Chain Mail Article (March-June 2015 edition)

It's tricky writing these articles about 2 months in advance, especially in February thinking about the lovely months of March to June. So I opted for a hints and tips article and a bit of encouragement for any newcomers to the site. I'm pleased to say we've had at least three people added to the waiting list as a result of them reading Chain, so I'll carry on doing the articles.

Anyway, here's a link to the article if you haven't seen it already.

We're still in need of new plotholders as we have empty plots and no waiting list to speak of. Hopefully now that Gardener's World is back on TV we'll get a few more sign-ups. And the weather is cheering up which is also a nudge for people to get outside and do something - let's hope so!

And here's a photo of a fossil we found on our plot ages ago, because every blog post needs a pic :-)

Work Day #1 2015

This picture sums up our work day yesterday!

It's a shame it got so wet as I didn't manage to get a photo of all the lovely volunteers standing round chatting and eating at one of the tea breaks. We had some fabulous home-made sweet and savoury snacks and guess who took the bottle of Tenerife Honey Rum (Ron Miel) along?!

We did lots of tidying and hedge-cutting and left the site very wet, tired and dirty! 

HahaWell done all, thanks for helping keep our site looking lovely!

A Bit of Sowing!

A couple of days off work and too slow to get to Oxford for our intended anniversary meal meant, well, guess what we did!

The weather recently has literally flipped daily between grey and sunny, so we had a mostly grey day yesterday but a sunny one today.

We sowed two rows of broad beans today. We used a bulb planter and replaced the earth with seed compost.

Then covered them with bottle cloches. This has previously helped against mouse damage but one they've grown a bit we're going to surround with mesh to (hopefully) protect from the pheasants on site.

I risked sowing short rows of salad leaf, spring onions and radishes in the raised bed. I hope the Perspex surround I put up will offer some protection and extra warmth. Though it did get down to -2° last night.
Oh yes! And the rest of the garlic is up - pretty sure it's the bulbs I bought from Wilkinsons, not the ones I originally planted from the Garden Centre..

I dramatically trimmed back the sage and did a bit of weeding... Nearly March! Yay! Soon we'll risk putting our 'big cloche' up!

A Soaking Sunday

We should be used to english weather at our age, but brrrr, after yesterday's lovely sunshine!

A very quick visit to put a sign up, feed the birds and pick a cabbage. A soaking walk and glad to get back home for a cuppa!

Hope you can join us for our first workday of the year!