May 2008

1 Last to leaveAs if Crow hasn't got enough to do, he's agreed to assist with the Tour Britannia (TB) rally which runs from 2-4 September.  Yes, that's immediately before the Cloverleaf on 6 September!  So, I started the draft TB roadbook this morning, but then I was saved by the arrival of my new camera (more later).  This evening we went to Ipswich to see Australian Pink Floyd.  First they majored on The Wall which is not my favourite album, but the second half was much better and all was forgiven when then did my favourite track, Comfortably Numb.

Wait for me mumOh and I almost forgot, the blackbirds have flown/hopped from the nest.  I just managed to catch the last one sitting on a tree branch before it disappeared too.  

However, the moorhen has been attacking the little hopping blackbirds, who can't quite fly away yet - just a little flapping and a short 3m flight.  Just being protective her her nest, I guess.
2 A session at the gym, followed by lunch with Steve & Angie, over from Portugal for a week.  Sandra & Dave joined us, so it was like a mini reunion as we all, at one time, worked for the same company.   Mrs B is still around and I suspect she has a chick under a bush as I throw her raisins and she eats some and takes some under there.  She's such a good mummy.
3 Weed, weed ,weed in the veggie garden and some tough weeding in the tunnel.  Then, some "never weed again" action in the tunnel where I laid black plastic bags between and around some of my raised beds and weighed them down with pea gravel.  Very tiring but very satisfying.  Meanwhile Crow was very busy mowing the lawn, treating the menage with weedkiller and mowing Pegularity paths.  I think we're both fit to drop!
4 Out for lunch with mummy-in-law on this cloudy but very warm (22C) bank holiday Sunday.  We had a visit to her local garden centre to get her geraniums, impatiens and lobelia for her garden pots and I succumbed (like last year) to a tray of twelve cabbages, since mine haven't germinated.
5 I've decided that the best "take your mind off the pain" action in the gym is to listen to audio books on my iPod.  It's far better than watching the mindless morning TV programmes and more distracting/absorbing than music.  So, I've been researching audio book prices and searching out some eBay bargains.
Harvest:  fennel.
6 More tunnel weeding - 2 beds prepared, then I planted my new cabbages in a raised bed.  Back in the veg garden I repositioned two raspberry canes which have sprouted up inappropriately then I planted out 8 dwarf beans, one in a pot followed by 4 haricot bean plants.
Spotted 2 moorhen chicks.
Harvest:  peppery salad leaves.
7 Arrived back from the gym to find Ron strimming the orchard where the grass and weeds have really got out of control.  He also cleared around the base of each tree so that I can feed them.  My main job was watering & general tending  before off we set off for Cheshire. 
Hotel bound this evening, I made a second victorian scarf.
8 A day in Cheshire, checking out a TB regularity route.  Sadly we returned to 2 dead moorhen chicks, one in the pond, the other on the lawn.  That didn't take long, did it?
9 More TB roadbook after yesterday's efforts.
10 Yet more roadbook preparation.  In the garden I built another raised bed, put up an apple moth trap and protected my cabbages with collars and whitefly paper.  Then I spent twenty minutes chasing a cabbage white butterfly out of the net tunnel.  Found another two dead moorhen chicks in the pond.  Crow cut bushes & dug beds & spread my compost.  I also cleared & dug in the greenhouse.  
Watched the moorhen chasing a rabbit round and round the pampas grass this evening.
Harvest: last (enough for 3 meals) of very peppery salad leaves from the greenhouse.
11 I've decided that our current resident moorhen definitely has a rogue madness gene.  I'm not sure if it's the male or female as they look alike.  This morning it nearly ate corn with the chickens coming within three feet of them, then as soon as they wandered off it came back for corn.
Still doing the road book...
Veg garden:  planted out 9 sweetcorn minipop (one very feeble) and sowed carrots and leeks.
Tunnel:  planted out 10 sweetcorn sundance plus seeded two other stations, sowed a courgette station and earthed up my potato pots.
It's been a very hot week, mounting temperatures finally reaching 28C today.
Harvest:  swiss chard.
12 More cheating as I went to a garden centre to buy my apple & plum tree moth traps and couldn't resist four pepper plants (2 chilli), a cucumber, a pot of five sprouts (miles ahead of my seedlings) and a pot of three purple sprouting broccoli.  So this afternoon I potted up two of the peppers, planted melothrie seeds, put out my moth traps and fed and watered seven trees in the orchard.
13 I spent hours weeding and digging in the tunnel, then planted 5 brussel sprout plants.
Harvest: last 2 fennel in tunnel
14 Ron came back to put some extra chicken wire around the hen house as a rat deterrent.  Then, much to Crow's delight, he finished the tunnel weeding/digging.
we added leaf mould and compost to a newly dug bed and I planted 8 kale & 7 purple sprouting broccoli.  It's cooler today and the hot weather is coming to an end.
Put out a rat trap and noticed at dusk that we had caught something...
15 ... well, more  a mouse than a rat, but still a successful catch.  Cleaned greenhouse in & out & dug in some feed.  Built four more raised beds.  Crow half filled them with the very last of my home-grown compost.  My evening was spent making tracings of the Cloverleaf route for submission to the MSA (Motor Sports Association).
16 We finished filling the new raised beds with leaf mould/soil from the wood, topped off with some shop bought compost.
17 In the rain, I lifted all of the black compost bags from on top of my tunnel potatoes and re-used them as weed suppressant under pea shingle around all of my new beds.  It's looking good.  The potatoes are sprouting but look pale and weak from being under the black plastic.
