Day of the currants and the poo

Super windy day but at least it was sunny unlike yesterday which was like a cold winter day. I re-discovered the free rotted horse manure going free of charge in a field near us. I remember the woman who owns the field and the horses normally has to pay to get this waste removed and so encourages people to take what they want. I hadn’t collected any for ages, mostly because it was starting to contain too much wood chippings. However, a year later, the pile a lot larger, digging into the side showed a lot of very well rotted manure and so I filled six bags – for a start. This was all spread over the ground where we pulled up the potatoes earlier on in the week, and within the next week I am sure we will plant out leeks.

The ground was pretty much like concrete when we dug up the potatoes. This was full on ‘no-dig’ but it shows me again that growing in compost is all good, but unless you top it up constantly the ground underneath is still as bad as it was when you started. With that in mind, I forked in the compost this time and broke up some of the ‘concrete blocks’, I’ll leave it to settle for the week until I plant out the leeks which desperately need to be planted out.

As it was so windy, and the currant bushes were being battered quite a lot, I decided to pick what I could. The two black currant bushes had loads which I picked, leaving a whole lot left for another week. The red currant bush was more than ready to have currants picked and so I stripped the whole bush.

I tidied up where the winter onions were, and I finally weeded the parsnips. Out of four rows, I have about eight parsnips which is a bit disappointing. I spotted the same bugs that started to eat them last year, even though everything was covered. I returned with bug spray, which sorted it last year. Fortunately, the parsnips at home all look like they are doing well.

At home, everything is still growing well. The butternut squash has started to spread out which is better than the plot where it has just died. Another one for growing at home and not trying again on the plot. I uncovered some of the beetroot and found we had lots of beetroots ready for pulling, which we did with two of them.

Also ready at home, the one blackcurrant bush and the cherry tree. The blackcurrant was never meant to be there, it was placed in the ground temporary until I had time to plant it on the plot, which I never did. The cherry tree has once again given us millions of cherries, which means I have made millions of cherry cakes.

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