Our new shed arrived on June 10th. So far it has our tool store and a white board with a to-do list, but we need to decide how best to use the space
New growing season starting
Emily and Louise putting in bean poles
Base for the shed taking shape
Growth in greenhouse
Dividing and replanting chives in the salad bed.
Shed Foundations
We have now dug out a space for the first shed, and begun to get foundation slabs level
Pricking out lettuce
After a week, the tray of lettuce that Louise had sown had already germinated
Now they need to be pricked out as soon as possible to give them more space to grow. The idea is to let them do this unchecked.
Emily & Lynn R took a dibber – a convenient twig – to lift each seedling out, holding it by the seed leaves, make a hole in a new seed tray, and put the seedling in this hole, burying its stem up to the level of the seed leaves
Once the tray was full, it was put in water to allow the compost to take up as much as posible without waterloging the seeds
First garlic showing!
Autovents now fitted!
Adam and Benjamin finished fitting the autovents to the greenhouse on sunday
Fitting autovents to greenhouse
Adam & Benjamin added the vents on Sunday
Edible hedge planting
On February 9th, a dozen or more of us took advantage of a lull in the rain to plant up the perimeter of the garden with the hedge plants donated by the Woodland Trust. We managed to complete the circuit in a double row of hazel, dog rose, hawthorn and blackthorn.
Pruning apples
David described how to prune apples in winter and then we pruned the trees planted last spring
Winter pruning is to form the shape of the tree. First cut out any clearly dead or diseased wood, to stop disease spreading. Then cut new growth to form an open bowl shape, so that air can circulate. Select an outward-facing bud, and cut immediately above it – if you leave too much it will die.
If you can make your cut with secateurs there should be no need for wound paint: only use it if you have to use a pruning saw or loppers. Distinguish the larger, bumpy buds, which are fruiting buds and will produce flowers in due course, from the smaller vegetative buds.
We also have a quince. David told us he used to prune his quince tree like an apple, and got very little fruit. On a trip to Germany, he saw heavily laden quinces, and learnt that they never pruned them. Last year he left his alone and got a bumper crop.
Wassailing and pruning
On Sunday 12th we had a wassailing and pruning day:
Four singers came with a selection of traditional wassail songs for us to serernade our trees.
Then David Petch showed us how to winter prune apples (see separate post).
We shared mugs of mulled cider and apple juice, and hung cider-soaked toast in the trees
Another tradition: some say it appeases the tree spirits, others that it attracts insect-eating birds!
Petersfield Community Garden 