2021 - What I did today

Mr E cleaned the conservatory floor this morning, so at lunchtime I moved the shelf units in there along with some other furniture: my camp chair, a mini bean bag for the cats, and a little folding table near the door (handy for putting my gardening bag on!).

I also assembled my heated propagator. The lid feels a little flimsy and the lights don't seem to connect to it in any way, so I taped them down with wide masking tape - not too impressed with that part! Still, the thermostat and probe look good quality, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the chillies will be happy!

Dug put LOADS of bindweed roots, if they had been electrical cable there would have been enough to rewrite a house! I’ve not finished yet!

Mulched fruit trees, hugelkultur bed, maple trees, 2 veg beds and the hot bed with grass clippings. Finished weeding the hot bed first. Lifted and divided a miscanthus and removed a huge boulder from underneath. It was at least a 4 bucket rock and is now a piece of rock art in the hot bed because it was too bloody big to shift any further!!

I was going to go to Tesco for some compost after work today, but finished late and didn't have the get-up-and-go to go out and get. I really hope there's some left tomorrow morning. I daren't start looking to see what seeds I brought with me until I know I can definitely lay my hands on the compost.

Went to the garden centre to get so first earlies, also got a tub of Blood, Bone and fish meal, a feed for my blueberries, some more onion sets, and spring onion seed, no Walla Walla seeds available,

I’m going to get my strawberry plants ready today, Rugby first then in the afternoon I’ll trim up and feed all my strawberry plants.

Degunged the pond a bit more - just carefully removing the algae because the newts are already laying eggs.
Put some string supports in the for the broadies - the ones in the ground are close to knee height already.
Sowed some bits and bobs.
Now settling in for an afternoon of rugby and quietly cursing the incompetently covid infested French squad

Tidied the shed today so I could find homes for the fertiliser and plant haloes I ordered - and I can now stand at my little potting bench to sow seeds

Then I decided I wasn't happy with my propagator setup so I jury-rigged a suspension system for the lights:

   

The cord is long enough to allow the lights to rest on top of the propagator lid (as per the standard setup), then when I want to take the lid off to water the plants, I just lift the two loops of cord where they cross the shelf above, and slip them onto a couple of little hooks on the underside of the shelf above that (which you can't see in this photo). It's basic, but fairly tidy and hopefully will do the job!

(I don't intend to put anything much on the shelf above the propagator, as I don't want seed trays dripping onto the electric lights!)

Planted the remaining 9 raspberry canes.

Dumped more fencing crap.

Wondered around the garden picking up Nasturtium seeds I'll sowing them in pots then hopefully I wont have to many popping up in the veg beds.