I have had the day off today as I need to use up some annual leave from work, got down to the lottie at about 2pm so got a few bits and pieces done, just more digging really, and I raked up more of the dead stuff that is getting more and more yellow – great! It’s starting to look better and better each time I go (to me it is, anyway!) and I’ve set my laptop desktop to show the picture I took on the very first day to remind me how far I’ve got, it’s great inspiration for if I feel like I’m getting nowhere.
Sunday 25th March.
What a glorious day it has been today. Lovely and warm, sunshine peeping through and not a drop of rain to be had! I forked over one of the beds that I had rough-dug the other week and pulled out most of the couch that was lurking. I think that this way round has been more work and I think in future I will do more weeding as I do the first dig, as it seems to have taken me just as long the second time around and I could have done it all the first time. Does that make sense?! I’ve now got two rows of beds running across the width of the plot and on the left hand side there are four, so according to my wonderful Excel plan, the herb circle needs to be put in – so that’s what I did! Although I think I got my measurements wrong as I measured out a circle of 1m radius, therefore 2m diameter and I think it was supposed to be 1m diameter! It does look pretty big! Ooops, never mind, I’ll just have to grow lots of herbs!
I’d been chatting to Eamon earlier on in the day and I have lent him two books that we had been talking about – Andi Clevely’s “Allotment Handbook”, and Sarah Raven’s “The Great Vegetable Plot”. Later on he came over with an armful of little broad bean plantlets in pots for me to have! After I’d finished my digging in the herb circle I was supposed to be going home, but ended up staying and planting them out, and making a chicken wire cover for them so was there for about another hour! This extra hour in the evening is great. So I now have 10 baby broad bean plants and the little injection of green looks great!
Oh yeah, and I’ve been given two compost bins by Jonathon and another guy has given me some rhubarb crowns – great stuff!
Monday 26th March.
Another day off work! And another lovely day! I could get used to this… Had quite a productive day today, I managed to dig over another bed and pulled out most of the couch grass and other weeds. The weed pile is getting pretty impressive now! I then started on the beds where I had sown the carrots and parsnips. The problem with the polytunnels is that although they create a nice environment for the veg I want to grow, it also suits the weeds pretty well too! And I don’t want to grow those! I also decided that the carrots and parsnips I had sown at the beginning of March had not taken so I just weeded the whole thing over, and in doing so found that they had in fact germinated and if I’d left them another couple of days they would probably have poked through the surface. Oh well, you live and learn. So I have sowed some more seeds anyway – spinach (Tetona), Beetroot (Boltardy and Pronto), Lettuce (mixed), and Carrot (Ideal). This is now my “Speedy Seed” bed! In the other I re-sowed the parsnips, three rows of them. I felt pretty good after having sown these as things are finally getting going and I might start to have a bit more green (of the non-weed variety!) in the allotment.
My herb circle...
My broadies!
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