Grass, flipping grass!

    This time of year the grass along with the weeds grow very fast indeed! Grass cutting is currently about every six days (if I am lucky!) so pretty much once a week. This will carry on until it gets a lot warmer.

    In the veg garden it has been a busy week. Forking and weeding, trimming bed edges. Sowed Ciboulail (spring onion type), Great Lakes lettuce in the old seed bed, sowed caulifower Merville, Greyhound, Hope and Milan cabbage in the new seed bed. Some beetroot popped up in the poly tunnel so they have been transplanted. A couple of Gardeners Delight tomato plants made the the effort to germinate in the propagator and have been transplanted to pots. They are a little "weedy" but hey one has to try. The last of the Desiree main crop potatoes have been planted. First earlies have started to show. Some leeks dug up, just a few left now and they need to be dug up before long or they will just go to seed. 

   Annual bonfire has been lit and not everything I would have liked to have burnt has been but I had to get it done while it was dry and before the end of the month. 

   Lost another chicken to probably a fox so all birds consolidated into the main coop and they will be kept in for a few days. Main coop clean out. Average of 4.28 eggs per day this last week a drop on the previous week but not surprising if a fox has been stalking them. 

   Next week I will be starting to sow the squashes and melons. 

Poly tunnel spring lettuce 

Busy busy busy

    The weather has been good with sunshine and the temperature getting to 20C. Off course this means three things. 1. The grass grows rapidly, 2. the weeds grow rapidly, 3. there is a hurry to get stuff into the warming up ground! So, grass mowing, forking and weeding and sowing/planting has been the order of the week.

   I have weeded my small asparagus bed but I fear that the crowns have died. No sign of asparagus yet and I would have expected to see some by now. One never knows and maybe there might be a crown or two still alive. Most of the seed potatoes are now planted with just a handful to find a space somewhere. Being inspired by a reply to a post in the Gardening in France group on Facebook I have constructed a Stout bed and planted with Desiree potatoes. I happened to have a lot of hay which is only good for mulching. A Stout bed is just another form of a no dig bed just happened to be made up of hay although one can add other organic matter. The bed is a foot high and the potatoes are planted on top of an eight inch layer of hay and another four inches of hay put on top of them. I was not aware that we only plant potatoes in trenches to stop them from going green.

Stout bed

     My first row of Touchon carrots are up and I have sown row number two. Onions and shallots are growing well along with broad beans which have flowers on them. I bought another lot of early lettuce plants and have planted some in my new no dig bed outside the poly tunnel. Taking a chance as there could still be frosts till the middle of May but these are spring lettuce so will be a little hardier. 

    No doubt the grass will need mowing again before the week is out but I have a bonfire to light and deal with and there are seeds that I need to sow. It will no doubt, weather permitting, be another busy week ahead.

   I lost one of my cockerals this week to probably a fox so that just leaves one. Daily average of 5.28 eggs this week in line with last weeks total. I have eleven hens but only five or six eggs a day? Umm. 

Spuds, spuds and more spuds

    What can I say? Lot of time dodging rain showers planting the Aoluette second early potatoes. Almost done. I have about a dozen seed potatoes to plant and then its on to the main crop, Desiree. 

   Some carrots dug up. There still are some more but they are showing signs of starting to grow. More forking and weeding of the major plot that the main crop potatoes will go in,however, I have been reading about another method of no dig to plant potatoes in. It involves a lot hay which as it happens I have a lot of. So todays thinking is to try this method out and see what results I get. Seed sowing has started with some 18Jour radish sown in the poly tunnel and mixed sweet peppers and tomatoes sown into propagator modules. No sign of germination with the tomato seed sown in seed trays in the fleece clouche in the poly tunnel. 

   The weather has been awful at times with high winds and torrential rain. Much to my surprise the ground has been workable (Well, mostly. Found a bit that was pretty much liquid mud!). Also some frost just to let me know that winter is not quite out but the general temperature is on the rise!

   Chickens are being chickens and being a menace scratching around wherever I dig or fork. The broody hen is still sticking to her eggs despite loosing the first batch. 5.29 daily average this last week. 

Never ending forking and weeding

EARLIES IN!

    On my return from the UK I have been busy mowing grass before it snowed and rained and getting my early potatoes, variety AGATA, in. Despite the rain and snow the ground has been good enough to dig a trench to plant spuds! Second earlies and main crop to go!  Dug up some leeks and some carrots. 

Planting 1st early potatoes

   Our broody hen is still sitting on her eggs. The first twelve she was sitting on have all been removed by something so another twelve have been put under her and she is staying put for now. Fingers crossed she manages to hatch a few chicks. The average number of eggs, over thirteen days rather than seven due to being away, laid per day was 4.2. Down on the previous period but we suspect something is stealing the eggs!