It was bright, sunny and hot again today.  Accuweather says 20 C.  Watering is so important in this weather - so easy to frazzle the little seedlings.  We try to give a liberal dose of water twice a day.

It was an inauspicious day, plant-wise, today so we did a bit of general maintenance.  I pulled the strimmer out of storage and fired it up.  We've had very bad luck with these machines over the years.  I think we're on our fifth or sixth model at this stage.  This one's a Maruyama and it seems a good one.  Anyway, it started without much difficulty, old fuel mix and all.

I cut the goose lawn.  We don't have any geese now, but the name stuck.  While having a cup of tea on the newly mown goose lawn, we were amazed to see a Peacock butterfly.  In March!  It was a bit tatty and must have hibernated.  Brimstones continue to enjoy the heatwave.

While watering the sweet peas this evening, I counted 70 Rootrainer trays.  If every cell is full and germinates, that makes 2240 plants!

I noticed the Ajuga starting to flower, too.

Ajuga reptans "Caitlin's Giant"

Another corker of a day!  Why can't spring be like this every year?

The raspberry bed has been well dug-over.  Over the last two days, nearly all the raspberry canes have been dug up and stored in bags. The bed has been given a serious going-over with forks and most of the perennial weeds have been removed.  The umbellifers are unbellifably hard to dig up!


We'll sort through the canes, keep enough for a re-planted raspberry bed and take the remaining to market.  Once the bed has been reinstated, we are determined to manage it better.  Having said that, we planted the original bed over ten years ago and it has been very productive.  We like the autumn varieties - we have Autumn Bliss  and Fall Gold - because they fruit at a good time and the canes are self-supportiing.

Our forester friend came and took away his trailer this evening.  I'd made sure it was as full as I could manage.  He's taken away lots of Elder prunings, hedge prunings, old hebe, bits of hazel and ash from the roadside, some of the recent Thuja branches and anything else I could put my hand to.

It was a very sunny day and I worked without a shirt for too long.  I'll suffer tomorrow, no doubt.

The tunnels were well watered twice today. Once first thing and again just before coming indoors for the evening.  The peas and broad beans are almost all up and this year have managed nearly 100% germination.  The tomatoes are up too.  Something is going for our chillies.  Slugs or woodlice, we think. Every morning a few new corpses!

Even the sweet peas have started germinating.  With luck, we'll have a good crop.  There's a lot of work in preparing all the Rootrainers and sowing - must be over 1500 seeds again - so we hope for a good return for the labour.

When the Farmers' Market starts again Friday after next, we'll have quite a lot to bring for sale.  Watch this space for a list.

Clocks changed during the night.

We had a late night out visiting and to add to our delay in getting to bed, the van refused to start.  With a bit of coaxing - a brief tow - it roared into life and we drove home.

Cats woke us up in spite of moving the door mat to stop the old boy from picking it up with his claws and slapping it back down on the step.  This time, no blame attached to the old one, it was the younger upstart yowling that got me out of bed.

Anyway, to get down to  garden matters it looks like it'll be a lovely day.  I would have gone for an early walk if I hadn't felt so tired.

It's a fruit day all day, so the plan is to plant out at least one of the new damson trees we've had sitting in their pots for months.  They're both in blossom, so I have reservations and wonder if they won't be set back.  Before I start digging, I'll refer to the gardening books.

I'd like to make up a planting mix too and need to research that.

Photos to follow.

More sweet peas!

We'll write the final count soon, but there are more to come.  We filled another batch of Rootrainers today.  Tricia sowed most of them, while I was engaged with assisting our friend with the chainsaw, who was lopping ivy-covered trunks off the tree by the gate.  So much wood.  It always appears more whenit comes down to earth compared to when it's up in the air.

Tomorrow, even though it isn't a flower day, Tricia will have to find and assemble another 10 trays or so.  I'll be at the other job.

Log shifting when I get home.

It's the end of the day and I can't keep my peepers open any longer.  While I was teaching today, Tricia spent six hours sowing sweet peas.  That's a lot of sweet peas and there are yet more to sow.  Tomorrow is another flower day, so they'll be in their compost by the end of the day.

In the afternoon, we are to have help felling the ivy-ridden and multi-trunked tree by our front gate.  We don't want any more large bits dropping off.  Sure as fate, next time it'll land on a van...or one of us.  Always damaging.

Old boy excelled this morning. 4.15!

We were promised the use of our friend's enormous trailer today.  He'll take all our prunings, tree branches and scrubby trimmings.  Great! We cleared a huge pile of elder ghat had been lying for over a year.  It had been added to with last year's soft fruit prunings as well.  It was moved to a spot ready to be pitched into the trailer when it came.

