8th June

After getting the john deere sorted, it was flat out trying to do catch up and get the remaining plants planted out in the field.

 We had a few thousand plants, sitting there twiddling their thumbs patiently waiting to get planted so they can start to grow.

But the weather forecast was looking really bad to say the least, and was forecasted to last all week, so it was not looking promising. 

From the field we can look west, straight through to Loch Earn and see the beautiful Munroe’s of Ben Vorlich and Stuc a Chroin, it is about forty miles away and what a view, even better when they are covered in snow, which means ski season is starting.

It is also a great weather window to watch the weather rolling, and aye the clouds were black rolling in from the west almost every day, but they parted and headed south over Abernethy hill and north over the carse of Gowrie hills, leaving us with perfect planting weather.

By Tuesday we had everything planted, and covered in fleece, what a relief.

With a couple of tractor breakdowns, and the time involved in me repairing them, it had put us a wee bit behind, but the weeds in the field have no consideration whatsoever and still grow at a fantastic rate.

So, the next pressing job was to get on with weeding the field, front and rear weeding machines on the John deere and bed weeder in place of we went.

By the end of the week, I had been through all the leeks and onions twice with the machines, and the early leeks have all been bed weeded, and are looking weed free.

We will be at these jobs weekly right up until the end of August, the brassicas crops usually only need bed weeded the once the leeks and onions two to three times.

The bed weeder is a machine I built a few years ago, it has a wee petrol engine that drives the rear wheels, and a frame with three beds almost like orthopaedic beds attached, that three workers lie face down, as the machine slowly drives down the bed the each weed in between the plants, the whole thing is covered so the keep completely dry.

In the field the beds are seventy two inches wide, these , made with the bed former, and with the planting machine we plant three rows of plants, I then go through with a machine on the front and back that weed in-between the rows, this then just leaves in between each plant to be hand weeded.

It is a far easier job than what we used to have to do, in days gone by we were walking down the rows hoeing in between the plants day after day.