New Poo… and garden bed finished

I’ve been looking at the half finished bed in the garden and thinking I’m going to have to get some compost to fill it up when I finish the edging. Last weekend I got a bit closer to finishing and this weekend the weather looked good and so I was hoping to get it completed – but how I was going to fill it was still a bit of a puzzle. My normal “heap of poo in a field” source I’m never sure if it is still good or not as I’m sure it is now a different person who owns/rents the field and I’m cautious of them wonder what I’m up to if they happen to arrive at the field the same time as I am there. I did by two massive bags of compost from B&Q which I use the seedlings and had planned to use on the bed too, but I didn’t think it would be enough and it’s not the same as proper rotted down compost.

As if by magic, my “poo auto alert” on the Friday-Ad suddenly came to life notifying me of someone giving around manure at a local stables. I arranged a time and drove up with my spade and many bags, along a rather dodgy looking track and over a field. All was good, well rotted down, and free, I filled nine bags.

Back home, with the small window of sun that currently hits the garden, I finished off the last two edges of the bed. I hoed the soil and spread it out a bit over the bed. The composted manure I put on at the end of last year crumbled nicely while the clay soil on the other side formed big lumps that I chopped up a bit. I layed on top the nine bags and raked over, I still think it could do with a bit more, especially once it has settled down a bit but for now all is ok and will be ready for first sowing direct into the ground.

Sowing wise, I did another tray of leeks after all germinated on the first tray and it didn’t seem like a lot. I also sowed lettuce and radish to be outside but undercover. I have plenty of onion sets but at the same time I seem to have loads of onion seed too and so I sowed a tray of these two. They will either turn into onions over time or spring onions, either way it will all be good.

A quick visit to the plot to pull some leeks and nothing else other than make sure all was ok. The sun was out but there had been a light frost which was still to melt away in the shaded areas. I spent a bit of time filling in holes that some animal had dug in the paths.