We’ve been taking down the canes and rods that supportd our beans
This week we’ve been doing more prep for next season. We’ve been pulling up our climbing structures – the bamboo canes and bent steel rods that our beans clambered up – as well as clearing away the irrigation systems from the beds so we can start getting compost onto them and rotavating (once things are a little drier than they are this week) so we have good soil to work with next year.
We’ve had a couple more beds of squash and courgette plants to pull up – and our volunteer Orchard Hill learners have been making fine work of that task.
A few of the vegbags this week will have some fennel in them – something that surprised some of our office staff – we were growing fennel? And this late? To answer those questions in reverse order: fennel is pretty hardy, in fact, and can grow late and in fairly bleak conditions despite having that fresh zingy taste to it that seems to evoke summertime.
As to why some of us weren’t quite aware that we had it, well, it’s one of the few products that came out well from a root veg area on the farm that didn’t do too well. We had germination issues to do with the soil drying out quickly, which meant our carrot and beetroot germination wasn’t great, as the seedlings are quite delicate. And the weed load out in that area was high – they grew quickly and smothered much of the crop there. Still, we hope to make a bit more of our fennel next year, as it’s such a treat.