The Some Other Time (499)

by Max Akroyd

I’m right in it. The long grass time into which the key gardening jobs are traditionally booted. To prepare the ground for carrots before the turn of the year would seem a bit eccentric. Suddenly it’s a necessity. 

Unfortunately it was a very damp, misty start to the day; the sort which grips the soul with reluctance. The swampy route around the farm to get to the animals did nothing to ignite enthusiasm either. In fact the depth of mud outside the piglets’ abode has reached code red: impassable. Nothing for it, I had to don the strimmer and blast a new path through the undergrowth outside the goats’ house. After a bit of lopping the job was done and the old path can now recover over the spring.

Next, to the field and to the carrot/parsnip/beetroot bed. I turned over the soil for about twelve square metres and yielded a good collection of dock and dandelion roots. In a neatly circular conclusion these were then taken down the new path to the piglets’ parents where they were greatly received as a vitamin rich elevenses. 

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If my carrots were in there I'd make her into a pair of slippers!

The afternoon was determined by the needs of seeds too. Firstly on the field I moved some more mulch to reveal what will be the parsnip bed (top left). Poppy is inspecting the bit of carrot bed I dug over this morning and the two mulched bits will be unveiled later in the season for main crop carrots, salsify, scorzonera and anything else that will keep my rotation abnormally neat and tidy. The awkward weedy bit in between will be transformed into a world class beetroot bed. One day.

Secondly, in the polytunnel, I sowed a lot of celeriac into pots. I love celeriac and I’m determined to grow something big enough to bother with…