Epic day at the lottie today. It was really windy, not too cold and quite warm in the wind shadow of the trees. I was at the lottie for 9am with brew gear and trays of seedlings. I also had a plan. The top half of Bed2 is the last to be weeded. Last week it looked bad. This week it was worse. We had had rain rain during the week which weeds loved. I did the usual process, spot weeded the big or tap rooted weeds and got on my hands and knees to clear the ground cover weeds. I did not know where to start so I just jumped in. A direction of weeding developed as I went a long. It took no time to fill two wheelbarrows worth of weeds. Weeding was slow as I worked through the rows of Garlic which marked the end of the last weeding session but picked up as the I worked towards the middle and end of the bed. The weeds, despite their obvious downside, had kept the soil in good condition and sort of mulched the soil through the dry spell. About 11am I stopped for a brew. As soon as I stopped the Yellowhammer, Robin and Dunnock were in to see what I had turned up.
The black compo bins had really come on. The contents had started to compost with the result the volume had reduced bu 40%. I had plenty of weeds to go in the bins so they got a top up. Whilst chugging along with the weeding something moved. I stopped what I was doing stayed still. A little mouse ran through the the undergrowth. He hid under the edging. I could see him looking out. Eventually I had the last of the weeds cleared. I had dug out a gutter along the timber edging. I got the rake out and levelled the surface of the bed and evened up the edge of the bed by the gutter.
I decided that that I needed a barrier near top of Bed2. I have loads of Sweet Pea at home so a set about digging a deep trench and filling it with manure. The trench is about 4 foot from the top of the bed. The trench is manure filled, back filled and ready for plants. The sweet Pea will from a barrier for the bee hive that is to be sited near the back fence.
Next up was to plant out all the brasicca seedlings. I have been walking over and running the wheelbarrow over bed3 since I weeded it. The idea is the compact the soil. Brasiccas like a solid footing. It actually makes sprouts form solid sprout buttons. I ran the hoe over the bed then raked out the soil to form a level surface and even up the edges of the bed. Last year the bed contained spuds so it was heavily manured. It always a toss up between digging in manure and loosening the soil in the process. I find the soil has plenty of heart after the spuds for the brasiccas. I planted out Early cabbage [greyhound] then a load of Calebrase. Calebrese is called broccoli in the supermarkets. I also planted out some Brussell Sprouts and Rainbow Chard. The Chard makes a big plant so the plantlets have been given a lot of room. I inter-planted between the rows of Chard with lettuce. I will catch crop them before the Chard over power them. I will set Sprouting Brocolli seed soon as as to plant them out when the Greyhound is harvested.
I was getting hungry but I pressed on. I watered the newly planted brasiccas then moved on to the broad beans and peas. I noticed that some of the grape vines have bee hit by the frost. No Grapes on those runners! The final act was to run the hoe between the rows of the spuds. The Chickweed is trying to make a come back. The spuds are playing the game this. First earlies are up and growing on. The earliers have barely broken ground and the mains are nowhere to be seen as yet. I tried up tools and Degsy.
Other job I knocked off was to run the paving stones and pegs over to the water point on the new plots. I had a chat with the Sagely one and Mr P. Mr P gave me a hand to measure up the working area on the new plots. All things considered a very long day [finished at 17.30] but the plot has benefited from it. Next week is my birthday so after the poo run nothing else will get done at the lottie.
I harvested a bit a Asparagus and Rhubarb. I watered the Gooseberries and the the Onions. Hopefully the Onions will fill out and the Gooseberries will avoid the attentions of the Gooseberry saw fly. So far so good.
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