Spring Sunshine
It was a beautiful sunny day today despite the dismal weather forecast, Kevin and myself headed out to the plot in the early afternoon. It was Kevin's first day on the plot this year and he checked out everything, he cleared a lot of debris for me like old sprout and sunflower stems because we had left the seed heads for the birds over winter and they had been picked clean.Kevin took all of them up to the main compost heap which Zwena has had redug exposing the well rotted compost for the plotters.This is Kevin digging out a bed, this year he is old enough to use a full size fork and he was giving it welly literally!The neat bed in the foreground has red onions (red baron) in it since today. We have not had much luck with red onions in the past as they go to seed, I am hoping putting them in now while we still have this cold frosty snap will help to slow them down a little.Today is what we here in Ireland call a 'pet day' to be enjoyed but aware that it does not mean Summer is here!
I dug a drill for the strawberries and moved the ones off the fruit bed into it.The foliage on the bushes shaded the plants too much blocking sunshine.Strawberries I believe do better in drills as they are raised off of the ground, we will test this theory this year.I have lots of runners for new plants in the greenhouse which will be put into a second drill, these ones are now entering their second year and three years is their optimum harvesting period.
I moved some boards and made a pathway today, this is it under construction. Black membrane covered with bark chippings. The bed to the right has been covered all winter and is a second onion bed which should be planted up by next week depending on the weather
Something has been eating the leeks which had put on a spurt of growth the last couple of weeks.I did not think rabbits would eat them but they are the obvious culprits I think, especially as we saw quite a few of them hopping around the drive way as we drove up!
Zwena has done a lot of work on the site since I was out there last, new gravel pathways have been laid to make wheel barrow pushing much easier, she has also put in a new gate at the top of this path to make accessing the compost heap easier for us instead of going around the toilet block to it.Yes that is Kevin disappearing into the distance!There were quite a few people working today enjoying the sunshine and getting some much needed spade work done for the new crops to go in.
Comments
Willow
Its all looking good. I have some strawberries in a container to at home, inc some wild strawberries which I got from my mums garden path when I was in Wales. I'm hoping to plant some of these in my garden plot. Just waiting for the weather to cheer up here as its been drizzle, drizzle, drizzle. Instead a visit to another museum is due to keep us dry.
I also want to say Thank you so much for your support and kind words over the past couple of months at the loss of my allotment plot. It has been most appreciated and encouraging to have others who share the same outlook. Thank you so much it really means a lot to me.