So we'll start with one from the top corner of the plot, much the same perspective as the one in the February 2007 post. In the immediate foreground are my impressive (Not) array of spring cabbages which have done nothing over winter except die, and appear to be continuing in the same vein. Just behind these on the right hand side, standing on its edge are one of my cages - a freecycle give-away from a couple of years ago. I moved it later onto bed three, behind the one in the foreground in the next picture.
In all three of these pictures you can see my "drying" bin at the far end of bed 2. I ended the day by moving it to just left of the foreground of picture 2, at the top left corner of the plot. This clears the last 6' of bed 2, which should mean that I can get it dug in time to get this years potatoes in.
Picture 3 is the reverse angle of picture 1. In both pictures 2 and 3 you should be able to see bed 2 just before I finished installing the new 12' side sections and leveling it to just before the drying bin was. Due to a blown head gasket on the car, and having to have the head skimmed as a result, I'd dug the last 3 feet on Thursday, which enabled me to get the sides installed to day. I also used the time to re-attach the lid on the drying bin, after the winter wind snapped it from its plastic fixings. The bin is supposed to dry out everything in it since it's divided halfway up by a heavy steel wire mesh, which means it should get really hot inside with the sun on it. This means that I should then be able to compost the crispy fried couch roots that are currently filling it.
My enforced time off from work also meant I was able to get into the greenhouse on Friday and prick out my tomato, cucumber, and courgette seedlings. As usually I have far too many tomatoes, especially the Alicante and Supa Roma. In the end I pricked out 24 Alicante, 20 Supa Roma, and all 16 of the Black Russian.
Pricking these out meant I was able to sow a few more batches of seeds, more Defender - I only had 3 of the first batch germinate, some squash, Telegraph for in the greenhouse, melons, early sprouts, more greyhound, and some more cauliflower- again because I only had a few germinate the first time. All this means more pricking out in a few weeks, but I'll need to do both the sweet and chilli peppers next weekend, assuming I can get the brakes on the car done without any hitches.
I also sowed a few bathes of peas, both sweet and edible. Given last years record with the edibles and the age of the seed, I'm not overly hopeful of much germinating, even having sown 4 peas per cell. I shall leave sowing my heritage peas and beans for a few weeks yet.
Well, that covers everything, except the Sunningdale plot, which was Saturday afternoons work. I've now all bar completed the asparagus bed, and once I can get the photo's off the phone I'll post them so you can see how I've done it and the state of the crowns in their pots. I now need to dig the last 30 inches before I can complete the bed and put the last 6 crowns in. This leaves me with 20 crowns which I'm selling off at £0.50 per crown or 5 for £2.00. Unfortunately as they're pot grown and sprouting they need to go in really quick and are only available for local collection. Click the link if you're local and interested - Asparagus Sales
Apart from almost finishing the asparagus bed I also installed the last but one retaining plank, that divides the high side of the plot from the low side. I've just got one more short section to do, before needing to make a few more decisions about "levels" across various sections of the plot.
As part of the installation process I also weeded to top end of the pea/bean trench and have come to the conclusion I need to install retaining vertical scaffold poles on that section of the frame as well. Thankfully I do have 2 more, although they're not in brilliant condition. Hopefully they'll suffice.
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