Tuesday 19th July 2016
In this hot weather I have discovered early starts. Arriving at about 7 o'clock I set about picking up the weeds from yesterday and emptying out two huge bags of garden waste from a neighbour. Then I loosened the rest of the compost in the oldest bin ready to shovel it all over into the middle, final, composting bin. The middle bin is too full at the moment but I have extension pieces at home under construction. Once complete and all the compost is transferred, I can remove the pile in front of my plot into the newly emptied bin making things much tidier.
Then I started on sowing my peas. Unfortunately before I could I needed to dig out the raspberries that had spread over from the row next door. These took some doing as the roots had gone way down. Once cleared I scraped the horse litter mulch away and used my trusty cultivator to break up the soil, which was surprisingly damp, showing how effective the mulch is.
Three passes with the cultivator and shoveling the soil out of the trench and it was more than 4 inches deep and I was ready to start sowing. I scattered two packets of Douce Provence seed (from InExcess @50p) along the trench and covered it with 2 inches of soil, leaving a 2 inch trench. A good watering into the trench was followed by a thin scattering of slug pellets. Paraffin, to keep the mice away will be squirted over the trench tomorrow. Doing it straight away would have been better.
Photo tomorrow.
In the last half hour I harvested a few peas, not many, and a whole bucket full of French Beans some of which are probably too tough to eat. I must pick them more regularly.
Just before I left at 9 o'clock I remembered to use a fork on my ripening onions to ease under them and break the roots to promote the ripening process.
In this hot weather I have discovered early starts. Arriving at about 7 o'clock I set about picking up the weeds from yesterday and emptying out two huge bags of garden waste from a neighbour. Then I loosened the rest of the compost in the oldest bin ready to shovel it all over into the middle, final, composting bin. The middle bin is too full at the moment but I have extension pieces at home under construction. Once complete and all the compost is transferred, I can remove the pile in front of my plot into the newly emptied bin making things much tidier.
Then I started on sowing my peas. Unfortunately before I could I needed to dig out the raspberries that had spread over from the row next door. These took some doing as the roots had gone way down. Once cleared I scraped the horse litter mulch away and used my trusty cultivator to break up the soil, which was surprisingly damp, showing how effective the mulch is.
Three passes with the cultivator and shoveling the soil out of the trench and it was more than 4 inches deep and I was ready to start sowing. I scattered two packets of Douce Provence seed (from InExcess @50p) along the trench and covered it with 2 inches of soil, leaving a 2 inch trench. A good watering into the trench was followed by a thin scattering of slug pellets. Paraffin, to keep the mice away will be squirted over the trench tomorrow. Doing it straight away would have been better.
Photo tomorrow.
In the last half hour I harvested a few peas, not many, and a whole bucket full of French Beans some of which are probably too tough to eat. I must pick them more regularly.
Just before I left at 9 o'clock I remembered to use a fork on my ripening onions to ease under them and break the roots to promote the ripening process.
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