Sunshine at last!

At last a day of sunshine and mild too with the daffodils and tulips at their best. It is still a little too early to be sowing directly into the ground on the Caley’s cold site but broad beans, peas, chard, cabbage and beetroot are doing well in seed trays at home and will have a good start for planting out in a couple of weeks.

It was time to turn the compost heap and good to see that the heap had continued to rot down over the winter – normally the weather is too cold for the composting process to continue – so this year there is much more to use as the team start to sow and plant.

Carrots do better in well drained soil and with as few stones as possible otherwise the roots fork if they meet stones as they grow down, so the soil was dug out and sieved in the carrot bed and some silver sand added.

One of the large tubs was filled up with sieved soil and will be used to grow carrots in pipes to get some good straight ones for the Autumn shows.

Finally weed suppressing matting was laid over the raised strawberry bed to do what it says and also keep the moisture in and the fruit clean.

Jobs for next week: Stake and wire up the loganberry; Fork over the biochar bed; Weeding; Check soil temperature; Plant out peas/beans if ready.