April 29th

With a wee bit of heat this week, the blocked plants in the tunnels have shot on.

They are not all needing to go outside to harden of just yet, but the spring Cabbage, savoy cabbage, kale and Kohl rabi are ready to get out of the tunnel.

So, the first job this week, was to get the bird netting pulled over the tunnel that i had made with the old tunnel hoops.

Rab was out delivering with Andrew of on holiday, so it was just a wee bit tricky trying to get a fifty meter by twelve meter net over a thirty meter by ten, meter tunnel on my own.

As I pulled one bit over then moved onto the next hoop to pull more over, one bit would fall back in.

It was just a wee bit frustrating to say the least, some choice words might have been used, as the net fell back of yet again.

So, the solution was cable ties, that worked a treat.

With the net over, the next job was to move the fourteen thousand plants that are ready to go outside.

With the two boxes for moving plants on the Fergie trailer and a couple of trips loading then emptying all the trays, the plants were out.

These will sit for a week of two before we will plant them.

Before that happens we will have to take all the blocked plants out of the tunnel.

With all the leeks, onions, and the rest of the brassicas we will have to move over three hundred and fifty thousand plants, that is just a wee bit more than a couple of trips.

With the first batch of plants out and the field ploughed, it was time to get the bedformer on the John deere and get out to the field.

The bedformer makes the nice smooth ridged beds for the plants to get planted in.

I go over the field once at the start but not very deep, this breaks the ploughed ground up, so when I do go to bedform for planting it bedforms really easy.

If I don’t and the ploughed ground is left for to long,  the soil goes brick hard, then it is really hard to get the beds nice and soft and smooth.

If the beds are nice and soft, it makes the job of planting the plants with the machine much easier and a much better job.

This is now the best time of the year, far too many jobs to get done, and not enough hours in a day or days in a week.

The planting and growing season has started.