Bag lady

The weather for the rest of the day was much better than forecast a day or two ago. It was supposed to be very wet. Instead, it was cloudy, a bit windy and very mild compared to last weekend. A barmy 8.5 degrees this afternoon. Good weather for being outside. Digging was out of the question though as the ground was very wet and compacted.

My fantastic neighbour, Wendy, came round to say that she had lots of hedge cuttings bagged up for me (see below).



Most of the bags contained trimmings cut up small but 3 contained larger, woodier trimmings. I'll cut the contents of those 3 up smaller later. As for the others, I spent a brief time watering the contents of the bags, tying them up and pricking them with a garden fork, before putting them behind the shed. Behind the shed already was a couple of bags of autumn leaves I collected and bagged up last year. They have only half broken down so I took them round to the plot and have put them in a quickly assembled wire bin next to the Jerusalem artichokes (see below).



Wendy has already given me a few bags of trimmings that have been in bags for a few months so they might be ready to add to one of the beds in the Spring. While at the plot, I also put some veg peelings on the compost along with some slimy leaves I cut off the globe artichokes. Presumably they had been killed off by the recent frost. See below for some before and after photos of the globe artichoke bed.





Below is a piccie of Bed 3 which I cleared a couple of weeks ago. Compared to the photos from before New Year, it looks much better.



Before I left the plot, I spotted the labels for the sea kale but saw no sign of the actual plant nearby. I had a root around to see if there was any root there. The little bit of root I found, I took home.

In the lean-to, before the sun disappeared altogether, I potted up the sea kale root. I am hoping it will show some regrowth soon. Research suggests that sea kale roots should be planted in March and kept in sand until then. I know that if I was to put it in sand tucked away somewhere, I will forget about it.

In the bags of larger hedge trimmings from Wendy, there were some rosemary clippings. Some of these had some new growth so I have taken some small cuttings and potted those up to. Fingers crossed one or two of them take.

Finally, I did sow 8 sweet pea seeds and have put them on a windowsill upstairs. My first sowings of 2009.