New hedge

After a few days break I went up to plot 18 to carry on weeding and see what is what. The sun was out the breeze was chilly but light and it was a pleasant place to be.

The first surprise is that the hedge along the north side of the site that was grubbed up nearly a year ago has finally been reinstated with new seedlings in their plastic tubes to stop them being grazed. It will be very good to see a proper hedge again, though it will take a couple of years before it looks like a hedge. They look to all be hawthorn, which is ideal. I checked around the site and the new hedge saplings have been planted along the western hedge too as an infill for the existing hedge.

As I walked around I flushed a couple of red-legged partridges and I could hear another couple chuckling in the distance. They are lovely looking birds, now more common that the grey partridges, but they are also good at demolishing greens on the site.

I dug up a decent chunk of weeds and inspected the rest of the site. All looks well and hopefully ready to weather the storm coming across the weekend. There's still a lot of weeding to do, but nothing will be ready to plant out for weeks yet, so I can plod through the weeding and digging without any rush.

I had a good look at the netting around the purple sprouting broccoli and that looks secure. Hopefully it is secure enough to keep the partridges out. They would demolish my broccoli in one sitting. The first heads of broccoli are showing through so I should get my first harvest soon, which I look forward to.

A bit warmer

The snow and ice has melted, and although it was overcast today, when the sun has shone it has been warmer. I've started clearing some weeds ready for the spring dig. The weeds come out very easily as the ground is very soft, but anywhere I walk over a couple of times is quickly turning to mud. I'm hoping to clear more weeds over the next few days, weather permitting.

Frozen leeks

The snow fell last night giving about 5cm coverage. It has been steadily melting all day in a bright warm sun, It will not all melt today and there's more forecast overnight. I walked through the wet snow to to Plot 18 following the tracks made by someone with a dog and saw the tracks left by a cat. I was hoping the ground would not be frozen to lift a few leeks, but I was disappointed. rather than break them I left the leeks for another day.

I checked the traps, both were under a covering of snow and both were still set. I added some bait and left them set. Traps or not, nothing is being eaten and there are no tracks in the snow to show anything is around the plot. I'm content with that.