The soil is ready….

A chilly start but the sun came out and a pleasant day by lunchtime. The grass has grown well over the past week so the first cut of the season is due when time permits.
We tested the soil temperature – 11 degrees C so we can start sowing and planting the hardy veg.

We have been given a new variety of rhubarb called Livingstone which you can continue to pick well into the summer. Generally it is better to stop picking around the beginning of July to give the plant time to recover so it will be interesting to see how it does.

Black plastic had been put down on the potato bed to warm up the soil and today the early potatoes were put in – Charlotte, Catriona, Sharpe’s Express and Kestrel. The trenches were filled in and ridged but the young shoots are not frost hardy so will need earthed over as they appear until the chances of frost are over.

The broad beans – Aquadulce Claudia – and peas – Hurst Greenshaft – were sown at home to give a headstart so the young plants were put in today and more are coming on. Field mice are very fond of bean and pea seeds so direct sowing can be a chancy business at this time of the year. Later on there is plenty of other food about so it is generally more successful.

The stakes and wires for the loganberry were replaced – the windbreak, stakes and wires had been blown down in the winter gales – and the loganberry tied in again.
The biochar trial bed was dug over in preparation for continuing the trial this year.

The Japanese vegetable plants for the pallet garden at Gardening Scotland are all coming on well and benefited from the heat in the nursery glasshouses but time now to move them to cooler conditions to bush them up and harden them off. And finally Ian is planning a good show of gladioli as well as sweet peas this year. He grew the corms on at home and they were planted out today.

Jobs for next week: Finish making the trenches for the carrots; Sow the first row of carrots, beetroot, turnip.