Chats and trailers

  I had a meeting arranged for Saturday morning but it fell through so I had a few hours free before needing to head off to a birthday party in Berkhamstead for an old friend. I made a call and arranged to do the trailer run. I had a chat with horse owners about the horses shedding their coats. The horses think summer is coming because they are shedding their winter coats. I should have picked a handful up for the bird table. The birds would use the hair for their nests.

   The trailer was emptied into the boundary hedge again. A couple more loads and the boundary is done. Next a whizzed round to the plots and backed the trailer up the poo pile. I part filled the the trailer with lovely aged manure. That is going back to my house the go on the front garden. Then the ritual of filling the bird feeders and checking the bees. No good news on the bee front. Click HERE for the blog on the bee bother. I figured I did not have enough time for digging but I had time for planting however foolish that might turn out to be. The bottom of Bed 2 had been weeded and dig over a few weeks ago. The soil has settled a little. I marked out six rows about a foot [300mm] apart then dibbed a hole about every eight inches [200mm]. Into the hole went one Sturon Onion set. When all the holes were filled I lightly raked the bed and dowsed the are with a couple of watering cans worth of water. The areas was thoroughly soaked which is just all well since their has been no rain to speak of since the snows melted. The crops in the fields around the locale are looking very poorly. The price of Oil Seed Rape is likely to rise once the meagre harvest is weighed and what are my bees to forage upon if there is no OSR?  

   I had a chat with my lottie neighbour who had brought along his lad to help or was that hinder him in building his new raised beds. I left them too it and went home with the trailer part filled with very well aged manure. I got the trailer as close as I could to the front garden i.e.on the pavement and spread the muck out from the trailer. I few plant got a biffing with lumps of manure landing on them. Nothing broken luckily so once the manure was lifted off the plants they look like they will be no worse off for the accidental burying. The manure will act a mulch. The front garden is in full sun and is already looking parched. The surface of the soil is dust. Hopefully hundreds of worms that came with the manure will help the soil out by incorporating the manure for me.