My 4 comfrey babies arrived yesterday in useful looking plastic tubes. They are now in pots in the kitchen, getting used to their brave new world. Potted on all the french and borlotti beans, pricked out umpteen basil seedlings and ate the rest when I got bored. Also pricked out the sage (yay!!) and chicoria. Sowed some Joan swedes and will sow some gem lettuce tonight.

It turns out this year slugs can climb quite far in search of a meal. Found 2 in my seedling pots on the balcony and gave them a flying lesson over the top.

Leek calculations
I have been looking at the wispy forest of leeks and wondering a) do they really need to be in the plot in more sun and b) where on earth am I going to put them all? Might take them to the plot and fleece them in their pot there. And hope I remember they will need watering…

At 15cm spacing each way my beds fit 7 leeks per row. At the moment I have about 100 so should be able to get them into a 2.4m long space on the sunny side. I need to remember to cover with fleece/enviromesh from transplanting till end October to keep the moth/miner out.

Winter veg calculations, while I am at it
Parsnips – spacing is the same as leeks so I need at most 1.2m by 1.2m for parsnips (so a quarter of a bed and 49 parsnips). But must sow soon!

PSB – 8 plants in a 2.4m bed, in pairs 50ish cm apart and netted.

Kale – 24 plants, 4 to a row (25-30cm spacing) so approx 2.4m space needed to allow for growth/netting etc.

So in total 1x 4.8m bed for PSB and kale, 1x 4.8m bed for leeks and snips, with possibly garlic taking up the rest of the space, depending on how well this year’s crop does.

Possibly 1 x 2.4m bed for overwintering broadies for an earlier crop – netted against pigeons. So that’s 2.5 of the 4 sunny side beds taken this autumn. The rest to be manured/green manured when free and roughly dug over.

Edit: It has rained almost constantly since Monday morning (3 days). Plot now a bog.