We are slowly getting things done.

I did manage to get some compost to the plot but only six bags, I also took the bale of hay I ordered for mulching to the plot too. While I was doing that Ma did the watering. It did rain this week but the fruit in pots needed feeding and the polytunnel needed watering (it was 36C in there on Saturday!)

We started off by getting the pots of maincrop potatoes planted and we strimmed and cleared the path by the squash beds. I then got on with weeding and topping up the beds.

I also assessed the strawberries, some of them hadn’t made it through the winter and despite the rain, the ones at the bottom of the stacks were really dry. So I sorted them out so that all the pots were filled three each. We have four empty pots which hold three strawberries each, so I’m twelve short. As it happens, I have 12 strawberry plants arriving in May! I moved them to the bottom of the plot to make watering easier, and I gave them a through watering.

It’s very exciting, some of the are flowering. In fact all of the fruit is coming on. The blueberries are in flower, the blackcurrants and gooseberries are forming, even the boysenberry has stopped its pursuit of world domination and is flowering. The cherry bush isn’t doing much at all, but I’m not expecting much if anything from it this year.

While I was doing that, Ma was riddling some compost so we could use it for sowing seeds. I couldn’t remember that it was called riddling and asked her to strain the compost, fortunately, she knew what I meant!

I’ve been seeing lots of complaints about the quality of compost this year. I’ve gone with peat free this year, it’s not great quality. I used manure on most of the winter squash beds this year and you can see the difference in colour on the picture above, with the peat free compost looking lumpier and just ashier. I think that next year, I’ll use more manure and maybe some topsoil to cut the compost and make it easier to use. Hopefully that, with making a bit more of our own, will help.

This week the third blackcurrant arrived, so I planted it in, and added some creeping thyme to the path at the side of the bed.

We also did a bit of harvesting, salad from the poly and rhubarb for me, parsley, mint and chard for Ma. We were busy and it felt like we got a lot done but the list is still really long.

On Sunday we did get the indoor seeds sown. So 75 tomatoes, 15 melons, 15 cucumbers, 38 winter squash and 15 courgettes and summer squash. We’re a bit late but it’s going to have to be ok because there isn’t really a choice.

So this is the state of the list, we’ll work on getting more of it done next week.

• Get all the compost to the plot – partially, this weekend I’ve moved 10 bags
• Weed and top up all empty beds – partially, all the beds in the new half of the plot have been done
• Plant the maincrop potatoes
• Sow spinach and other salad next to shallots and in ex parsnip bed
• Sow parsnips
• Apply ant nematodes to polytunnel, blueberries and bulb beds
• Module sowing for poly – brussels, kale, cabbages, cauliflower, parsley, basil, coriander, flowers
• Module sowing for indoors – tomatoes, melons and squash
• Move the strawberries and sort out
• Paint the shed
• Tidy the shed
• Net the gooseberries
• Put up the poles for netting the blueberries
• Finish weeding the front of the plot and shed
• Trim the grass in the bulb bed
• Strim the grass path – partially done
• Weed the paths and top up with woodchip if there is any available
• Finish weeding the pond area, rose garden and iris bed
• Mulch the pond area, rose garden and iris bed
• Join the rose garden to the iris bed and plant out the area
• Plant out the herbs from Urban Herbs
• Finish the patio
• Set up the arches for bean planting
• Turn the compost bin