14th April 2019 - Spring cleaning

It was cold this weekend and so I took the opportunity to tidy my shed and polytunnel.  I wonder whether the idea to spring clean comes from gardeners who are itching to get things done take the time to clear out their mess from the year!

I used some old tubs to store all the bits and pieces that were all over the place (netting clips, hose ends etc.) and put them onto the shelves.  I have put the potting bench that I've bought for the other shed down the side of the shelves for now because that shed is full of wood and cardboard and I wanted it out of my way.

In the polytunnel I cleared the staging to make more space for seedlings and I've found some additional trays and capillary matting that I use to keep my seedlings damp; this is particularly important because I can't go to the plot every day to check whether things need to be watered.  

I've been having problems with mice getting into the peas and so I've put some additional mesh on top to try and keep them out.  That wasn't successful on Saturday night (I'm guessing they just crawled underneath and pushed it up) and so I've added all sorts of contraptions to try and hold the mesh down (including hanging a full tub of chicken manure pellets off the side with a peg!!)

I then finished by sweeping both the shed and polytunnel.  Both were pretty dirty but the polytunnel especially had started to look as though it had a much floor rather than a membrane floor!  I really like the look of it once it's done!

I decided to try a couple of different hanging baskets this year.  I always do floral baskets but this year I've got a lavender basket (the french lavender will be nice for the bees) and a mint basket, which I'll be   able to harvest from for mint tea.  I used my normal basket mix (compost, all season feed, root booster and water retention gel) but I added some additional grit for the lavender because it prefers free draining soil.I have also ordered 10 petunia plants from Groupon so I will have at least 1 floral basket.

Just as an aside, if you haven't already I would recommend checking out Groupon for gardening; they have a really good selection of plants and equipment at really good prices.  The only downside is that you sometimes have to wait a little while for them but overall they're really good.

I did plant out my cabbages that I had overwintered in the polytunnel.  I had intended to plant them to grow over the winter but for various reasons never got around to it and I honestly thought they'd be ravaged by slugs or die from lack of attention!  They are actually very healthy and so I planted them out.  In addition I have 6 brussel sprouts and 6 purple sprouting broccoli that looked a bit sad and sick in the discount area so I've brought them and potted them on which I hope will help to revive them before I add them to the bed.

I've popped the onions under the netting for now because I wanted to prepare the bed that they'd been sat on for the potatoes.  The onions have grown much quicker than normal because the has been so warm.  I normally put onions into pots in February and that helps me to have a full year of onions.  However, because they have come on so quickly I've held off planting any more for now.  I have loads more to do though so I need to get on with them.

One of the last jobs for the weekend was getting manure on the potato and asparagus beds.  Both beds needed to be manured (with well rotted manure) in preparation for planting.  The asparagus can be planted from March but I need to get on with planting them soon or they'll be no good and then I'll have to buy some more!  I will take photos of the whole process when I do it next week.

I also manured the potato bed, I usually mulch the potato bed with manure in autumn and I didn't do it so I'm not sure that the manure will do a lot of good for them when it's only just been put down but hey-ho, it won't do them any harm!

I had hoped to get my potatoes planted this week but I didn't get around to it so hopefully I'll get to it next week.  

Until next time...
Happy Gardening x