I have been very busy at home sorting out my woodpiles and my visit last Sunday was completely taken up with the dusty task of cutting slabs to fit the greenhouse on the Special Needs plot with a hired disc cutter. Once again Travis Perkins have been very helpful and gave us a very good rate.
It was mid-afternoon before I got down to the site. There were quite a few of mutt neighbours putting in plants and watering and that reminded me to check my seeds. The last lot I sowed, spinach, is showing already and some of my carrots have germinated. However there is no sign off anything else so it appears I wasted my time sowing old seed. Not surprising.
I turned my attention to my Broad Beans. The strip I dug on my last visit was a bit lumpy so I used my manual cultivator to get a good tilth and then tamped down the soil with the back of the rake before cutting enough holes with my bulb planter. There were a couple of problems because the Rootrainer I had used had fewer cells in than I thought and being brand new each side of the strip of cells was still connected at the bottom. This normally makes it easier to set them up but the sides of my older Rootrainers have separated and, as the plants had grown rather large, with large roots poking out the bottom, with the new cells I had to cut each cell in half to release the plants.
However the plants went in easily with the extra holes filled in as I went.
I have been very busy at home sorting out my woodpiles and my visit last Sunday was completely taken up with the dusty task of cutting slabs to fit the greenhouse on the Special Needs plot with a hired disc cutter. Once again Travis Perkins have been very helpful and gave us a very good rate.
It was mid-afternoon before I got down to the site. There were quite a few of mutt neighbours putting in plants and watering and that reminded me to check my seeds. The last lot I sowed, spinach, is showing already and some of my carrots have germinated. However there is no sign off anything else so it appears I wasted my time sowing old seed. Not surprising.
I turned my attention to my Broad Beans. The strip I dug on my last visit was a bit lumpy so I used my manual cultivator to get a good tilth and then tamped down the soil with the back of the rake before cutting enough holes with my bulb planter. There were a couple of problems because the Rootrainer I had used had fewer cells in than I thought and being brand new each side of the strip of cells was still connected at the bottom. This normally makes it easier to set them up but the sides of my older Rootrainers have separated and, as the plants had grown rather large, with large roots poking out the bottom, with the new cells I had to cut each cell in half to release the plants.
However the plants went in easily with the extra holes filled in as I went.
I then watered them in taking the opportunity to water my seeds as well.
It was while carrying the water down the plot that I noticed that something, probably pigeons, had taken most of the leaves off my new strawberry plants. Now I don't often net my strawberries even when they are in fruit but I soon had a few hoops set up and netting covering the whole bed.
A check of my brassica cage showed a large crop of purple sprouting broccoli was absolutely ready and could not be left, so I spent a while harvesting a whole trug full before going home.
It was while carrying the water down the plot that I noticed that something, probably pigeons, had taken most of the leaves off my new strawberry plants. Now I don't often net my strawberries even when they are in fruit but I soon had a few hoops set up and netting covering the whole bed.
A check of my brassica cage showed a large crop of purple sprouting broccoli was absolutely ready and could not be left, so I spent a while harvesting a whole trug full before going home.
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