Sowing the first row of peas

Thursday 30th March
I spent most of the morning helping renovate the raised bed on the 'Disabled' Plot but had some time afterwards on the plot.
I set about sowing my first row of peas this season as the autumn sown row had almost disappeared and sowing in gutters has not been very successful for me in the past.
I started by raking back the horse litter mulch from the strip cleared and dug over by my grandson last week. While doing that I teased some of the mulch between the plants of the broad beans next door to keep the weeds down.
Having cleared a strip next to the row I was able to scoop out a trench heaping the soil beside the trench. I trod the base of the trench flat and scattered 3 packets of Douce Provence seed along the strip. I normally use 2 packets for a 10 foot row to allow for disease and mice but the seed is cheap from InExcess and just outside it's 'sow by' date so germination may be a bit low. I then sprinkled paraffin along the row from my shampoo bottle to deter the mice. Slug pellets may also have been a good idea!

Once I had raked the soil back over 2 inches deep I was still left with a trench which was a little deeper than planned at 2/3 inches - probably because my grandson had dug the strip so well it was too easy to lift out too much soil. It only needs less than an inch to help watering later in the season. I rearranged the mulch and made a final scattering of paraffin and fertiliser to finish off before I was summoned home for lunch.