Bed 9...clear...ish

A brilliant day today. Definitely BBQ weather. Quite a lot of cloud but much less windy than yesterday.

Before leaving for the plot, J and G popped in for a bit, so I focused on sowing some replacement cucurbits (see yesterday) over coffee with them. I will try not to water the pots too much (to prevent rotting). We all then headed over to the plot. J and G wanted to see it and they left after 20 mins or so with a few comfrey and horseradish roots and a handful of radishes. I then set to work on Bed 9 - digging out the couch grass along the side to match up with Beds 3, 5 and 7. After a good couple of hours, I'd pretty much cleared the grass but felt like I was overheating so I headed home for a break.

After a brief break at home, I went back into the garden to sow some salad and some mushrooms. I bought some wine boxes a few weeks ago and I wanted to put a couple of them to use today. I sowed some cut and come again Oriental leaves in one of the smaller boxes and some mushrooms in one of the larger ones. Before sowing, I did drill a few drainage holes in the bottom of the boxes.

The mushrooms came in the form of grain spawn. I bought a packet a while ago and it is now out of date. I have since bought a new packet but as the old batch might still be viable (I have no idea how long grain spawn remains viable), I started with that. I can always start again with fresh spawn in a couple of weeks if there is now sign of progress with the old stuff. When I opened the old packet the grain looked to have a white bloom which I thought meant that it was off. However, when I opened the newer packet to compare, it looked pretty similar. Neither smelt off, not that I'd know what off mushroom spawn should smell like.

I started by lining the box with an old compost bag, just to protect the wood a bit and to keep the moisture in. Then, following the instructions on the packet, I filled the box with well-rotted manure, sprinkled over a sachet of grain spawn (see piccie below) and covered it with 5-8cm of manure.



I then covered the manure with damp newspaper (using the two sections I care least about - see piccie below) and put it behind the shed where there is some shade.



Watch this space for updates.

While in the garden, I also sowed some peas (not a lot of success on the plot - perhaps the mice have been sneaky), coriander, basil and catnip.

I then meant to head over to the plot for an hour's light hoeing but ended up staying for 3. I hoed and raked over Bed 9, and trimmed the grass on the path to its side. Bramble Man popped over and we then did a spot of hand-weeding by the main crop potatoes. He commented that his climbing beans were a least twice the size of mine and that he had protected his with fleece. A couple of my new bean plants did appear to have been nibbled by something so I took his advice and put up some fleece around them. I then watered some of the beds (I need a new thing for my hose because I can't fix it onto the tap properly). Finally, I earthed up the main crop potatoes before cutting some chives, sprinkling some chicken manure pellets over Beds 7 and 9, and heading home. A bit of mild backache is worth it for such progress. See piccies below for Bed 9 and the flowering chives.









I still need to neaten up and edge Beds 7 and 9 but that can wait until next weekend. Now that they have been cleared though, the plot looks so much bigger.