After lunch, we assembled 25 or more sets of Rootrainers.  If you don't know these, they're the best thing for sowing peas and beans into.  This afternoon was a flower day and tomorrow, and indeed part of Wednesday, so it's time to sow sweet peas.  We won't do quite as many as last year's 1500, but we'll start with over 800.

These Rootrainer sets were filled with compost and watered ready for sowing tomorrow.  They'll spend the night in the tunnel, so the compost won't be too cold when sowing starts.

The sweet peas seeds themselves are soaking in front of me.  They'll swell overnight and will take less time to germinate.  I'll post a couple of photos later.

Beltony Blue & Kent Blue Peas Germinated

Likewise Luang Prabang Mangetout Peas

The Rootrainers are interesting.  They encourage very good root development through a process called air pruning.  I'll explain this in a later addition.  School tomorrow, so time for bed.

Incidentally, the expected trailer did arrive, but not until 6 or so in the evening.

It's such a beautiful morning, there's no time to start blogging.  Into the garden!

Well, it's after 5pm now and still as lovely.  We've come in because we're going out - if you get my meaning.

More carrots, Nantes 2, sown in the big tunnel, then up to the soft fruit to clean around the gooseberries.  Two old bushes had died, so they were dispatched to the incinerator, but the rest were relieved of their couch grass neighbours.  We'd laid landscape fabric to make a weed-free path between plants some years ago.  Weed-free my elbow!  Still, the mat of couch grass was easily rolled back with a Chillington Trenching hoe.

After lunch, we lit the incinerator (is it really illegal?) and got rid of soft fruit clippings.  The ash will come in handy somewhere to add potash to soil where it's needed in the future.

As we go in and out of the potting tunnel, we have to be wary of upsetting the early Honesty plant that is already in flower behind the door.  This came from a seed that dropped onto the floor and got lost last year.  The others never did germinate.

Early Honesty

As is increasingly usual these days, we were woken by one of our aged cats this morning.  His behaviour is excusable due to his age, but five-thirty?

After a resumed sleep, the day seemed sunny, so we got up and had breakfast.  A morning of fruity activity followed by root things.

Before we made it out the door, the showers began.  Some of them heavy.  As we worked away in the potting-tunnel, the rain beat down on the plastic skin.  We felt sorry for those participating in St Patrick's Day parades.

We prepared some Rootrainers and sowed peas.  Magnum Bonum and Carouby de Mausanne.  Tricia also sowed some La Diva cucumbers.

Between horticultural jobs, I had to do a repair to the van's exhaust.  We need a van, but the present Nissan is on its last legs.  If anyone knows of a VW Transporter going cheap..?

Two shots of the lovely flowering currant at the front of our house

After lunch, I went down to the big tunnel to hoe various root seedlings and water the beds.  The idea was to sow more carrots, beetroot and red scallions.  In the end, Detroit Globe and Golden  beetroot were sown and in between them, some clumps of Apache Red scallions.  The carrot bed was raked, de-stoned and watered ready for tomorrow.

Golden Beetroot seeds

The annual Greening of Beagh is further in evidence.  Each time I go down to the big tunnel, I look to see how the vine is progressing.  I gave it a robust pruning this year, perhaps a little later than was advisable.  I have been anxious to see it show proper signs of growth and today was not disappointed.

There's life in the old Burgundy

Captain's Log etc...

Fruit day today.  While I was off on a mission to secure a fresh stock of compost, herself and a willing helper cleaned round the soft fruit bushes and gave them a necessary pruning.

Once they were exposed to the light of day, it was clear how successful a previous mulching had been.  We'd laid down cardboard and put old thatch on top.  Some perennial weeds had perforated this barrier, but after a couple of years, their foothold was minimal where it mattered although round the edges of the soft fruit area they'd been more successful.

Cleaned-up around the soft fruit

Incidentally, we use certified organic compost from a German company.  We usually buy a mix that contains  green peat.  As I understand it, this is not sphagnum moss peat, but a clever substitute not from sensitive bogs.  It's available in both potting and a finer seeding versions.  This year, we're also trying their peat-free mix.  We'll report on our findings.

Down in the big tunnel things are stirring.  I was delighted to see the first sprouts from the Red Duke of Yorks have poked up from the bed.  Wakey wakey!

There is also a great deal of Red Orache it self-seeds and is a minor nuisance, but it's quite nice to add to a salad when the leaves are young.  I'll re-pot some and hoe the rest in.

