Gardening again

So, here we are, another season (another reason) for showing lots of pictures of vegetable beds in various stages of growth.  This is the leek bed at the top, still with a fair amount of crop left - they are St Victor, a lovely blue leaved and very hardy variety.  Apparently they can be left in until May, by which time I will be ready to put in my kale and brocolli.  I do follow a crop rotation system, but it is fairly loose. The bed in the middle of the picture contains lots of shallots - a whole bed of Red Sun, in fact, and is covered in very thorny prunings of wild rose and holly to deter the neighbourhood cats.  Oh - and see that cage thing in the very top of the picture?

No, it's not the latest idea from Super Nanny, or one of the other parent and child torturers!  It did form part of the failed defences againt the hens, and will become a new defence against cabbage white butterfly, with some discreet netting applied.  That is, of course, if James lets me  - he seems to have appropriated it as a den.

Talking about defence against the red hens - notice the more subtle fencing in this picture.   A 7 foot high chicken wire fence has relaced the totally ineffective orange security net contraption that we previously had.  I am almost confident that I will be able to skip in and out of the side door in my summer sandals without trailing hen poop into the kitchen.  We'll see - methinks those ladies have other ideas, somehow!

Anyway, a quick stop for lunch outside and then back to the tools.

More fencing along the top of the veg plot this time, and we are set for another exciting roller coaster gardening year.