14th April

On Monday night the polythene arrived for the last tunnel we needed to re sheet.

This is the big ninety-meter cosy tunnel, in here we are going to plant the courgettes we have in the greenhouse, and they are ready to be planted.

We always do one thousand courgettes in total, but we plant two hundred and fifty earlier and get them planted in the tunnel, the rest go out in the field with the squash plants.

So, we needed to get a shifty on, the courgettes were saying they had enough of being in their trays and wanted some tasty organic soil.

Early Tuesday morning I had the polythene rolled out and waiting for Rab to get in at 7am.

By 9am we had the polythene on and safe, Rab spent the rest of the day finishing it off, and I got the trailer on compost spread then rotovated and rolled.

By Wednesday afternoon the courgettes were all planted and happy.

We did pull fleece over them; we have had frosty nights all week and they don’t like the frost.

With that pressing job out of the way, and all the brassicas out of the wee tunnel hardening off outside to prepare them for planting, it had given us space in the wee tunnel, so we decided to get the rest of the courgettes and squash seeds blocked off, we only use this tunnel for germinating the seeds, one because it is warmer and two because I have made two sets of tables running the full length of the tunnel and this stops the mice getting to the seeds.

The wee tunnel is now full yet again with three thousand squash seeds.

The brassicas will have been outside for a week this Monday 14th and looking ready to be planted, the plan is to get them all planted next week, so I will be bed forming all Sunday getting enough beds ready to take the fifty thousand different varieties of brassicas we need to plant, one problem we might come across is the weather, forecast is not looking that great with low pressure arriving bringing along rain, this will halt planting.

On other job I managed to finish of which was halted because of tunnel repairs and re sheeting, this job was another propagation shed/tunnel.

I had one hundred and twenty pallets hanging around getting in the way and loads of polythene after the tunnels getting ripped.

So, I built a 20 meter by 10-meter pallet sided shed with a sloping polythene roof and made two long tables out of pallets at each side, this was big enough to bring on another fifty thousand seeds.

But the plan changed, we are now going to use it for growing strawberries.

So, the tables will soon have forty compost bags each side and arriving soon three hundred and eighty strawberries, this will be a learning curve, we have never grown strawberries before, we have three varieties that were recommended an early, mid-season and late season varieties.

Out in the field the Leeks are still going strong, and we should have them until the end of April.

In the tunnels this week we will be harvesting spring leafy cabbage, the cucumbers will be going in as soon as they have been cut out.

And we have the start of Rhuby chard, spinach and Salad, there isn’t enough for everyone yet, but if you want some you can order, everyone will be getting these soon, but the season is early.