Been a while

These warm days are great but the near to freezing temps at night are not very helpful. Maybe I keep forgetting it`s mid April.
All the long and stump carrots are now sown but last week I had to bite the bullet and order a new polytunnel. Long story !
All my onions and shallots (for eating) are in the ground on the allotment along with some early tatties, parsnips and carrots.
The greenhouse is getting full now and it would be good to get some stuff out of it and in the ground but it`s still cold out there.
Gonna sow some large marrows in the next couple of weeks, it`s fun to grow them !

Day off.

Had a day on derwentwater on the boat. Did some fishing, stopped on one of the islands and had lunch, made a fire, took some piccys.
All the carrot holes are now bored and filled plus I planted some stumps for an early local show.
The greenhouse is chocca !

Pass the Ibuprofen Mrs B !

Been putting this off for weeks cos I knew it was going to be a nightmare !
I got the sand delivered for the long carrot barrels on Friday. The entrance to our site is quite narrow and the driver wasnt optimistic about getting down there. The bloke turned out to be a professional swearing enthusiast and after much cursing (in a Glasgow accent) he dropped the bags off at the entrance to the site.
This meant a 300 metre round trip for each barrow load (see piccy). I barrowed for 7 hours on Friday and finally got it finished on Saturday morning.
Still need a little bit more sand but it just amounts to a few small bags.
Next job..........

Every bloke needs a day off

Had a days fishing with a couple of mates on Friday. This is Esthwaite Water right next to Windermere and just outside of Hawkshead.
Had a great day mainly consisting of us taking the mick out of each other for being crap at fishing, then this old girl turned up !
22 Lb`s of angry muscle which took about 15 mins to get in the boat.
I also started some 1st earlies off in the greenhouse last week and some sweet peas. I also got sent a load of heirloom tomato varieties from a nice lady in Wales. They were sown in the propogator yesterday.
Back to work ! The boxes for the long roots are now done and are going up the allotment this morning. Sand delivery this week I think !

Boxes Boxes Boxes...........

Been using my considerable joinery skills !!! making the long carrot and parsnip boxes for the drums to sit on. I`m glad now that I knocked down my old shed or these would have cost a furtune to make. As it is, they cost the price of a couple of boxes of screws.
Not too shabby if I say so myself

Compost

The sieve has been working overtime in the last week. Got my 1st 60 litre batch mixed up for the long and stump carrots. It`s looking pretty good I have to admit. Seed order also arrived from Medwyns with dribs and drabs mainly for the allotment.

I Got Verve !

I bought some cheapo Verve Multipurpose compost from B&Q at the weekend. I need to get some sweet peas sown in the next few weeks and it was 3 for a tenner so I got some.
Decided to use some for my carrot mixes for a couple of local shows I`m doing this year and it looked ok before I put it through a sieve. The first time through a 1/4" mesh produced a result "Time Team" would have been proud of. Twigs, lumps of wood, stones and what looked like a partially composted worm. It turns out that "Verve" is French for "full of shit"
After it went through a 1/32" mesh it was actually very nice stuff but I only ended up with 38 litres out of a 60 litre bag