A Busy Sow And Sow!

Hello and bore da!

This is what I've been up to over the last few days. 

On Friday I re-sowed mixed Sweet Peppers and Sweet Romano peppers. the first lot really didn't seem to do anything so the new lot are in the conservatory still but covered over with a plastic bag; we'll see how they get on.

Sunday was great as I was in the poly house (PH) at about 9.30am making the best of things before it possibly rained and I set about getting a few jobs done inside and out. In my RAF surplus flying suit I was good to go but when you need a pee it's a bit of a bugger so in I went, twice(it's my age) and also put on another pair of socks as my feet were cold!

First I needed to cover over the veg beds, again, whilst taking up the odd weed; sooo bored of this wind.

I sowed my first tomatoes, three varieties - Cuor di Bue, Outdoor Girl and Yellow Delight. The PH was 20 degrees, as was my homemade propagator but need to increase that some how.

So I have some in there and some just on the bench to see if they germinate ok or if they need to go onto the window of the kitchen or conservatory - just about the extent of any trial work I do!

Getting a few things on the poly house benches now! 

I then set about sowing Kale Curly Dwarf outside in the bed with the shallots which is at the back of the (PH); I love Kale, managed to grow a bit last year so hoping to do better this time.

In a recent post I said I was trying to grow more flowers, well today I sowed some of the newly bought Nigella Persian Jewels in a terracotta pot in the PH. They grow to about 
45 cms so not sure now that will work out but we'll see!

I had two fruit trees which in a word died, doing nothing, so I've taken those out. The fruit area is definitely something which needs looking at; it is very, very overgrown.

You may remember Jon built me three new raised beds some time ago.

and these, too, have stayed covered over for a while; I decided to sow some turnips in one of them; turnips are another thing I love, sliced thinly and fried with garlic. Nomnom!

Because of the rain I had my youngest help by filling up the watering cans and bottles for the PH and he moved the wheelbarrow back where it belongs after being used to move logs and kindling. 

I've got quite a few strawberry plants to pot on; there are the 12 from my Thompson & Morgan bargain fruit bundle still in the small middle pot but the others are looking quite healthy; the drainpipe with strawbs in is now outside resting on the raised bed just outside the PH.

I don't think I've shared my seed potato plans for this year.

Swift and Charlotte earlies...

then maincrop Cara are all sitting in the conservatory.

I plan on growing most of them in open ground this year but there will be the odd growing bag, too, I'm sure.

Also on Sunday, Jon was managing to work on the fencing for the bird enclosures, thanks to a break in the weather, but he was still out there in the rain at times - he is very tenacious!

After the fox attack on both the chickens and ducks we  he is raising the height of the fencing. This means, of course, that the gates will be taller, too. (The tree seat came in useful as an extra support!)

Here is the gate into the ducks, love it...

and the one for the chicken area will be the same; this means we can let the chooks free-range at times without letting the ducks out; still a bit to do but a great job to get started on.

We are all very excited about getting the birds again.🐔

Today, Tuesday, I've been outside and potted on the two blueberry plants which also came in my T & M fruit bargain bundle. Does anybody else feel like ericaceous compost is like gold dust and shouldn't be wasted or is it just me?

Ok, that is it for me, finally got this done. I shared this on Twitter yesterday but what the heck. I got round to a bit of baking and for tea made a beef and spud pie in my skillet, in the oven for the first time, and was really quite pleased with the result.

And finally, I received in the post yesterday some new crochet hooks thanks to inspiration from Emma over at Farmer's Wife And Mummy and SueArcher6 over on Twitter. I've tried in the past as I sooo want to be able to do just simple projects. I'm going to give it another go today with the help of an internet tutorial.

Right that's it I think.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx