The price for looking out for Bees

Saturday was trailer day as usual. Whilst at the lottie I took a drive round the country park just to make sure that there was vehicular access around the plot, not something I have done before. There is access but not for a standard car or van. Something with good ground clearance is needed. Driving down the side of the lottie I surprised Roundup who working his plot and was not ready for a motor to trundle passed. I other things to do on Saturday so no work on the lottie.

Sunday dawned overcast but a little later, having spent time over a good breakfast, the clouds parted and warmed up. I went up to see the bees. One hive is in trouble the others are ok. There is something I can do to save the situation but it will take a few weeks. The countryside is looking great. The hedgerows are changing again. The Blackthorn has finished, Hawthorn is coming to a close and the Elderflower is just starting its turn to flower. Most of the fields round the apiary are down to cereal this year and will start to ripen soon. Bees done, I went up to the lottie.

H and Miss L went to a work colleagues birthday party at a fancy Tea room which left me all afternoon for the lottie. Just as well there is lots to do. There is about a third of Bed4 to weed. I had left this area until all the Leeks had been harvested. The weeds that grew were left as food for the bees but now the weeds are starting to go over and we don't want weed seed everywhere. I suppose that is the price for looking out for Bees. The other thing is that this the area that is going to have squashes and sweet corn. I set about the weeding. I soon had a wheelbarrow full of weeds. Half an hour later other barrow load. I almost filled a third barrow load by the time I was finished. In clearing the weeds I turned over the soil and levelled the surface. The bed was back to a seed bed from a jungle. The plants going into this bed are greedy feeders so lots of manure is needed. Luckily of have an awful lot of well rotted manure available. I barrowed in a dozen loads and spread it about. I planted out the sweet corn and planted a few sunflower plantlets to fill out that part of the bed.

A bit further up Bed4 is a part I have reserved for Peas and Beans. I had two trays of Broad Beans to plant out but as usual a chunk of labour was required to clean up the bed of weeds. That done I planted out the Beans. Next I went up to Bed2 to plant out some brasica seedling. There is no label on the tray so it will be a surprise to find out what they are. Bed2 just needed a light hoeing. Whilst I was planting out it started to rain. I thought that is typical. Dry for ages and as soon as get committed to a job it rains. I decided that I would carry on and finish the planting out. After all the seedlings would appreciate the water. The rain was very light and within minutes of the rain hitting the ground it had evaporated. So I had to get the watering cans out. I watered all the newly planted stuff and watered the Peas. The peas are coming on but are quite small.

I had a walk round the plot. I was happily surprised to find the vines have flowers. Flowers mean grapes. When I think that I was worrying about them even surviving just a couple of weeks ago. I harvested some Rhubarb and some Asparagus and went home tired and happy.