Sunday 22 March 2015

First busy weekend of spring

First job of the weekend: 
On Saturday I rebuilt the Rhubarb bed edge using reclaimed wood. Looks a lot better and should last a long time too, as the old edging was almost completely rotted away.  
 Earlier in the week I started digging over this patch, where the early spuds are going. 


Continued on Saturday and today I extended the patch by removing 2 cold frames and some Cabbages that had finished. 


So the final patch measures about 13ft wide, so I will be able to plant both early (Rocket) & 2nd early (Charlotte) Spuds.
Today I decided to empty one of the compost bins, been left for about 18 months and was lovely and crumbly. 

My no turn method seems to work and is really good stuff, see below to see what we used it for.
Great news: 
Our pond, we haven't seen any life in it for months, but this week we spotted a massive lump of Frog Spawn, still not seen any Frogs, but they must be there somewhere. 

But the pond is covered with pond weed at the moment, which we will clear away soon.
Anyway this is where the compost bin contents ended up, topping up the raised bed I finished last week. 

We then planted out the first lot of Pink Carousel Garlic. 

We have started another lot in cells, so we will have so much Garlic this year!
Been a lovely weekend, even the sun came out today, maybe the first sign of spring and the clocks go forward (in UK) next weekend, so longer days. 

So now all the major construction is done, this end of the plot is looking neat with new raised bed edges. 

I can concentrate on planting, now.
The only harvesting done this weekend was to dig up the last of the Beetroot, to make way for main spud patch preparation (and the bonfire), 

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian 

Sunday 15 March 2015

Chicken News, eggs too !

Our hens were making a lot of noise today, so I looked in the hen house. Despite having 2 nest boxes, as you can see 2 Light Sussex are squashed into just one, they do favour the right nest box.
I checked 15 mins later and 2 eggs had been laid and one of the Ex-Battery hens was taking an interest.
When I checked later on I could see a few more eggs, and the ex-battery hen was pushing underneath the Lt Sussex!
So when all the commotion had settled down I looked into the hen house to find 5 eggs in the right nest box, we have had 5 twice before. 
So far this year we have had: 69 in Jan, 61 in Feb and 54 so far this month, 184 in total!

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

Sunday 8 March 2015

More rebuilding of raised beds & signs of life

A busy weekend of reconstruction. 
I finished the raised bed (in the foreground) by adding another 4" of recycled timber and made a new edge for the Herb bed (top left of pic). 
We will need to use some of the space for extra Strawberry runners!
You can tell Spring is upon us, signs of life all over the plot. 
The Pink Carousel Garlic (top left) has sprouted, so has the Red Baron Onions (top right). 


The red buds of the Stockbridge Arrow Rhubarb are poking through the winter mulch of horse manure, wont be long before we take the 1st harvest.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian  

Sunday 1 March 2015

Deconstruction & Reconstruction of a raised bed


It's time to do some maintenance on the plot, so I replaced the edges of one of the rotten edged raised beds.

Top left: Old wood removed and soil drawn up away from edges.
Top right: New edges in place and corners screwed.
Bottom left: Soil raked level and as much of the Ground Elder roots & weeds removed!
Bottom right: I might increase the hight by adding an extra 4" making it a 10" deep bed. 
Now that the pallet fence is finished, the Blackberry needed attaching, so using netting staples & wire it was a quick job to secure the runners to the fence.
So a few important jobs done today & I still have 2 more raised bed edges to replace.

As I walked home, the rain started, so lucky I went this morning and not later as I thought would happen.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian