Given that it had been such gorgeous weather for most of last week, it was a considerable disappointment how chilly it was on Saturday morning. No matter, I knew that if I dug the rest of the compost bin (bin 2) out onto the pea bed, I'd soon warm up. It didn't take long to do that, so I went for broke & turned the adjacent newer bin (bin 1) into the now empty one (carefully moving Mr Toad to his new quarters) - a horrible, hard job - but at least it is full & ready to 'cook' now. Then I shuffled round the pallets to make a fresh bin (bin 3).
I've moved it along one from it's original spot - I had a brainwave & thought that the site of bin 1 would make a fabulous spot for the competition pumpkin - the ground will be rich, & it should stop the plant from getting quite so bloody triffid like in the 'misc.' bed. The last 'heavy' job was to dig over the pea bed, & get out the leeks - these have not been a resounding success - planted too late, I suspect, but I did get a couple of dozen 'baby leeks' which have tasked very nice indeed.
To let my back recuperate a bit, I planted out the main crop POTATOES (maris piper & king edwards - easy peasy, make hole with fat stick, drop spud in, cover over. I realised that I have room for just one more row between the second earlies & the main crops, so I bought a small pack of 'pink fir apple' from Wilko this week, which are now chitting on the windowsill.
With the pea bed all ready, I put the four wigwams up - there was a certain amount of trial & error with putting six 8' canes in the ground fixed together at the top end with a plastic saucer with six holes in. Carl, next door but one, kindly helped with the first one, but I worked out that if I attached the saucer to the canes first, then put the canes in the soil, that works quite well, although it wasn't easy any way round. I planted out the BROAD BEANS (violetta) along the edge of the bed, then wrapped string round and round the first wigwam and planted out the first batch of PEAS (robinson).
I would have put the string round the other three wigwams, ready, but I was now cold & achy after nearly four hours at the Hill & no lunch, so I pulled a few rhubarb stalks, & went home for a welcome cup of tea & a hot bath.
An allotment's better than a gym subscription eh?
ReplyDeleteSo the first picture is a wigwam. I though it was because the excitement was in tents! (Gets coat)
I see Flummery has been at the Parsnip Sherry again {fnar, fnar}.
ReplyDeleteWhat a brilliant day you had, compost bins look terrific.
Am aghast that you have planted out Robinson peas - I haven't even SOWN mine yet! (But I console myself that they were not even sown at Bag End until the end of April last year and I did OK)
Groan, Flum - that was terrible!!
ReplyDeleteI don't even think that she has the excuse of the parsnip sherry, Bilbo, as it's Lent...
Don't worry yourself about not having peas sown yet, there's load of time, & stuff generally catches up. I've sown them as late as July and still had a crop off them (mind you, they did turn white with powdery mildew...)