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The first vegetables we sowed were potato seeds. Before doing this RM, AP, Naarah and Juanjo had weeded the entire bed using forks and trowels. We had never sown potatoes before so this was a good learning experience. It wasn't hard at all, anyone can do it. Rob taught us his method, we first sectioned lines in the bed sticking in a wooden narrow pole at both ends. In this instance there were 4 vertical rows. Two rows contained one type of potato and the other two another two types of potato. You use a string line marker so the rows are straight, this is basically a piece of wood with string attached to another piece of wood. You can buy this type of kit too, metals ones. Once you have your rows you can start planting, its best to measure 18 inches from the first pole, you then dig a hole about 2 inches deep and plant the potato seed with the eyes of the potatoes up (the eyes are little dots on the potato) This is done all the way along the vertical row, then you start the next row and so forth. Once this was done we sprinkled
a thick covering of pot ash over the entire bed then spread a thick mulch over the top, the potatoes love this! The mulch is made of horse manure and wood chippings. The sowing is now complete, it is left for about 2 months to do its magic. A good mulch should not smell nasty but instead fresh and earthy, this is how you know you have a good mulch. This work always attracts the ducks! They love to snoot around for the odd worm or slug that's in the mulch.
We've also sowed shallots, beetroot and chard and prepared salad beds. With the beetroot and chard you make seed drills about an inch deep and place the seeds about an inch apart before covering them back up with a rake.
During the last week we sowed some peas. This is quite hard work as first of all you have to dig a trench. Robs outside beds are about 10ft wide and 30ft in length and these trenches were vertical! After the trench is dug you sprinkle some calcified seaweed all along the bottom of the trench. Then you add a layer of manure/compost, followed by another sprinkle
of calcified seaweed and a dusting of seaweed meal. Both these nutrients make the soil more alkaline, you need to do this depending on your soil type. Once this is done you rake in a layer of soil from the trench soil and pat in down with the rake. The pea roots go deep so the nutrients i.e. form the manure needs to be deep. Once you have the layer of soil you can now scatter the pea seeds about a thumb length apart and cover with the remaining soil. Three of the variety we sowed were Duke of Albany, Carlin and Glory of Devon. The Duke of Albany pea is a heritage variety that is eaten dried in stews that type of thing. These old varieties are said to be tastier (though we didn’t get a chance to try) and higher in protein than the modern peas you get, which have been bred to be easily harvested by machines.
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daniel pierson
non-member comment
good food
sounds like good food! Lovely duckies.