Monster dibber

I did not have lot of time today for the lottie but I had to plant out my Leeks that I started in the greenhouse. The leek-lets are overdue being planted out. They are quite sturdy but a little small but the roots run is healthy. I had manured the area in Bed2 for the leeks sometime ago. I did the usual process of spot weeding and hoeing I then raked the surface level.

I used to have an old spade, one with a wooden handle. Somewhere along the way I broke the handle off the spade. The business end of the spade has been sent for recycling ages ago but the handle has had several jobs. Recently the handle has been a perch for the Robin or a row marker. Today it got a new job. I used it as a monster digger for the leeks. I put my plank down to mark the line of the row would take. I then jabbed the dibber [spade handle] into the ground at regular intervals. I got 25 plants per row. Into each hole a dropped a leek seedling. I planted six rows so that is 150 leeks. That should hold us. It was hard work in the hot sun. To finish up with gave the leeks a good soaking.

I had prepared a larger area of the bed than I needed for the leeks. I drew out two drills and watered them. Next was to sow a whole packet of Silver skin onions. They will be my pickled onions at Christmas. I then covered the drills up and soaked the area. I will not get back to the lottie this week so I can only hope it will rain or not be too hot during the week so the seeds have a chance to germinate.

I started some Californian Poppies in trays ages ago. They too need planting out and today it was their turn. It and easy enough job if hard on the knees. As I watered in the Poppies I gave the flower seed bed another soaking. I had a walk round the plot and pulled up grass. The grass is types of cereals so the plants are quite big. I just had the grab them at the ground level and "lean" on the plants. The plants just eased out of the ground. The paths look a lot cleaner for the effort. The weeds went in the black compost bins. I had a look in each one. The bins are only half full now as the high heat in the black bins have accelerated the composting process.

In other news, the Parsnips that I planted out are looking well as are the Sweet Peas. The brasiccas have got established and are starting to grow. I dug a little hole on the brasicca bed to find out where the soil was moist. I was not expecting the soil to damp so close to the surface. The plants have got their feet in cool damp soil. The top inch of the soil is dust dry. That has helped keep the weeds down but I still ran the hoe round the plants to see off the last of the weeds.

Back to work net week so no further workon the lottie until next weekend.