Mucking About...

It really feels like we’re getting into the swing of things now – with Saturday dry & bright (again!) we both spend a busy morning at the Hill.

It’s actually the first time that Jane & I have been there together, & I must say that we got a great deal done – even though we also yakked our way through the morning.

When I arrived, knowing that the rest of the potato plot D needed manuring, I was delighted to find that there were about 30 bags of manure waiting to be emptied into the manure skip.

This was excellent because I could choose which bags I wanted (i.e. good straw manure) & just empty the bad wood chippingy ones into the skip – this was a vast improvement on last week’s filling buckets from the skip & emptying them on to the plot.

I finished the manuring at top speed & then lightly forked it in (mainly so that if I see Reg he won’t say how rubbish the wood chipping manure is which I put on last week).

Meanwhile Jane dug out the rogue rhubarb plant which is on the front of the site which was no easy task as the woody roots took up an area about 3 ft square & nearly as deep. It is not needed because we have a whole row of these at the other end of the plot.

Content that plot D is ready now ready for the potatoes in due course, we applied & forked in the lime into plot A. We’ve now (finally!) finished the list of jobs that we drew up right at the start.

This leaves us free to look at the next tasks which are:

• Dig runner bean bear pit in plot A & fill with paper shreddings (& surplus-to-requirements, slug-eaten inherited leaf beet leaves) to retain moisture
• Sow broad beans – purchased today along with parsnip seed (buy one, get one free at Wilko). I also bought a bag of 150 onion sets – variety ‘Sturon’ on the advice of a fellow customer (thus spending a grand total of £1.98)
• Tackle ‘fruit garden’ – 3 blueberry bushes for £15 from Fosters look to be the best bet & raspberry canes at £7 for 10
• Put an area aside as a seed bed

Should be enough to keep us busy!