First Planting at the New Plot

I thought potatoes would probably be the first things to be planted at my new plot, but I was wrong - it was Broad Beans. Having assessed that the spare plants I had were not going to be needed in my own garden, I decided to take them up to the Courtmoor plot and put them in there. It was a small gesture (only 8 plants), but it was a significant moment for me!

I used some of the prunings from the Apple trees as stakes for the beans, and tied them in loosely with some soft string. The sticks are about 4 feet tall.

I have been trying to envisage what the plot will look like when it is fully populated, and today I used a couple of pieces of wood to help me work out how many rows I'll be able to have. My next job is going to be planting potatoes (honest!), so some more spadework will be required. I'm going to make three low ridges for the potatoes, with "gullies" in between, up which I will be able to walk.

Each row will be roughly 5 metres long, and I plan to plant 10 seed potato tubers in each. I'm hoping to be able to plant them at my next visit to the plot - sometime next week - because they are looking ready to go. They have been chitting on the windowsill of a cool spare bedroom:

The chits look really good - short, dark and strong-looking.

I have also finished weeding and pruning the Raspberries now:

When I get the opportunity I am going to put down a mulch of partially-rotted compost along the rows of canes. This will hopefully help to suppress the weeds and keep the roots of the canes cool.