10th March

 We now have all of the main crop seeds blocked and sitting in tunnels waiting to germinate.

We had done all the leeks and onions, and last week we got all the brassicas crops blocked.

These are in the wee tunnel up on tables, I had made tables out of pallets a few years ago.

The reason for this is that the mice love brassicas seeds, and this seems to have been working over the last couple of years.

Once the brassicas seeds are germinated, we will move them out into the tunnels to bring them on before taking them out to harden them of for planting.

As soon as we take the brassicas out of the wee tunnel, we will block all the squash seeds.

These seeds are the mice favourite seed to eat and overnight they can devour thousands of squash seeds.

Last week we started repairing the frame damage on tunnel five.

The ridge bar had been bent and looked like a giant fifty-meter snake; it should be straight.

The ridge bar is just a centre pole that runs the full length of the tunnel in the centre at the top of the tunnel and each tunnel hope is attached to it.

The recent storm had moved it all over the place and pushed a few tunnel hoops deeper into the soil, so it was needing a wee bit of straightening out.

We slackened of all the ridge bar and pulled out the hoops that had been pushed into the soil, then re positioned them to the correct hight, and finally straightened out the ridge bar and re bolted it.

This week I should get all the door framing made on both ends, that was wrecked in the storm.

The plan is to get the three tunnels re sheeted in the next couple of weeks, I am just waiting for the weather to heat up just a wee bit, it is far better re sheeting a tunnel with a bit of heat it helps get the polythene tighter, making a better finish.

I have also posted a few photos on Facebook and the weekly newsletter over the winter months of the over winter cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli.

Over the last couple of weeks, they have been almost ready for harvesting.

Now they are and looking fantastic.

These will be in your deliveries this week.

And with the winter not being to severe this year our leeks are looking amazing.

We harvest them every day and at this time of the year they usually need a fair bit of dressing.

But they are harvesting and dressing like a summer leek.

We should have leeks up until the end of April.