AERIALROOTS002

Aerial Roots

We're back! Hear the latest plot tricks and crop updates from recent summer sessions. Original music from Aerial Roots crew. Produced, recorded and edited by Antonia Canal & Balraj Samrai.

Show Transcript:

Balraj: Welcome back to Aerial Roots.

Antonia: I'm Antonia

Balraj: And I'm Balraj

Antonia: Last time we gave you a tour of our plot. This time, we're going to jump into some sessions we did in July and August.

Balraj: Sounds great. Let's get over to the plot!

Okay. It is 2nd of July, 2020

Antonia: Yep

Balraj: Up at the plot, up at Bethnal Drive.

Antonia: First session of July.

Balraj: Yes

Antonia: Made it

Balraj: And, what have we been up to today?

Antonia: So today's big and exciting and special mission was planting out the kale! Woo!

Balraj: Yes, they're out!

Antonia: It's the kale's big day to join the allotment, get into its growing spot. Yeah, it's looking good. It's looking happy.

Balraj: Hmmm, kind of put it down. What is, what's the process here that I'm looking at?

Antonia: So, so there's, there's a lot, there's a lot going on to look at. So we, um, well, this bed as with many of the beds at our plot was covered , we'd sort of done some weeding, covered it, let it cook, added some compost, let it cook some more, and we'd since added some courgettes to one half, but the other half was still covered.

So we uncovered and discovered a world of insects!

Balraj: Yeah, we've displaced some more arachnids, I'm sorry about that.

Antonia: Yeah. We apologise to the spider community. We hope you find new prosperous lives.

Balraj: Yeah new settlement nearby, but you know some might stick around, some might stick around and help with some of the bugs, maybe, that might try and get to it.

Antonia: Some bugs good, some bugs bad. So we uncovered, did a little bit of weeding didn't we?

Balraj: Yeah.

Antonia: And then, then what did we do?

Balraj: We have put some eggshells down actually, did a bit of fertilizing with the seaweed fertilizer. Shout out the Shropshire seaweed fertilizer again. And there's also the structure that's been put around it, so.

Antonia: Yes

Balraj: Do you want to describe the structure for a bit.

Antonia: Yeah so kale is really delicious. As many of us know, um, as does much of the bird population know. So we've we've we ordered this, um, crop protection. It's nice, actually. It's um, it's made of aluminium. That's the main sort of structure of it. And then we ordered up this black netting. Bird netting, there was like a plethora of nettings you could get, of various grades. We just went for basic bird netting. Um, we assembled, assembled this on site and we've just sort of placed it over the kale and yeah, they're they're in their new home.

Balraj: Yeah.

Antonia: Yeah, so that was the big job today wasn't it, oh but there was other exciting news.

Balraj: With the garlic. Yeah. So garlic is looking ready to be pulled up. I've pulled one up today. So I'm going to go home and try and, um, hang that up. Cause I think it needs a little bit of time hanging up. Um, I think it's a few weeks and I think it needs to be about five degrees, five to 10 degrees where you hang it up as well.

So I'm going to try that out as well. Um, but yeah, it started to die on the leaves. They're going quite yellow. So. It's kind of garlic season which is cool.

Antonia: Yeah. And the garlic you pulled up looks proper, looks real proper, smelt great.

Balraj: And otherwise things are looking good. You know, beetroot is looking good

Antonia: Beetroot's thriving.

Balraj: Beetroot's thriving

Antonia: Thriving out here

Balraj: Beans are coming up.

Antonia: Yeah, exciting next project will be trying to cobble together some kind of structure for the beans. Listen out for an update on the bean structure.

Balraj: And courgettes have settled okay, they've not been annihilated. So it's, it's a good evening.

Antonia: Yeah. And it is, uh, is just to like set the scene a bit. It's actually after 10pm we're at the plot, it's been like what has felt like the first clear evening all week.

And it is absolutely beautiful out here. It's really peaceful and just, you can hear the birds and it's very still, and it's just like the expanse of sky when you're out here. Just makes me feel like so good. I think I come for the sky and stay for the plants.

Balraj: Yeah. Shout out our neighbors as well. Who've been supplying some tunes as well. Keeping us going.

Antonia: Some serious selections going down, bit of Dave, bit of Stormzy.

Balraj: Yeah, Burna Boy. It 's been fun. It's been fun.

Antonia: Yeah. I think that's a wrap for us tonight.

So that's where we were at in early July

Balraj: Since then we've harvested beetroot, harvested garlic, and generally our crops have been thriving.

Antonia: So let's forward to a session we did in August and you can hear how it's all going.

Okay. So we're back at the plot.

Balraj: Yeah. Yeah. We're here.

Antonia: You've had a bit of a few solo trips recently. Haven't you?

Balraj: Yeah. Yeah. I've been coming down on summer evenings

Antonia: Enjoying enjoying August vibes.

Balraj: Mm. There's this beautiful sunset I can see kind of around tonight.

Antonia: So for the listeners, this is us at the plot, half eight in the evening. Um, we're in the midst of the 30 degree weather that's finally reached Manchester.

Balraj: So August time, second week of August

Antonia: That's partly why we thought we'd come tonight, isn't it? Cause it would be cooler. And also, cause we need to give the crops a bit of love. They're not used to these extreme conditions, but they're thriving. You said that everything looks bigger even since two days ago. Right?

Balraj: Yeah so things are really sort of growing fast and they're getting a lot of sun. I mean, I thought that it might be a little bit dr...