Bedding down

As we have been lucky with the weather being dry It has been a good time to start sorting out the veggie patch with the technical gardening term of 'bedding down'. Not sure at all if this is a gardening term but as the weed free (but I know there will be a few dock, nettle and burdock roots hiding) earth is covered by black plastic in the hope that no other weed grows over the winter, I like to think of it as a blanket for the earth over the chilly period or a bit of extra warmth for the mice that will make their nests under it.

I am hoping the plastic will be a put off for the rabbits, this year they have eaten most of the veggies I planted. No winter green veg, however they don't seem to like parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes (maybe they know about the wind problem), pumpkins and leeks, all of which they have left alone. What they did enjoy was carrot tops, so much so that of the carrots I planted back in March I dug up loads of tiny mouse size roots, with about nine that made it into the saucepan, no need to chop them up though. Even Fizz was not impressed by the size of them.

At least my second in command doesn't have any interest in raw carrots (unless there in a plastic bag then they get distributed around the garden as she runs with said bag in her mouth). She does however enjoy having a good dig, if only she dug up the weeds rather than making craters where I have already dug. A bit more training needed, you just can't get the staff these days.