2nd May

This week I went to the job of replacing the bed former blades, it’s not the best job in the world, so one job I have kept putting off, there are 68 blades to be removed and replaced, each nut and bolt has been on for a couple of years,  and are a bit stubborn to come off.

But its all done,  and just in time too, the minute I had finished replacing them I was out with it and bed forming ground, and the next day we were planting broad bean seeds.

That’s the first crop planted in the field.

This week I need to bedform another 12 beds for beetroot and swede seeds, these also get direct sown.

You never sow these seeds till May, they need the soil temperature to be a wee bit warmer before we sow them.

After sowing these we need to cover the swede seeds with fleece, there is a wee bug that you never see loves to eat these seeds, but fleecing them keeps them at bay, but then we have a new problem the weeds love fleece to, and compete with the swede seed, so that’s a tricky crop to get on top off.

We started blocking the Cucumber and courgette seeds last week, these need to be put in the heated greenhouse, they cannot take any frost.

They were sown on the 28th and are already through, I’m pretty sure that if you put a camera on these seeds, you could watch them grow.

We will now move these into the small tunnel, this wee tunnel retains the heat far better than the big ones, and we can pull fleece covers over them in here if there is frost due,  after that they will get transferred into the big tunnels before planting in the field.

As soon as the courgette and cucumbers are moved, we will start on the Uchi Kuri, Spaghetti, crown prince and Pumpkin seeds.

One other reason we use the greenhouse, is that it keeps the mice at bay, all the squash seeds are like caviar to mice.

And over night they would have a squash seed party and eat the lot.