First planting of the year
- By Haidee Clarke
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- 14 Jan, 2019
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Today..... we are mostly feeling excited.
So much to do and write about.
We have been lucky with the weather, in that whilst mild (I quite like cold and frosty this time of year), the rain has pretty much kept away, meaning that we can get outside. We managed a little bit of wall building (mainly in the dark!), a very gratifying bonfire (we are slowly clearing the dead trees that surround our boundary) and the children have marked out part of the undeveloped veg garden to use as their own (lets hope their team work continues in harmony!). This week we managed to get the rhubarb bed ready for production.
To be fair, I knew little about rhubarb (Rheum x hybridum) and in fact had forgotten we had one until last summer. The crown we had was found growing in our last garden (so we aren't sure what variety it is) and we rescued it when we moved here. We rather unceremoniously left it in a pot for the first 18 months whilst we cleared the veg garden. However, on rediscovering the poor thing, we did plant in the ground last year, whilst we finished the construction of this new bed.
Whilst the bed really doesn't look that big, it took 200 litres of manure and 200 litres of compost to fill and should accommodate a large established plant. The rhubarb is deep rooted so the depth of the bed and the rich growing medium should give it the perfect conditions for it to thrive. We were a bit worried about making sure that the crown wasn't too raised so it was exposed, but high enough not to be covered as the top could rot. Fingers crossed that we have managed to transplant it successfully. Once in the ground, we covered with a large black tub to create a cosy micro climate that will 'force' the plant to grow and give us some lovely tender stems in April. Victorians would have used fancy earthenware pots to cover theirs, but since we are advocates of using what we have, the black tub it was - with a rock on top to make sure it doesn't blow away!
Rhubarb has a long history and originally the root was the highly prized part of plant. These days it is grown for its stems which are jam-packed with vitamins and minerals - calcium, Vit A, Vit C, Vit E and Vit K. This is just as well as there is nothing quite like eating a raw stem dunked in sugar! Also feeling hungry.
We have been lucky with the weather, in that whilst mild (I quite like cold and frosty this time of year), the rain has pretty much kept away, meaning that we can get outside. We managed a little bit of wall building (mainly in the dark!), a very gratifying bonfire (we are slowly clearing the dead trees that surround our boundary) and the children have marked out part of the undeveloped veg garden to use as their own (lets hope their team work continues in harmony!). This week we managed to get the rhubarb bed ready for production.
To be fair, I knew little about rhubarb (Rheum x hybridum) and in fact had forgotten we had one until last summer. The crown we had was found growing in our last garden (so we aren't sure what variety it is) and we rescued it when we moved here. We rather unceremoniously left it in a pot for the first 18 months whilst we cleared the veg garden. However, on rediscovering the poor thing, we did plant in the ground last year, whilst we finished the construction of this new bed.
Whilst the bed really doesn't look that big, it took 200 litres of manure and 200 litres of compost to fill and should accommodate a large established plant. The rhubarb is deep rooted so the depth of the bed and the rich growing medium should give it the perfect conditions for it to thrive. We were a bit worried about making sure that the crown wasn't too raised so it was exposed, but high enough not to be covered as the top could rot. Fingers crossed that we have managed to transplant it successfully. Once in the ground, we covered with a large black tub to create a cosy micro climate that will 'force' the plant to grow and give us some lovely tender stems in April. Victorians would have used fancy earthenware pots to cover theirs, but since we are advocates of using what we have, the black tub it was - with a rock on top to make sure it doesn't blow away!
Rhubarb has a long history and originally the root was the highly prized part of plant. These days it is grown for its stems which are jam-packed with vitamins and minerals - calcium, Vit A, Vit C, Vit E and Vit K. This is just as well as there is nothing quite like eating a raw stem dunked in sugar! Also feeling hungry.