When I ventured outside in the morning it was really sunny
but really cold. The Met Office app said it was 5c feels like 1c, so I decided to
venture back inside to put my underlegs and another jumper on! Grabbed a few
things from the greenhouse and off I went.
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| I am very pleased with how many daffs are out on Plot 31 - but this autumn I plan to plant an awful lot more |
I still haven’t put up the new polytunnel yet. We had a bit
of a Storm Freya incident during which Mommas polytunnel took flight and landed
5 plots down, tangled in their fruit bushes. We have managed to retrieve it,
straighten it, and now have wild plans to reinforce it, weight it down, add
internal guy ropes, AND put wooden batons on each vertical pole, as far into
the ground as they’ll go and cable tied to the frame. Hopefully when that is
all done it will stay put – but it hasn’t made me want to hurry up and sort
mine out..!
Today though, I finished up what I started a couple of weeks
ago. I had covered a bed with the intention of it being this years fallow bed,
but now that polytunnel is happening, I needed to relocate my herb patch. The fallow
bed was chosen to be the new herb bed, so I had begun digging it over and
breaking up the clods, but then got rained off. I was going to finish digging
it today but thought it looked good enough, so set about nailing the timber together
to make the frame. I successfully hammered my finger but I also got the frame
done in record time.
To raise the ground level I had already decided to dig out a
massive pile of dirt from by the shed. This was originally inverted clods of
turf that I had lifted when I dug new beds – I just piled the turf up,
upsidedown, and over the last four years or so it has given the wee beasties
somewhere to hide (last year it had a wasps nest, and I found a perfect mouse
nest in it as I was digging, as well as lots of black beetles, centipedes,
worms and miscellaneous grubs), but it has also rotted down into really nice
compost. A bit rooty, but couch grass is everywhere, but otherwise it is good stuff. I have
wanted to get this dug out for a while but was hindered by the wasps nest, but
now it is done!
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| All the digging attracted this lil guy |
The new herb bed took seven barrow loads of dirt to get it
topped up, and then I started to dig the plants out of the old herb bed. And
then a large black cloud came over. And then it started to rain. And then it
started to hail. And then the hail went sideways and torrential. And then I took
shelter in the shed!! My plot neighbours decided to make a run for it, I looked
over to Plot 4 to see Momma (she too had taken refuge in her shed), and the
birds went silent. It hailed for quite a long time, and then just… stopped. So I
continued digging!
All of the plants I had dug up are now in their new bed. I
chopped the fennel down low before I moved it; very glad to see the new growth
starting to come up. The fennel and comfrey both had massive roots but I’ve
saved what I can and hopefully they’ll be ok. I replanted lots of strawberries,
found more raspberry canes than I knew I had, and lost three clumps of chives.
Wyevale are doing 5 for £10 on their wildflowers and herbs at the moment so I shall take a trip
up there at payday to get some more. My sage disappeared a few years ago
and I’d like some more thyme.
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| Quince in the centre, and then a smattering of other things. Raspberry, Rosemary, Strawberries, Comfrey, Fennel, Lavender. Thyme, and Black Grass. I want to add Sage, Chives, more Thyme, and maybe some mint in tubs. This bed is 6ft square and 6" deep. |
All in all it was quite a productive few hours. I did nearly
everything on my to-do list. I planted snakes head fritillaries under my apple
tree (it is very wet there), lambs ear under the plum in my new
wildlife/wildflower bit, catmint in a flower bed, and a hazel whip near my
garlics. I also fed the birds, watched the robin for a while, and my radish
seedlings are poking through!!
Next step is to take up the frame for the old herb bed and
repurpose the timber (it is destined for a mega new compost bin overhaul), get
the bed dug out, weeded and levelled, then set about putting up the polytunnel.
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| Snakes Heads. I bought one pot and have divided it into five clumps. |
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| Under-The-Plum Meadow: red clover, black knapweed, red deadnettle, lambs ear. |
