Ready for spuds

Last year there was a piece of the plot that wasn't properly used and got a bit overgrown. This year I've got that area of ground turned over and the weeds out. It is just about the right space to plant potatoes, so I have dug the trenches ready to plant the seed potatoes. They are chitting and still not quite ready to go out, but that job will be quick and easy s soon as they are ready.

I've been turning some more of the ground and making use of the little tilling machine I bought last year. If the ground is turned to break it up the tiller makes short work of turning it into a fine tilth ready for sowing or planting. It's great for mixing compost into the soil too. It has made preparing the ground much easier.

Digging

I spend while digging a bit more ground today. Still plenty to do. The ground is almost perfect for digging, soft but not muddy.

Lovely day

I planned to sow some broad beans and plant some onion sets this weekend. The weather played ball, the sun shone brightly and the wind dropped so I got on with it. Bunyards Exhibition broad beans and the standard Sturon onions. I had dug over the areas I wanted to plant in earlier in the week. I dug another section over for the next stage.

The purple sprouting broccoli is producing spears and I'm enjoying them.

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.

Tracks

There was a smidgeon of snow about and a bit of sleet in the air, but the temperature was above zero and the ground felt soggy not frozen. The traps were still set, but the rain and snow had washed most of the bait away. The traps were tripped, another dollop of jam to top them up added and the traps reset. I'm still not sure what the best bait might be.

There were a few faint prints in the wet snow, but not very clear. A set of car tracks in the car park had foot prints and a dog prints leading from it. No sign of Norman's bike tracks, but there was a set of small paw prints that I think is a cat. No sign of other tracks, but with so little snow any creature might have avoided it and still got around.