Red Duke of York - First Early

We went away for the weekend.  We don't manage to do this very often, but as the season is in its infancy and we had a house-sitter, we took off.

Monday afternoon when we got back saw us making inspection of the tunnels.  There was some damage to a few of the chilli seedlings in the small tunnel.  I suspect little slugs had been nibbling, but I am prepared to blame any small creature.  It's too early for earwigs - and I know they do a bit of damage - but I am not convinced woodlice are free from guilt.

For the most part, everything was fine and I noted that it wouldn't be long before chillies would require potting-on.

One thing I did notice was that the large, Irish Prean peas had started to germinate.  They've been pushed to the surface of their Rootrainers.

Irish Preans

'Tis late, but rather than shuffle off to bed with nothing recorded, I'll put a few words down.

My back was put out a little on Monday.  I suspect I twisted the wrong way while tackling the fallen tree at the front of the house.  I woke up today with a distinct twinge.  A stretch after breakfast helped enormously.  Click, click, click.

We have had fruit days  for the last couple of days.

Today, we sowed lots of Broad Beans: Red Epicure, Crimson Flowered, Bowland's Beauty, Bristow Red & Jonah's

We sow into Rootrainers, as we've found they're just the right thing.

Red Epicure & Violetta Broad Beans

Approximately 440 Broad Beans sown

Earlier in the day our local fruit expert came round and pruned our apple trees.  There was a bit of canker on James Grieve, so it was cut back severely.  Most others weren't faring so badly, so it was enough to open them up.  He gives them shape.

I was woken by the cats at 6.30 this morning.  They wanted to come indoors because it was cold and they were hungry.  I let them in, fed them and went back to bed until 8.00.

I got up and had the first part of breakfast.  What a beautiful morning!  Sunny, frosty, crisp.

After the promised pancakes and coffee, we went out to the tunnels to do flower things.  Well, Tricia did flower things while I removed one of the tunnel doors, straightened it up, reversed it and reinstated it.

Down in the big tunnel, I was glad to see the garlic we'd brought back from Santiago de Compostela in September had begun to show above the soil.  That's two weeks since I planted it.

After lunch, did a bit of pruning.  Our road-side roses, old fashioned, pink and highly scented, but short-lived blooms, needed a short back and sides.  I arched the long ones over to promote more blossom.  Who wants vertical roses anyway?

Up and away relatively early this morning.  We went to Angela Jupe's place - Belleview Garden at Shinrone, near Roscrea.  On the way, we called in to Polydome, Crinkill, Birr to buy some replacement doors for our ageing tunnels.

It was mostly a fine spring day, but there was some rain and a shower or two of hail.  the plant fair had enough to tempt the punters and the walled garden provided added distraction.  On the down side, the rain gave rise to difficulties leaving the field by car, or in our case, van.  Rear-wheel drive no good when the grass is wet.  The two stewards helped us get out, but I know some of those to leave after us will have had problems.

Folly summerhouse in Belleville.

Most likely Magnolia buds

9 am and sun streaming in through the blinds.  Breakfast nearing completion with coffee.

It's still a root day until 1pm, so I'll go out to the big tunnel to sow more carrots.  We're sowing them indoors to offset the danger of carrot fly.  Outdoor carrots can be effectively protected by surrounding the carrot bed with a barrier such a plastic curtain or fine mesh to a height of 3 feet.  Carrot fly don't fly higher.  The other thing to do is remember to remove any carroty detritus when you're thinning because it's the carrot smell that brings the beasties to investigate.

Today might be the day to do something with those fartichokes.  I'll go into the old hen run where they grow and make a few exploratory digs.

Elsewhere, we're removing the old growth from the forest of evening primrose that has colonised our back garden.  The seeds provide tasty snacks for goldfinches in winter, but they cast them all around when they're feeding.  At least the old plants are easily pulled up.

Goldfinch on the evening primrose winter before last.

One of a flock of more than fifty.

In the end, no jerusalems were investigated.  After lunch it was a flower day so accordingly, we attended to flowery things.  Tricia was in the potting tunnel, she can say what she was up to.  I was digging up the aforementioned evening primrose.  The bed they lived in at the back of the house used to be a horseradish bed.  Needless to say, it's still there!  Still, the thongs I dug up will be re-potted for the market.  Always good to have some fresh, strong horseradish about the place for those occasions when the sauce is called for.  If I can find the recipe we use, I'll post it.

I also found a great many vine weevil grubs.  I set them aside for Robin, who was notable by his absence while I was digging.