I was still feeling a bit rough at the start of the week, so Debbie drove me to the allotment and we worked together on the last jobs of spring (we are running slightly late). We cleared the second early onions and planted the last of the sweetcorn and winter...
It’s been a tough week, I started to feel ill on Tuesday and basically my body shut down on me. I’ve felt incredibly weak, climbing the stairs is a big effort, muscles sore, throat sore, light fever. I’m still feeling rough as I write this, but fortunately I felt fine...
It definitely feels like the gardening is over now for a while. The kitchen garden only needs attention for about 20 minutes a day and that’s almost all watering containers. I finished the allotment planting early in the week, so it’s all watering and weeding there too. We have much...
This week was the last big push and I’m effectively finished planting the allotment and the kitchen garden now. Debbie’s plot is almost fully planted too. Anyone who gardens though knows that ‘finished’ is always a very poor word to describe the state of a garden. Next week I will...
The first few days of last week were such fun as I worked hard to clear all of my low tunnels to plant peppers. These tunnels were a bit of a mess, full of spinach going to seed and lettuces full of slugs and every bed full of Marestail (my...
Next week is the ‘last push’ as I clear almost all of my over-wintered beds and re-plant them with the summer crops. It’s a major milestone and it marks the beginning of my lazy summer. It’s also a bit of a relief because there’s a lot less to manage. The...
At the beginning of the week I was feeling somewhat over-whelmed by the amount of sowing I’d been doing and even more so by the volume of seedlings that need daily care. This week I gradually worked through that overwhelm, got a lot of planting done, read my diary from...
After a fairly busy March and April things are now returning to their relaxed normal. A few seeds to sow and prick out each week and one/two beds to clear and plant. This is how I like it, a couple of hours a day of ‘work’ and plenty of time...
We were away for three days last week, attending our eldest daughters wedding in Oxford. I’ve only been to Oxford once before and the whole stay was wonderful, Oxford is beautiful, especially when the sun is shining and the wedding was a dream. We got to enjoy three days of...
It’s been another stunning gardening week here. Although we’ve had frosts every night everything I’m growing, except the potatoes, is hardy and protected from the cold wind. The potatoes are fine too, under a double layer of fleece. This week I planted runner and French beans in the polytunnel, but...