been moved outdoors as well, the weather being great and all. So we might have some tomatoes after all.
The blueberries are already starting to develop berries. The redcurrant not so much. I doubt we'll see any redcurrants this year.

We've also finished up the rest of the backyard. Now we can actually properly sit there around a cozy fireplace. Which also doubles as a barbeque. And my girlfriend uses it to dye her wool as well. Talk about multifunctional! The garden table and chairs will be put in somewhere within the next few weeks.

I give you our new and improved backyard!


And our mutt of a dutch longhaired shepherd named Sofie. Who couldn't resist getting on the picture ofcourse.

The next project will be clearing out the left hand part of the shed, taking out the front and turning it into our rabbit pen. These won't be eaters. Just our old pet bunnies.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Replanting and another collar

Last weekend we added another collar to the stack of blaue swedens. The congos aren't big enough  yet to receive another collar. We also relocated the strawberries to the parsnip bed.

Two reasons:
1. The parsnips didn't survive. The parsnips are dead! Long live the strawberries!
2. The cats. They have taken to snuggling in the strawberry pots. Absolutely not caring that there is a plant in there as well.

We hope that putting the strawberries in the bed will prevent that from happening anymore. The strawberries themselves are doing great though. We can already see a lot of tiny green strawberries appear. Nomnom!

Oh by the way: The trick worked! We're farming cats now too! XD