Sunday, 6 March 2011

The weekend that sowing and planting started

At the end of this weekend we are both knackered, hubby and myself... maybe we overdid it this time. Today it was sort of sunny so we went on the mission impossible of putting the chitted potatoes in the ground. Hubby's soil is really heavy, though, so we ended up digging ust enough for one of the four bags potato seed I got this year.

However, we did sow some peas. Will they have a chance? For the first time in the last four years there has been something digging out my broadbeans to eat the seed, while leaving the emerging stem there. Mice? The rat trap left me wondering with its mystery: the cage was where I had left it, closed, but the butter and cheese rind in the tub inside were gone, tiny droppings in their place. Happened to Paul the neighbour a few plots down.  If they are mice, they must be really tiny. What else could it be though?

The grounds were all abuzz this weekend, with nothing less than a huge bumblebee, drowsily scouting around the greenhouse, in addition to bit-more-lively ladybirds and, of course, people. Was good to have a few chats with old acquaintances. Also, I have a new neighbour, Louis, whom I have seen every time I was there - makes a nice change from not having seen anyone on that plot for four years! He seems rather nice too, even apologized for the bonfire he was making, a gesture I really appreciated. Down at hubby's plot I also met another Tony, with Cath, new tenants, but still no sign of the direct neighbours on one side.

The terraced garden, previously planted with daffodils, was sown with wildflowers cowslips, harebell, Oenothera, Meconopsis Cambrica - might take a while to see results, though, as they are mostly biennials, but more flowers are on their way, as I was tempted by an offer of 150 freesias (bulbs or corms?) at Sarah Raven's last month.

To end the day, I could not believe my greenhouse door lost a bolt (the other one, not the one that I found recently), so it's wobbly again... argh!

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