End of March 2020

Spring is well under way. Loads of sunshine, but still cold nights.

The temperature went down a little bit in the current heap of compost, just under 40°C. So we decided to turn it. We also turned the second bay, with decomposing compost in, and this one is still hot.

The vegetables in the green house are going strong. We harvested the spinach that's in ground of the greenhouse again. The spinach (in pots), broccoli, cauliflower, onions, leeks and beetroot are ready to go outside.

We made a no-dig flower bed in front of the chicken run and got some flowers from the garden centre to kick start the space.

We get our hedgehog visitor regularly. Even in the one Lucian had thought out from old roof tiles.

The flowers are giving us a wonderful display of colours. Even some of the flowers in the front flower box are flowering again.

With the weather warming up and the sunny days arriving, it's time to leave the greenhouse door open during the day time. The only problem is cats. We found on laying on the latest batch of leeks the other day. So we built a sort of cat screen, in the same as a fly screen, but with chicken wire.

After sowing new cucumbers earlier this month, it was time to prick them out, as we sowed them in a little pot instead of individual cells.

We also planted out some more radish in the greenhouse. Also the first things went in the ground outside. First flowers: sweet peas and first vegetables: onions, broccoli, cauliflower, beetroot and peas. The spinach was still there overwintering, probably being replace by new plants soon. For the onions, I'm trying the mech hoop, mostly against the cats, but they seems to still get into the hoop. The first direct sowing also happened at the end of the month, carrots. These events (weekend of 27 March 2020) are a bit later then last year (weekend of 22 March 2019), but that week has been colder this year.

The carrots we stored in a jute sack, part as experiment, stored for about 1,5 months, at the end of March they are a bit dried out and getting hard. We had used most of them already. They seems to be best to left alone in the ground till needed. The 2 last rows of overwintering carrots seem not 100% ripe. They are still a bit pale. We'll leave them in the ground for a bit longer and see how they get on.