It was the last weekend in March and it was like a starting gun went off. We planted the potatoes out and sowed broad beans, peas, carrots and beetroots. We also planted out some white hyacinths I’d bought in Sainsburys, so many of the bulbs I buy are impulse bought in supermarkets!
Then we got on with the building the squash bed, it’s roughly 360cm by 90cm, the weedfinder general doesn’t like the beds to be any wider because then she can’t weed them, which is why we decided to change the layout from last year. Last year that large bed had cardboard and compost laid on it (a lot of compost) but the soil underneath is still rock hard and unhappy and there was quite a bit of bindweed in the beds, so I wanted to make the beds a little deeper to bury the bind weed.
So we’ll build another alongside it and put arches in between for things to grow up, hopefully it’ll be pretty as well as practical!
The plan was to then raise the sides on what had been the kale bed. I was convinced it was 180cm long by 90cm wide, which is more or less, the size of all the other beds we’ve build. Nope, this was a surprise size of 120cm wide. I don’t know how or why we made it this size but there it is. Anyway we raised it up and next week, we’ll fill it and sow parsnips and salsify.
I’m not working tomorrow so, I’m going to make sure we have enough wood for two more beds and to raise the sides of the current chard bed (the one with the blue hoops), which I’m going to turn around so it’s in line with all the others. I’m also going to finish weeding that patch of grass in path next to it because it’s driving me nuts!
At that point, we’ll be nearly finished with building but also out of wood. Over the course of April, we’ll build another four beds, the second squash bed and three more of the 180cm by 90cm beds. We’ll also get another 1800 litres of compost to fill them and then building is done for this year. Hurrah! Of course, next year I have to start replacing the beds that we made with lawn edging but there are only four of those!
Also on the list for work during my time off are:
- Painting the shed
- Building the compost riddler thingie (mostly to get the box out of the shed so Mum can stop moaning about it!)
- Sowing celeriac, salad and the salsify and parsnips
- Sowing tomatoes and basil
- Weeding around the apple tree
- If there is woodchip, I want to fill the black compost bin with it, so next year I can use for mulch.
Other than that I also want to spend some time admiring my handiwork and all the blossom.
Nic Dempsey 