Weeding

We seem to have spent a lot of this (long) weekend weeding. It did, however, rather need doing.

On Saturday, we cleared half of the onions (which were rather congested with clover and nettles, mostly), as well as going over all of the fruit beds. The raspberries were quite bad; the gooseberries/blackcurrants were acceptable; the blueberries and currants were awful. There are, somehow, about two dozen potatoes growing—obviously missed when we lifted them last year. We had to remove some, as they were crowding the fruit bushes, but we've also left others, and will bring them up as new potatoes in a while. However, there was also a lot of other weed coverage—now all cleared. It looks a lot better!

We also popped round to help Jenny and the children construct a large octagonal sandpit. It's very good: took about 350kg of sand to fill it, but is big enough for all three children to play in.

Yesterday, we spent almost the entire day sorting the workshop out, which wasn't a particularly enjoyable task, but good to have done. It was a bit too wet and windy to venture outside! Today, though, has been drier, so we finished weeding the other half of the onions, and repotted a number of the perennials that arrived in the autumn, many of which are looking good, and starting to grow. A few, however, have not yet shown signs of life: hopefully they will soon.

The onions appear to be getting quite battered by the strong winds of the last few days: many of them needed firming in. Liz suggested a low withy hurdle along the wind-facing side, to give them some protection, which has merit.

We also planted out some more seedlings: 16 more celeriac (next to the extant 20, which needed two replacements), another dozen leeks (between the others, to be taken up as babies), and a pumpkin, three courgettes, and two ornamental gourds. We also sowed a row of spring onions between some of the celeriac, and a row of radishes between some cauliflowers. I also put 6' support cages up above the peas and runner beans: they've had 2' supports, but are outgrowing them.

This means that all the beds are now full!