Tidying, Beds, Tea & Biscuits!

Having run out of gravel trays in which to sow any more pots of seeds, I was glad that the PEAS (stephens) were ready for planting out this weekend. That was the first job on the list on Saturday – in fact, besides a vague goal of beefing up the raised beds where necessary & to ‘do something’ about the side of the plot bordering neighbour Ted’s, that was the only job on the list.

Once I’d planted out the peas & slipped extra side pieces in on bed b2 (which has stopped the soil sneaking out underneath & onto the bark paths) I turned to the area between the end of the beds & the fruit bushes bordering neighbour Ted’s plot. Having battled with deep rooted dandelions & turned in some foot-cube tussocks in the week, I’ve realised that this sort of weeding is no fun at all, & I’d prefer not to have to do this again.

I’ve decided therefore to put weed fabric & bark chipping all up this side too – how neat! But first, the area needs to be fairly weed free (grass tussock free at the very least) & firm & level. The immediate problem here is that four of the KALE (Sutherland) plants are in the way, & still producing the most wonderful leaves for picking. This has been a really fabulous crop, & I’ll definitely grow this again it just keeps going & going, so my path plans are going to have to hold on until the plants are finished.

In fact, I picked a bagful of the kale, a couple of stray LEEKS (mrs d) & RED CABBAGE (sprouting) to take home for tea.

The lack of definition of beds a1 & a2 where ‘castle carrot’ is will get on my nerves before too long (never mind the weeds) and so I today I wanted to see if I could continue to peg out these two remaining beds without disturbing the planted onion sets. Not really, is the answer to that, however I did put in part of the side of bed a2, & fixed down the full other side, so at least I can get that path in next weekend.

I was just finishing off by sowing a row of RADISH (long white icicle) when Julie called down to ask if I wanted a cup of tea – at which point cheery Brian & Pauline arrived, as well as John Badger from the bottom. So we all had a sit down & a gossip – & even had chocolate digestives – fantastic!