Terry Walton’s taking stock of his plot and more!
It’s good to sit and enjoy the views – then get back to work checking winter supplies
As I sat on the bench outside my greenhouse last week, sipping a cup of coffee, I gazed around at the hillsides. The peace and tranquillity of my surroundings made me eternally grateful for the beautiful view I’ve been blessed with all my gardening life.
To the south of my vantage point is dense, deciduous forest and the last remaining gold, yellow and russet leaves are few but still clinging to the skeletal shapes of the naked trees. It seemed like only days ago that these were tender, green buds waiting to burst into life to herald a new spring. I watched through the summer as the hillside completely disappeared into a thick, green canopy – the well-known phrase, ‘how green was my valley’ seemed an apt description not that long ago!
After last week’s big clean-up of the greenhouse it’s time to get building in there again. I came across a discarded pallet, which to anyone else would seem like rubbish, but to me this was new staging! This old pallet was soon in planks and my metal frames brought into the greenhouse as the basis, the planks supported on them to make a place for plants to be stored over winter.
One corner of the greenhouse was lined with bubble wrap and soon there was a bubble wrap tent around one piece of staging. This’ll make a hot house for many plants when the temperatures get very cold.
Two weeks ago I harvested the last of my mint for a lamb dinner and my wife had a few pieces left over. She placed them in a small glass and left them on the kitchen windowsill. I noticed there were a few roots shooting from their bases so I planted them in a large pot of compost. These will be placed in the warm greenhouse at home and with a little bit of luck will send up some tender, green shoots and provide more mint sauce during the depths of winter.
My winter stock of potatoes and onions seem to be storing well in the shed, but looks can be deceiving! So it’s a good time to check
over this stored supply. Each onion is looked over and any going soft or shooting are cut from the string and used quickly. The potatoes in the paper sacks do, however, need tipping out to check. Each potato is examined and all the good ones placed back. Again, any suspect ones are removed and discarded or used up immediately. This careful attention will ensure winter stocks will see you through to spring. On these dark nights, there’s no better job than planning next year’s crops. So I sit down at the dining room table and look through the seed catalogue, marking up ‘old favourites’ that have served me well through the years. I also decide what unusual crops I want for next season. The jury’s still out on some – I’ll let you know soon.