​A bonus visit!

Thursday 22nd March
A mistake in the date of an appointment meant I had a free morning to come down to the plot. I brought some broad bean plants that needed planting out after growing on in the greenhouse and hardened off in the frame.
Unfortunately the patch needed digging first. I had covered a strip with some corrugated plastic I have for cloches to warm the earth so I didn't want to move the soil around too much. However my back won't cope with using an ordinary spade and my Backsaver spade requires I start with a trench.



Having removed a barrowload of soil for the trench, it took only a short time to dig the patch and my back was not strained.




​Backsaver tools are extremely expensive but they do 'what's on the tin'. (Mine is an old pre-Backsaver label version given to me many years ago and now proving its worth!)
I was pleased that there was so little bindweed root in three patch, the biggest infestation being next to, and coming from under, the path. I was tempted to lift a slab to get at the source but being pressed for time decided to leave it until later. What roots I found went into the top of my incinerator to be dealt with another time.

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I then turned to the next most expensive tool in my collection, the Wolf Garten hoe/cultivator purchased some time ago with a birthday present Stewarts voucher. On a long handle it is excellent at breaking down soil into a fine filth and did a grand job on the lumpy patch. I only worked on half the strip, leaving the rest to break down naturally, as I only need a strip to plant the beans so the difference is clear in the photo.

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I then laid out boards along the strip and fetched the broad bean plants. I had sown 30 seeds in toilet roll tubes but only got 13 plants so I spaced them out along the row leaving quite a space between each and with extra compost from the blind tubes alongside.A new sowing of broad beans is already sprouting in the greenhouse at home.









​Once the beans were all planted I fetched a polythene tunnel cloche from the shed to protect the young plants from the elements until they get established.

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That done I turned to my part weeded onions and used the hoe to cut through the roots before hand weeding. I weeded one more row, just 3 more to go!



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​I then looked to harvesting. I already had Brussels waiting at home but a neighbour came by and I offered him some, at which he produced a lovely jar of honey he got from working with a friend. An excellent trade! I then dug up a few leeks and pulled some more forced rhubarb to take home.

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