An Alphabetic Weekend

A is for Alliums

After the onion sets' arrival last week, we thought it was time to get them in the ground. The forecast's for quite a mild week, so—coupled with 'F' below—we thought it augured well. Anyway: 'assisted' by the in-laws' current respite-care foster children (see 'C'), we planted out the sets. I didn't count them as they went in, but I reckon (based on number per row averaged over the first three rows, and number of rows) there's around 480 of them. Which is quite pleasing, as I was expecting 100 per bag. A few had started to sprout (unsurprising, as the first of them arrived in February, when it was still too cold (here) to put them in), so they should get going quickly, I hope.

B is for Bunnies, Bicycle Bottom Brackets and British Summer Time

Bunnies, because the cats decided to bring a friend home for dinner. Said friend was a little traumatised, but intrinsically unhurt, so after distracting the boys, and scooping that bunny up, he was released back onto the hillside. Some nose-twitching later, he scarpered.

After coping with a clanking bike for a week or two, I decided it was about time to investigate and remediate, so I removed the bottom bracket bearing from my bike and discovered rather more movement than ideal. Now, I'm happy to subscribe to the WD-40/duct-tape principles of maintenance (If it moves, and it shouldn't: duct-tape it. If it doesn't move, and it should: WD-40 it.), but this wasn't a suitable opportunity. Thus, new bottom bracket fitted.

BST started on Saturday night: nothing to report (other than to lament the lost hour of sleep), but it is nice to have an extra hour of light in the evening for getting things done: it's still more-or-less light by the time we leave for work, which is fine.

C is for Children, Cages, and Compost*

The in-laws' current foster children (who are on a respite placement) are an energetic set aged 2, 5, and 7. Their assistance in onion planting was, shall we say, not optimized for efficiency, and basically consisted of one holding the bag of sets and passing them to me to plant, while the other (with Liz, de rigeur) brought cans of water to douse the rows. Meanwhile, the youngest would meticulously plant his own sets. In fairness, they were usually within a couple of inches of where they should be (with some prompting, but rather good), and 80% right-side-up.

I mentioned wood and fleece deliveries: the wood arrived safely on Saturday morning, and we spent the afternoon putting up the fleece supporting posts, and filling the last stretch of the C-bed (completed two weeks ago) with some of that huge pile of top-soil (the Compost). We managed to start putting up the horizontal wires, but ran out of light. Having finished constructing the cages on Sunday morning, and once we'd removed a few obnoxiously spiny berberis branches from nearby, we suspended the fleece. It now looks as though we have a slightly too short marque in the vegetable garden, which does rather spoil the aesthetic, but will help warm the beds and get everything off to a good start. The fleece will probably come down mid-May, and the cages will then be used to net those things that need it over the summer. The fleece might re-appear in the autumn, to extend the other end of the season: we'll see.

D is for Daffodils

Which are now looking marvellous. Interestingly, the bulbs we planted in 2009 are considerably behind the 2010 planting. I don't know the cause: either they're just earlier varieties (unlikely, perhaps), or their summer in Cornwall made them more energetic than those spending summer in Yorkshire, and they consequently started sooner. We'll see, next year, if the same thing happens...

We've also determined where the gaps in the spring-bulb planted bank are. The bluebells are starting to show, so a good succession is hoped for—however, I think we'll need another few hundred puschkinia, and we think 4–500 snowdrops would help bring the display forward. They, at least, should be easy to plant: if we get them 'in the green' in March next year, we'll be able to see where the daffs, puschkinia, scilla, and bluebells are, and plant between them.

E is for Electric propagator

Yes, this is a bit of a stretch. More seeds planted, including peas and beans direct in the bed, more leeks, aubergines, peppers, celeriac, tomatoes, ipomoea, gourds, and herbs. We are quite rapidly running out of window-sill space, which is, admittedly, helpfully advancing the argument for a greenhouse.

F is for Fleece

Well, see 'Constructing'. It's made a discernible difference, though: sitting inside it (as an experiment, I hasten to add, not because I was pretending to be a seedling) was warmer than outside, and still very bright.

*I've just noticed the unfortunate juxtaposition in this title. The children, I must highlight, were not caged...although they were rather curious about why we were messing around with bits of wood, wire, and fabric. I'm not entirely sure they're any the wiser, frankly.