Monday, October 20, 2008

Potatoes and feijoas

This is my 401st post. Not only do I talk too much in real life, I blog rather incessantly as well it seems.

Today I could wait no longer. We virtually live in Noah's Ark here in Spring. I cannot imagine quite when the soil will be dry enough for digging or planting. The prospective potato bed will just have to be a little compacted. I weeded the spreading buttercup and the docks which had pushed through the mulch and then planted 14 potatoes, each with a piece of comfrey leaf underneath them. I've left a gap at the back for beans and a gap at one end for herbs which I fancy and which otherwise will have no home. I had six potatoes left after this and have planted them down the bottom of the garden. It is quite wet and not at all raised there but apparently potatoes grow in most places and do good things for the soil, so an experiment worth doing.

I also cast aside concerns about compacting soil to plant the feijoa I bought earlier this month. I learnt not long ago that feijoas are very hungry so I made up a mix of sheep manure, blood and bone, potting mix and compost and dropped all that in a hole twice the size of the plant. Pea straw on top and hopefully now the other feijoa tree has a friend, they will both go forth and prosper. The top layer of weed/grass lawn which I dug out, I threw to the chooks so they can eat the greenery and feast on any worms and insects. Then they can scratch it all up and spread it round the chook run.

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