19th February

We have now started planting in the tunnels, I have delayed it a wee bit to try and be sure the really cold weather is behind us, even in the tunnels if the temperature goes well below zero the plants will get frosted and the plants that I planted were Pak Choy they can take a wee bit of frost but not to much. So last week we got one tunnel fully planted with five thousand Pak Choy, two other tunnels have plants planted in them, I planted these in November, they are over winter cabbage which can handle really cold weather no problem and I had some Purple sprouting broccoli seeds left over so we blocked them of for a wee trial, they are not doing to well and I don't think they will come to to much, but the Cabbage is looking great. After I had the Pak Choy planted it was the job of starting up the irrigation for the first time this year, there are always problem starting up the irrigation after it has been sitting through out the winter, the water pipes for the irrigation are all in 1.5 meter lengths and are glued together and this is where they break when the water pressure is put on to start irrigating, so far I have only had to repair 3 broken pipes when I started it up which is pretty normal, but when we are using it more everything will settle down and we shouldn't get any more breaks.
So after the breaks were re glued I gave the tunnels a wee water then a feed with liquid seaweed then pulled some fleece over the Pak Choy just to keep them cosy as they have just come out of the hot box tunnel and into a huge tunnel which is much colder.
As I was planting away in the tunnel Rab was busy on the blocking machine and blocked the twenty thousand early leek seeds and made a start on the fifty thousand onion seeds, this will be Rabs daily job after harvesting from now till around mid May.
It really does now feel that the growing season has started even though its still pretty cold.
In the hot box tunnel the Kohl Rabi seeds that we blocked a couple of weeks ago are through and the Lettuce isn't far behind still no sign of the Celery or Parsley yet, but I wouldn't expect to see them yet for another couple of weeks as they do take ages to germinate.
And surprisingly out in the field the broad beans that we planted in October have survived the winter, I wasn't sure they would have made it as we got hit with a couple of really cold snaps that went below -10, but I won't start boasting about them yet till I actually see how much have survived.