Sowing!

Had a morning out having a look round the 'posh' garden centre with mum and was treated to coffee and cake - hurrah! - then we buzzed off the the garden centre which actually has plants, and I bought my seed potatoes.

This evening, I've done my first sowing session. Every year I say I'll sow successionally, but never do - so it's this one, and the bean/pea/tender crops in about a month and that's it.

I now have pots of brassicas (cauli, cabbage, kale, broccoli) and tomatoes and peppers, and lettuce.

 I'm rather surprised that my little helpers didn't join in - they must be slipping, an 'interesting thing' generally brings them from rooms, if not floors away; even if the 'interesting thing' is being done silently or when they are flat-out asleep.

With Apologies to Tennyson.....

.....'In the Spring a gardener's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of seed sowing' - or somesuch.

So tomorrow I'm going to the garden centre for seed potatoes and compost; and this evening I have had a sort of the seed box.

It all was going very well until help arrived.

If things turn out anything like the jigsaw I have just completed which has seven pieces missing (presumed hidden under the fridge, in my handbag, down the settee, behind the stationery cabinet in the office etc etc), I will be finding seed tapes in odd places for some while yet.

Probably just as well that I haven't got the pea and bean stocks out just yet - such fun.

Tidying up

It's been a very Spring-like day today, so it was a pleasure to be at the Hill this afternoon.

I did quite a bit of 'housekeeping' - I gathered lots of stray bits of 'I'm sure this will come in useful' wood which have now gone rotten and put them in the car ready for the tip.

Then I had a bout of sumo with one of the dalek composters.  I wrestled it to the ground and emptied it, and re-sited it.  I forked quite a bit of uncomposted stuff back in, then recommenced battle with the bramble intent on World Domination.

I spent half an hour or so adding pulled up dead grass, over-zealous comfrey and snipped up bits of bramble into the dalek, and added a couple of bags of horse muck too. This 'wildlife area' probably need another session of clearing before I can tackle it with a fork - and I need to decide what to do with this area.

Chris from down the bottom came by - I haven't seen her for ages, so we sat on the new bench and chatted for a while.  I note that the view is spoiled somewhat by the pallet (left over from forming a pallet compost bin) - it'll have to go.

She went off to her plot, and I dug the last of the Carolus potatoes.  It was time to go home - though still plenty light enough at 5.45pm - so I lifted about half of the leeks too (freeing the end of the bed ready for the next dalek re-location) and headed off

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Changing Storage mk II

Started off in the drizzle this afternoon at the Hill which didn't bother me - I have a hat, and those with a hat laugh in the face of rain.

Today's job was to dismantle the shed and transport it to the tip.  Full marks for the first job, but a fail on the second as the tip closed before I got there.

I gave the slabs a brush (more of a rinse down as the rain had become rather more substantial by this time), then moved the storage bench to it's new spot, which boasts a lovely view down the site and across the field.

I spent a determined half hour doing battle with the bramble which aspires to world domination and made some headway clearing the space euphemistically know as the 'wildlife area'.  I dug some more potatoes (which I now note are completely rubbish as boilers), and a couple of leeks.

By this time, despite my hat laughing at the rain, my coat and feet were soaked through, so I took my car full of rotten wood home, and hope that no permanent harm will come to the interior before I get to the tip in the morning.