Day 49 - Everything is fit to burst

It seems we are now only a short time away from spring bursting out all over. We have everything just about ready, seedlings are coming along, potatoes chitting, seed packets lined up to be sown, we just need the warmer weather. At the end of today we had the glimpse of what I described to our lass as a late evening sun, it felt like eight in the evening in the summer but it was actually three thirty in the afternoon. With the clocks moving forward and the longer days coming ever closer this will remedy all our angst of lets get on with it. But you do feel as though you are awaiting the starting pistol, which won't have made a noise but instead burst open a daffodil flower or pear/apple tree blossom.

Today our lass had not only been busy mixing in compost and grit to help the soil to drain in some of the beds, our lass also removed the leaves from a bed and put them into our bench planter, forked and hoed the beds, but also came up with a great idea for the onion sets I had left over. "Why not plant them with the tomatoes?" Our lass said, A quick google search found that tomatoes and onions work well as companions with the onions odour hopefully repelling pest that like tomatoes. We will report back through the year, but it could be an interesting experiment.

Our bench planter, just needing some compost in the planting side. But looks as though it will be a good spot for the end of day sunshine.

Strawberry bed hoed and weeded

One of several beds attended to by our lass, with compost and grit to help improve drainage

Carrot bed now topped up and ready for seed.

The tomato plant will go in the middle of the four onions.

Onions the grandkids planted, now has a net over to stop the birds being confused with the shoots.

One wheel short of a wheel barrow, advice for anyone, if you choose a wheel barrow get one with a solid tyre, ours has got a puncture so having to seek a replacement wheel.

Tomatoes and aubergines coming along nicely.

Day 46 - A chill wind is the benchmark

 Today down the allotment we barely got past four degrees but it felt so much colder, now having been up their in the snow, it seemed strange that today should affect us so much. Maybe it was the contrast of the warm sun of Sunday that hit us for six today.

We are also struggling with wanting to crack on and get planting yet this just seems another delay. I feel very much like a young child looking at all the presents under the Christmas tree with a week still to go and feeling as though it is an eternity away.

Our lass, I think judging my mood better than I judge my own let me do a folly of putting the scaffolding planks out on the potato bed, my autistic side wants order and it is a perfect way of dividing the six varieties we will have whilst hopefully ensuring I only walk on one particular part of the bed when hoeing. I had hoped the soil would be nearly ready, but it is at least one full dig over away.

So whilst our lass set away some more seeds, I got onto building a bench/table, having just come from one disappointment I seemed to rattle into another which climaxed with the leg falling off. Team work though meant we got this sorted and as you will see in the final photograph we have an end product sturdy enough to take my mighty frame. Then we will see in the future if that created any cracks.

Perspective doesn't help but they are equally spaced, but this is the general idea.

The chairs make a great work bench

We have all the parts cut roughly to size

Our finished bench, with a big thank you to our lass.