Winter rain and winds on Monday, mid year warmth and sun by the bank holiday weekend.   I wondered how the broad beans had got on since planting last weekend and then being plunged into mid winter for a couple of days.   It seems, they were not bothered at all and looking good.   I have two seeds planted in the ground and one more in a pot at home which finally came up, so I can see I will have to extend the bed at some point.

Progress on seeds sown, beetroot showing on both half rows, salsify showing and so will do another half row maybe next week.  Turnips all coming up, I just hope we like the taste of them.  Leeks have yet to appear with just one showing and only 10 of the ones sown indoors too.  I am wondering if I might buy some leek plants during the week otherwise we are not going to have a great deal.   Leeks have normally been very easy and so I can’t work out why they have done so badly this time, or maybe I need to wait a bit more.   Carrots sown the other week have yet to show and I wonder if they now ever will.  Next week I will sow the rest of the row and keep doing that over the coming weeks.

Today I planted some more beetroot, this time multicoloured ones which seemed a bit different.  I also put in some beet leaf and nasturtiums behind the gooseberry bushes in a bit of land which is just sitting doing nothing.

It was advertised at the site that there would be skips onsite for the weekend for everyone to use and so I used today to clear the  plot of old bits of rubbish, including a large umbrella, but mostly bindweed and other such things we have stored in bags.   I cut down some of the over hanging trees from the land next to ours and added that to the skip (I stripped anything big to use as sticks to put in the ground).   I also took items out of the skip, including bits of wood that I used to edge bits off.

The weather was hot and with lots of lugging around rubbish I was very ready for a bottle of water that Rachael brought up.   The onions and seeds also had a watering.

I tackled the massive plastic sheeting that had once covered most of the plot and cut the end off so I could put on the ground by the cherry tree, an area that was mostly weeds and with no plans seemed good to cover it over until we do have plans.

We noticed there looked like the remains of a delivery of mulch (maybe from the council during the week) in the shape of chewed up bits of tree and stuff.   I don’t know if we were meant to, but we helped ourselves to a couple of wheelbarrows worth (we borrowed the wheelbarrow too from what looks like a communal area) and used it to bank up some of the raspberries.