No Roots

A 4-day weekend, I need more of these! Especially with weather like we had yesterday - sun and lovely warmth. Aah, that blue sky makes me so happy!

Jamie and I finished clearing the wildlife plot. Ready to sow the wildflower seeds in a couple of weeks and hopefully the bog plants won’t be held up by stupid BREXIT for too long; they’re coming from Holland and I’ve seen some bad reports online, but Ivan said his irises weren’t delayed. 

Anyway the temperature is dropping over the next couple of weeks, with snow tomorrow - really?! So planting can wait a bit longer...

The reason this plot isn’t leased is because it suffers from Horsetail, apart from the fact that it’s good to have an area on site where people aren’t trying to remove anything that wriggles or flies 🙄. We hope that the wildflowers will help reduce the spread of the horsetail, which creeps onto the site from the canal towpath. Grassing other areas has helped and the white coverings probably worked too, but look so ugly! We’ve also put some mini-plots on a horsetail plot because those plots tend to get more intensive cultivation which curtails the horsetail. Here’s some of the weed we found yesterday - it’s just sprouting, but so hard to spot when it’s dormant.

So, back to our plots. The crazy rhubarb missed out on being divided again last year - it’s trying to take over! We really must split it this year...

The beetroot and rainbow chard have germinated in the polytunnel. I’m hoping to be able to see the difference once they’ve grown a bit (I know! Why didn’t I label them?!)

I’ve got a new watering can for the greenhouse. The mangetout can go outside soon, they won’t mind the frost, but I need to prepare their plot.

The marigolds have germinated poorly this year. Only 4 or 5 from each batch at home and in the polytunnel.

We’re seeing a lot of different butterflies and bees on the site now that flowers are appearing, it’s such a positive time of year (especially when the sun shines).  This is ground ivy, pretty ground cover, with a nice minty smell. The bees love it.

We’ve also seen a lot more bee flies this year, they’re predators of solitary bees so not that welcome but interesting to see. They’re so bee-like, including a buzz.

So, that’s been our weekend so far. Today is Bank Holiday Monday and snow showers are now threatening today. It doesn’t look very welcoming but we’ll probably enjoy it when we finally get outside. The song title is provided by Alice Merton. I’d like to think there are no horsetail roots left in the wildlife plot, but I know that won’t be the case! Ooh, the sun has just come out!