Gardening in the dark

Lots of tidying up in the garden this week. I've pulled up the red cauliflowers, which gave a small harvest of 'cauliflowers' (more like purple sprouting broccoli). Also this week has seen me heeling in a climbing rose in the dark (why do plant companies send out plants so that they turn up on a Monday?) - nearly as much fun as trying to cover with compost 30 asparagus roots in the dark. More compost on me than on the roots. Hopefully these will both be put in their rightful places this weekend - the asparagus will need trenches dug out for them, so that the roots can be spread out, and the trench partially back-filled. The rose is Rosa 'Malvern Hills', as a reminder of my home town, and will be growing over the front door, eventually.

On the allotment front, more beds were dug, and lots of couch grass extracted. Also, I planted 15 strawberries of 3 different varieties ('Mae', 'Florence' and 'Alice') - these will spread out the harvest season, hopefully.


Thanks to Henry for directions on strawberry planting and some compost to feed the plants, as it will be a while until our pile of weeds is reduced to a useable compost.

Weather-wise, it has become a little milder, with a small amount of rain yesterday. I think we'll be off to see the last flowers of the year at Ness Gardens this weekend; I'm sure that the herbaceous borders will still have a few blooms.