4th June
As I was saying last week we had the Swede and Beetroot were direct sown in the field on Thursday the 18th May and the Carrots I sowed with my wee seeding barrow on the 21st May, the swede and Beetroot were through the ground by the 25th which is really quick and the Carrots finally came through on the 31st that is also really quick carrots can take up to seventeen days before you can see them, but now it's the battle against the weeds.
We got started with the battle against the weeds with the brush weeder last Monday and we had almost all of the field done by Thursday, we now only have five more beds to do.
And it's been a really stoorie job this year, I’m on the brush weeder and it has a wee seat and a bar that I hold onto and steer the brushes to make sure they are always in between the plants, Rab is driving the tractor, and with no rain for a for a couple of weeks the soil is bone dry, so when the brushes are spinning round knocking the weeds for six I’m getting a full coating in stoor, at times its really hard to see a thing to Rabs great amusement.(there is a video of it on facebook and you'll see how stoorie it is), but it makes a fantastic job and will stay weed free for around four weeks.
So with the brush weeding almost finished, it will be coming of for now and on the tractor will go the bed weeder,
everyone's favourite machine !!!, basically the only way to weed in between the plants is to do it by hand, and we have 15 acres to do, before we had the bed weeder we were on our hands and knees.
But to make the job easier we have three beds on the back of a frame that the tractor pulls, these beds are almost like orthopaedic beds, and each one is directly above a row of plants, on these beds we lie face down, and our forehead and chin have a padded rest so we can still see as we get pulled along happily weeding away, I must admit I might be the only one being happy at this point, reason being I'II not be on it.
We will be on and off the bed weeder for most of the summer, and it is a far easier and quicker way to weed the fields, there is no machine that can weed round the plants properly yet, all the tunnels get weeded on our hands and knees and at the end of the day our knees are stiff, on the bed weeder everyone is fine, and if this braw weather keeps up it'll be a easy weed.
This week we are taking the fleece of off the spring cabbage so we can harvest them for the netts, they have been under the fleece since they got planted to save them from the pigeons, and they are looking braw.
We will need to leave the fleece of so we can harvest, and to try and protect them from the pigeons iv bought a flying Hawk, this is a kite shaped like a Hawk that stays 4 meters up with carbon fibre poles, and it only needs a wee breeze to make it start flying about the sky, we also have two shiny boards with big eyes that will spin round in the wind seemingly together the work really well.
So next week I'll post a photo of the bed weeder and the flying Hawk on our web page and facebook so you can see them.
