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?