Compost, Digging and Doings!

Hi. The weather is very different today from yesterday which suits me just fine. Yesterday I dug over the new veg patch and put some eggs shells through the compost, dug the near to Poly House end and put some of my compost through it and then dug over the end where the peas will go. Phew and oh my back hurt after it!

I know I only posted yesterday morning but with all the digging I did yesterday, the weather was perfect, almost sunny and no need for a coat once you got stuck in, the best kind I wanted to share some things I got done.

I finally got the compost bins sorted; as I had used some on the new veg plot I could tell a lot of it was usable but still could do with making use of the second bin.

This is how the original bin looked...

then the one with still-to-rot contents...

and the original bin once I had turned it over it's contents; much better. How satisfying is it to create something out of waste which can be so good for your garden AND save you money?

At the weekend I bought some of those things that go on the top of bamboo wigwams.

I bought these because I have now put out the first of my climbing peas - Victorian Colossal. I have always loved the site of pea and bean canes on a veg patch and longed for my own - is that weird?

Eeeek, I love the way they look!

I watched, on catch up, Monty Don on Gardeners' World as he was talking about spud planting. As this is one of my anxious projects in the garden I take any advice I can get. He talked about the distance you plant your seed spuds; close together if you want new ones and more space between if you want big bakers. Good, simple advice. Then he said about rubbing off the chits you don't need on a spud, just keeping the one at the top; this makes perfect sense to me as all the energy will then be directed to that one chit instead of trying to make them all grow. Following on from this I was thinking about the space for the spuds and Jon is going to get me another of the large tyres so I will have four of them each with five Maris Piper seed spuds in. The photo below is the onions to the left and garlic to the right and, as they will all be up June/July time and the space can't really be used until then, I decided to plant my Charlotte seed spuds in between as with any luck they should all come up around the same time?

This morning I had a look around the garden and was pleased to see that a pear tree I bought last year on a Grow Your Own mag offer is starting to come to life. I was worried it had been in the pot so long, with not having anywhere to plant it, that it would not survive. 

Also looking wonderful is my magnolia tree. I am convinced it is doing better this year because of the tree we took down behind it; there was perhaps just too much shade?

This is the established apple tree we have; it has been pruned and I look forward to a more fruitful harvest from it this year.

Right, I have some cherry oat bake in the oven and Harry is off school today so need to make sure he eats his lunch.

Bye for now.

Lou.x