In the Greenhouse

We engaged in the great British tradition and trailed around various retail parks this afternoon.  I’m not quite sure what we were looking for and  after a while I was losing the will to live. Did buy  myself  a fine rose for the watering can although  it doesn’t fit quite right. Some tape around the spout might sort it.

I also paid a huge £2.00 for some bright yellow rope to edge plot 5 with. The woodchip path that borders the plot is  slowly decomposing so I want to clearly mark the edge.

When I arrived at the plot at 5pm, Janice from plot 28 was just leaving. I was quite amazed anyone was down there at all with the weather. Quite heavy rain most of the day.

Well it wasn’t raining as I arrived so out with the hoe and attacked a few weeds.  Another benefit of all the compost being added to the soil is that it is so much lighter it  is easy to hoe. Pushing a hoe, even a sharp hoe, through heavy clay is not light work. I reckon it is four times faster now, which has to be good.

Of course  it didn’t last long, the rain started again, quite heavy at times, so a retreat into the greenhouse was the next  move.

Potting Peppers

Because we’re going away in a week I need to move ahead  quickly so the peppers can’t stay in their small pots. To save a few pennies I riddled some of the bulk compost and mixed it 50/50 with  multi-purpose bagged compost which filled the lower half of the large pots and then just MP compost for the top half.

I’m a bit short of sweet peppers but a bit heavy on the chillis, perhaps I can do a swap.

Sowing Beans

Sowed a load of dwarf Borlotti and Beure de Rocquencourt French beans into 3″ pots.  I have sowed directly into the ground before but there are always gaps in the row. This way I ensure a good start and more consistent results. The  Beure de Rocquencourt French beans are really nice delicate yellow waxy beans, best fresh although they will freeze. The Borlotti are for drying, the actual bean that is and popping into stews, soups etc. I like bean salads as well. Fresh , lightly  steamed broad beans in a delicate dressing.. yum.

I also sowed some Twiggy Kenya beans. Just a dwarf French bean, prolific and very similar to the ones the supermarkets import from Kenya. Maybe there’s a clue in the name!

Because  the  Twiggy and Beure de Rocquencourt are a little old, I sowed 2 per pot. 50% germination is all I need. If both sprout, then I just pinch one out.

Sowing Lettuce

Final task was to sow some more lettuce. I used 15 to a tray modules, scattering a few seeds into each module, which again I thin down to one per module after they sprout.  A tray of Tom Thumb, one of Little Gem and one of Lollo Rosso. All in all, 45 lettuce. That should keep us going for a while.

After watering  I headed home aound half past seven, Even in the greenhouses it wasn’t that warm and I got quite wet filling up the watering can in the rain.  Must be some irony in there somewhere.