Spring Equinox!

Finally the days will be longer than the nights! Yay!

Some photos from the weekend. Firstly, my cats are cute. Spock was sleeping in his usual sphynx pose, and Alfie decided that he’d make use of those legs as a pillow. Spock is a very tolerant young man…

Despite the dismal weather over the weekend I did get a fair bit done gardening-wise. Dad had mowed the lawn (first mow of the year! Spring is here!) so I filled the dalek with clippings, leaves and cardboard, lasagne style, and mulched the onions and fruit bushes:

I’m the only person I’ve seen that mulches on the allotment (and the only one with over-wintering onions and shallots). I suspect people think I’m a loon.

The raspberry bushes are alive! Can you see? Photo may not be good enough:

Little buds! These three bushes came to me bare root and then got left dry for a week or something, so I’m pleased they appear to have survived that mis-treatment.

I also used some grass to alternate with compost in potato bags, since potatoes really don’t care what they grow in (they’ll grow in straw or shredded paper quite happily. I already had one of those 50l potato sacks but I got a second sack with a recent asparagus purcase, and was very pleased to open it out and find it’s a 75l bag or something. I put 2 King Edwards (a bit early, I forgot maincrops go in later) in the small one and 3 Anya and a random tiny Charlotte in the big one, then put them in the cold mini greenhouse. I noticed the grass was already generating heat even overnight so decided to attempt a Victorian-style hot box to heat the warm mini greenhouse – a black box, then layering cardboard and grass and adding a touch of water. It’s on the bottom shelf now. We shall see!

The brassica seedlings were borderline leggy (1 inch and leaning) so I’ve moved them to the (brighter) cold greenhouse which is hopefully less cold now it has bags of potato grass decomposing in it.

My beans however aren’t doing so well. First half got got by frost (although they are attempting to make a comeback), now the rest have been munched. Hurumph.

This is couch grass roots. I’m not sure whether to chuck them or make a liquid manure out of them. I’ve opted for the last two weeks to leave them drying on the membrane, perhaps as an example to other couch grasses.

ETA: I forgot to say – I also took what was left of the weed membrane in the garage and started to make paths out of – my plan is instead of string and posts (which I keep tripping over/stepping on) is to lay out the paths with membrane and keep the beds clear. I made four 0.4-5m x 4m paths with the edges folded over and taped every 10cm or so with duct tape (intermittent taping purely to be economic) to stop the stuff fraying. I need to make one more 4m path and then make the long main path, but I’ll have to harvest the membrane on the plot for that.

And the required progress shot:

In other news, I’ve got a bit morning mental – I’ve been going to the gym in the mornings, leaving the house at 7. This morning (early start) I was out of the house at 6.40am. People who know me well will no doubt be flabagasted by this. I know I am. I run-walk 3km in 30 minutes, shower and go to work. The reason for the early start is not wanting to pay for parking – I never have any change – but now I think I may now be a bit addicted to dawn…