Pushing up the daisies

I am still trying to clean up the lot which has gone mad after quite an April that alternated showers with bright sunshine and warm weather. There are dandelions everywhere and lots of annoying grass. So over the next couple of weeks, I will have to take a pickaxe to it all and rip up all the unwanted vegetation (as usual).
Yesterday I had quite a useful session (and I have the aches and pains to prove it). I got stuck into the compost pile, which now has a big load of ready compost in the bottom: the challeng is getting it out, as it is enclosed in a wooden box. I got out a few bucketfuls and then (with the help of the fork) about half a wheelbarrow full which wasn't too bad for my first effort. I used that to topdress the fruit patch and the garlic and echalotes, and to incorporate into the patch I was just sowing, with carrots, parsnips, radishes, rocket and beetroot. I hope it will enrich the soil for me. It also went on the patch of new lettuces I planted out and was then spread over the existing peas and broad beans and dug into the second pea bed that I sowed yesterday. Some of the lot is still a mess but the rest is starting to look planted: spuds are being earthed up, which makes them look important I always feel, the onions are above ground so that patch looks alive too.
At home, the cat started nibbling the chilli plants (stupid animal) so I have had to make a makeshift greenhouse with a plastic sheet. The plants are going great guns under it! The tomatoes are growing steadily and the peppers, courgettes and aubergines will really have to go out next weekend, they are getting too big for indoors. Next week, warm weather is predicted, over 18 deg so I think they will cope well with the change then. Which means I must quickly get some manure, to bury under the black plastic: I am planting all the tender plants on plastic this year, it saves an awful lot of weeding. I have also noticed that when patches are covered, the next year they get less weeds: could they be protected from seeds too?
thank you to Chris who gave me some pumpkin plants! I have LOTS of pumpkin and squash this year, it's among our favourite foods, so that seems a good idea. I have sowed some Australian squash (pattypans), and pumpkins, and also green and yellow courgettes.With my sweetcorn (special for cool climates), and some more Coco de Paimpol shelly beans, a wonderful Three Sisters bed should rise out of the ashes of last year's spud bed!!

Labels: beetroot, carrots, compost, parsnip, pumpkin, radish, seedlings, spring