Saturday 25 May 2013

Busy, Busy, Busy.

Phew! I'm kn******d. After so many days of wet and cold we needed to get a lot done outside today. We started before 8.30am, stopped for coffee at 9.30 and again at 11! We were taking things steady because Him Outside got some chest pains and breathlessness, and after reading more info about angina yesterday evening, we reckon that will be the definite diagnosis when he goes to the chest pain clinic. We have no idea what that will mean for our life here on the smallholding. There might be some things we will no longer be able to do, so slow and steady will be the plan from now on and no heavy lifting and lots of rests between jobs.
First job was to plant out four dozen hardy winter cabbage plants.Two different sorts that I have grown from seed. Then I potted up the late-sown tomato plants into larger pots, they will go out into the polytunnel in a couple of weeks and hopefully will give us some late tomatoes when the others have finished. We had 4 courgette plants still in the greenhouse and used 2 to replace the ones lost in the strong winds a couple of weeks ago, the other two have been squeezed into a poly tunnel. We then put straw around the strawberries and put in the hoops and netting over them. Next job was putting the last of the climbing French beans into a pot to go with the other 6 pots already planted.  Then we put a strip of plastic down each side of the summer raspberries, this is to stop the grass creeping in when we cover them with netting in a few weeks time. I put the nasturtium plants into bigger pots ready to go outside in a few days. In the fruit cage I used the secateurs to take the tops off the late summer raspberries as they were poking out of the top. Finally we pulled up the cabbage stalks and Him Outside used the rotovator to prepare  the bed that will be for leeks later. Of course there were all the normal campsite and egg collecting jobs to be done too.
That was before  lunch!
 After a long  lunch hour Him Outside took the strimmer up the road to the second home he now looks after and did a bit more tidying and grass cutting. I finally finished the job of tidying all the pots of herbs and tree seedlings  and got the small mower out to cut a couple of bits of grass that can't be done with the ride-on.
Finally I thought I would take a few close-up photos of  things in the garden.
These pretty little flowers, just about to open are on the quince tree. 


 Finally opening AT LAST are the flowers on our Horse Chestnut.  Pink flowers are more unusual than the white flowered Chestnuts.
 The rainfall over the last few days has been really good for the gooseberries, a bit of sunshine and warmth over the next few weeks and we will be soon be picking and selling and getting scratched to bits!
Now we can have a restful evening and a quiet Bank Holiday  Sunday and Monday, with a couple of  local car boot sales and some reading. That's the sort of Bank Holiday we like, avoiding the crowds!

MOVED

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