Need a bigger windowsill !

Seed planting continues apace. After visiting both plots on beautifully sunny days and discovering them both frozen solid it was time to put the greenhouse to good use! Planted up 3 trays of salad leaves (Romano Rosso, Red Cos and something else - which shall remain nameless for now as it's in the boot of the car and its seriously cold out there tonight!) with my young helper - who to be honest was more interested in sitting in the shed eating biscuits! He did want to do some digging to be fair, but kinda difficult when the ground is rock hard.

Back home planted 35 broad bean (Masterpiece Green Longpod)in toilet rolls in a polystyrene container. Also planted up a large pot of Carrots (Amsterdam Forcing) and covered them with fleece - mainly to keep them warm rather than to keep any carrot fly off them.

The chilli planted last year on the window sill continues to flower, so I attempted to pollinate them by using the kids paintbrushes. I now have two chillies growing!

Fighting for space on the window sill is some celeriac (Prinz), Celery (Green Utah), Brussels (Groninger and Seven Hills) and Cauliflower (Snowball). Not to mention various spots in the kitchen being taken up by potatoes chitting.

Still Frozen Solid
As the ground was still frozen on Saturday, I decided it was time to tackle the hedge (again). Sadly I didn't cut it down enough last year and it has grown very well since then, so started again from the top. After a couple of hours made it about a third of the way down the plot before realising I'd managed to break the pruning saw. I'd have been more upset but it's my Dads...! I think the top end of the hedge was worse then the rest, so hopefully get the rest down to a reasonable height on the next visit. Possibly with a new saw.

First planting of the year

Planted up some Sweet Peas and two different types of chillies - Ring of Fire and Hungarian Hot Wax, the former being the seeds from last years chillies. Would have planted more, but ran out of room on the window sill!

Bought some greenhouse staging cheap from Argos at a third of the normal price. This was obviously well publicised as they didn't seem to have stock in for long. Cheap and cheerful but good value at £6.66 and assembled it in the greenhouse on plot no 2, now with sweet peas on the shelves. Would have planted more up there, but the bags of what I thought were compost left on the plot were in fact bark chippings! So instead of staying in the greenhouse planting up some salad leaves I decided to give one of the fruit beds a weed and mulch with compost from the home composter. That was the time it rained very heavily and I got soaked...

Did discover that some of the raspberry canes up there are Tulameen, which apparently are a late variety that crops over a long period. Hopefully these will start before the Autumn raspberries on plot no 1.

A Shed
Got the key to the shed on the new plot. Loads of stuff left in there from previous plots holders - every thing from a huge container of weed killer, garden lime, tools, netting, a radio (still working and in its box!) and a birds nest.