Police Action!

OK, I apologise for the click-baity title. But life was pretty noisy on the plot today. There were a lot of sirens on the roads around the allotment and a Police Helicopter overhead. Guess they think I was planting something dodgy.

In fact I was planting a whole load of seeds. Courgettes, Pak Choi, Tomatoes, Beetroot, Turnips, and a selection of flowers from old seeds. Not sure if the flowers will germinate, but if they do it'll keep The Wife happy.

We have a new seeds rack in the greenhouse. Somebody was throwing out an old shoe rack (or something) so I swiped it. After all one mans rubbish is another man's treasure. Not the first time I've done this. So now we have a seed rack.

But of course we still have the benches and the shelf at the very back of the greenhouse.

And those old milk bottles are doing well as plant labels. I came across a potful of old labels that were under the shelves and the were somewhat fragile. The UV has obviously got to the plastic and made them very brittle, so much so that any slight bending of the label and they shatter into multiple pieces. Those old things ended up in the bin and the trusty scissors made a whole load more labels. It's not like the old labels cost anything anyway. A lot of seed companies give them away when you buy your seeds. But of course it's the pens which are needed. Still haven't got that chinagraph pencil that I wanted. But at least the Police can't accuse me of wasting resources.

Time for Compost

 Like last year, there is a supply of compost available for a limited time only. So there I was bright and early to stand in line (masks at the ready) to get a few bags of compost on my rickety barrow.

It would seem that I wasn't alone. As this is effectively the start of the growing season, and we're severely lacking in manure and woodchips (just like last year) everybody wants a bit of compost.

So, yes we started some of our early seeds today. There are still a lot more to come, but we may as well get some of them on the go. Although we're very likely to get other batches going in a few weeks time.

A lot of these are old seeds, so it doesn't really matter if they don't germinate. It's no great loss. We've been digging through our back catalogue of seeds and found a lot of old ones. Some had an expiry date of last year, but I'm guessing they will still be viable.

Now one thing I saw on a Youtube channel a while back was converting 2litre milk cartons into "self watering" plant pots. Well I tried cutting one up so the specifications and... I don't know. It just doesn't look viable to me. There are are so many issues with how it looks.

You're supposed to put the soil and plants in the middle section and then the water gets added through the gaps in the side. not sure of you can make them out in the photo above, but to me it just doesn't look right. I'd much rather stand my pots in a tray and fill the tray with water. Yes it might be a good way of recycling the plastic, but I'd much rather chop up the bottle into plant labels. Which reminds me, I need to get a better pen to write on the labels. Look at the Nasturtium and Okra labels above. Somewhat blurry and faded. But they give you an indication of what's planted.

But I need better labels for when we really get started. Maybe I should invest in a Chinagraph pencil?

Bed Prep for Strawberries

 So whilst we are on this bed prep scheme, it's time to look at the Strawberry Empire. Now our Strawberry beds (we have 3 of them) are also somewhat infested with weeds, but there is also a lot of good plants in there. Fortunately Strawbs are pretty resilient beasties so we decided that the best bet would be to completely fig out the bed, separate out the strawberry plants and re-plant. So that is what The Wife did.

Meanwhile, I got busy with the remains of the wheelbarrow to start putting down more woodchips. The first task was to scrap out some of the existing wood chips from around the Flower Bed as it had composted down into a decent enough soil. The old soil was thrown into the new compost bins so finish breaking down and to infuse it with more nutrients, and new woodchip was acquired and thrown down.

I also put a few more barrowfuls on the main path.

But there is definitely signs of life on the plot. Even the Rhubarb has decided that now is the time to poke it's head above ground.

Of course it too has to deal with grass and weeds. Or rather I need to pull those out. Something for tomorrow then.