winter vegetables

Its cold and wet and muddy and windy outside.

But its not like that in the polycrub.

I  sowed some brocolli seeds at the end of the summer, and they have been slowly doing their own thing  and we can now start  picking the heads . 

And the curly kale continues to grow and sprout new leaves 

The over-wintered cabbage has been slow to get going and is nowhere near ready to pick

And the purple sprouting brocolli grows well - this is about 5 feet tall. Lots of leaves.
but no pickable heads yet

Strawberries are  doing weel - hopefully some early fruits in a while

And we still have the leeks and carrots that we started  digging up in September are still going strong and will be harvested in due course

Almost year-round self-sufficiency ?

Goose, Leek and Onion

An eaten Onion

......don't go together, at least when the goose is alive.

ive been puzzled that some of the plants I've been trying to grow keep on getting eaten.
Leeks too , have been affected

A damaged leek

Slug pellets  to no avail.  They grow back a bit and then are attacked once more.

However, I think I have found the culprit(s)

They wander round the garden , and although they stay mainly near the pond, they are seen exploring other areas.

So protection has now been put in place

Celery

But its really not much consolation to know that Goose and peas, or Goose and celery can co-habit without too much of a problem .

Peas

Asparagus

We dont have an allotment here ( there are Council -run allotments  in Orkney though - 58 of them ) . But we do have the large area that has been used in the past as a sandschool , with high ( approx 5 feet)  banks of soil and that gets lost of sun.

There are some of the apple trees there and more stuff will get planted in due course.
The current project is some asparagus. The plants were delivered earlier in the week and after a couple of days standing in water , they needed planting out .



so some sand

  put into ridges

and the asparagus  plants laid   on top

and the whole lot covered in soil which will hopefully prevent the wind and rain washing the sand way




And see what we get  next Spring !