Our evening was spent at Romford dogs with Sue, David and my god-daughter, Grace.  This was my very belated birthday present.  I'm not much of a gambler but it's a fun night out.
18 Finished shingle along the back of the raised beds, earthed up tunnel potatoes and built tunnel runner bean wigwam.
Harvest: spinach.
19 Just light gardening duties this afternoon, potting on 31 tomato plants of which I think at least three will not survive.
20 A Norfolk recce for the Tour Britannia.  This meant a tiring 7 hours in the Escort, followed by roadbook update.  Not having any luck rat catching - perhaps it's moved on now that it can't get to the chicken food?  Let's hope so.
21 Oh dear, Crow's poorly in bed and we've had to pull out of dinner and a night at the theatre.  Somehow he's picked up a really bad cold-type bug, sore throat, blocked nose, cough etc.  Horrible!
22 Busy, busy in the garden.  First, I transplanted six tomato plants into the greenhouse and tried to rig up a better support system than last year with stakes strung together with twine fastened to the greenhouse supports.  Then I planted out a courgette in the veg garden and a climbing courgette in a massive pot.  Next I took a big chance and put three of these tomato plants outdoors in the tunnel along with my last two haricot bean plants.  Back to the potting shed to pot up a cucumber, red pepper and jalapeno chilli pepper.  Finally back to the tunnel to sow seeds - carrots, beetroot and fennel.  All followed by watering as everything was looking really dry.  Phew - early to bed tonight, I think.
By the end of the day all off my tomato transplants looked seriously close to death, all sagging and bent over their ties.  I have to admit they were probably a bit lanky and lacking strength and substance. Will they survive?
23 More seed sowing in the new tunnel raised beds - mini broccoli, cauliflower, chard, scorzonera, carrot parmex, kohl rabi, red cabbage & celeriac.  Then round to the veggie garden to stake my broad beans (there's wind and rain forecast for Sunday).  By the way, I think my greenhouse tomato transplants are just about hanging in there, after their near death experience.
Harvest: chard.
24 The next two days are forecast as very windy with persistent, heavy rain so I made the most of today.  I've protected my outdoor tomatoes, one with a cloche and two with home-made cloches using thick clear polythene bags.  Since they survived my transplanting, which very much surprised me, I may as well try to give them the best chance.   At last, I feel that my tunnel, fruit and veg garden are under control - all weeded and growing.  I've got a few more seeds to sow outside but decided to wait until after the rain as they could just get washed away.  So I've been busy clearing pots of dead plants or bulbs which didn't give a good show this year in the flower garden.  Two large ones are deployed in my veg garden awaiting some herb seeds.
25 I've fed the last two fruit trees - the cherry plum and the greengage, then potted on my four sprouts and 23 golden berry plants!  I'm sure quite a number of the latter will survive but I may have disturbed the sprouts too early - they don't look good.  However, they probably don't look as bad as my tomato transplants did......  and I was lucky with them.
Crow shot a rabbit this evening but unfortunately it tried to run off and landed in the pond.  Sunk without a trace, we tried a bit of dredging but couldn't find it.  However, we did discover a new moorhen nest built on the edge of the pond, with four eggs sitting in it.
26 I know they forecast rain and wind but this much!?!?  A truly horrible day and to top it all I've now caught Crow's bug.  So no gym, just some indoor cleaning and ironing exercise.  Then I tried mind over matter to pull myself together, showered and accompanied Crow into London to meet up with the girls for dinner.
27 Sadly, the new moorhen nest has been battered and destroyed by the storm and all the eggs have disappeared.
A lull in the storm, dull and damp, but warm.  I sowed some seeds in the potting shed for courgette, squash and ornamental gourd, staked my jerusalem artichokes, built my veg garden runner bean wigwam and pulled up a wheelbarrow load of weeds and grass from flower border 1.  Ouch!  I wore my thick garden gloves for this weeding and they are so rock hard from being wet and drying out over and over that I got two damaged knuckles which are very, very sore.
28 More heavy rain, thunder & lightning overnight.  Our pond is full to bursting and the moorhen nest is now completely submerged and destroyed.
I've forgotten to tell you some great news -  we've got a sponsor for the Cloverleaf Rallies!  All down to Crow and his hard work, it's a new car polish products company called Glare UK.  Revolutionary new polishes which don't contain any wax, silicone, resin, polymers etc.
29 Still preparing TB roadbooks and today was the time to invite all of our friends to this year's Pegularity days.  Curious?  Click here to go to our web page for more info.
I was going to sow my final outdoor seeds today but, lo and behold, it's raining again  :-(
Instead, I'm trying my hand at eBay selling, listing my first ever items and taking advantage of today's half price listing offer.
30 Well, no rain today, so far.....  My cabbages and strawberries look very healthy, but sweetcorn is looking very sad.  At least half of the plants in the tunnel have rotted with all of the rain and they will not survive.  No signs of any germination in the new beds either.  Is a week too soon to look for signs of have all of these seeds eight rotted or been washed away in the deluge?  My outdoor tomatoes have survived so far in their home-made protection.
31 So, I'm risking some more seed sowing and wondering why I'm having no luck at all with any carrot germination in the veg garden.  I'm must put some in pots for comparison.
Crow helped me cut back the bay bush and another big bush which was growing out of control.
Sowing:  summer savory, cutting celery, feverfew, sorrel.
Harvest: first rhubarb, scorzonera, bay leaves.