Top Tip!

Another dry and not too cold a day, it might actually be Spring now! Although maybe that should be whispered in hushed tones so as not to jinx it?

We had our monthly meeting first thing and once finished we did a bit more digging over on plot 118. We’re in the bit that is quite heavy going compared to the rest (and which we STILL manage to find glass in four years later). But we are nearing the end of that hard patch and so hope the last bit of the left side will be much easier!

The onions are still doing well and it’s a fine balance between putting them out too early and leaving them in the greenhouse for too long. So we’ve taken them out of the greenhouse, partially sheltered them with some glass panes and will try to plant them out next week. Our Charlotte potatoes are also ready to plant out next week, as they don’t look like should be hanging around inside much longer.

There are more signs of life around the plots. The rosemary has flowered and all the soft fruit bushes have either buds or small opening leaves on them. The garlic seems to have done well in the last couple of days of sunshine and as it hasn’t rained for weeks I gave them a bit of water from the butt.

We’ve started our tomatoes, chillies and aubergines off in the heated propagator at home and this leads me to a top tip! We always seem to go through loads of plant labels from first sowing, to potting on, to planting out. The packets of labels you can buy from the garden centres often don’t have enough in and we have been unimpressed with some of them. Wooden lolly sticks work temporarily but the writing fades after a fairly short time in the sun. And so we came to our free solution! All you need is an empty plastic milk carton, the bigger the better. Wash it out and cut it down it’s length so it opens out flat. Then cut out strips and cut these to the length you like for your labels. You can trim one end to an angled point but it isn’t vital. Now you can write on these with Sharpie permanent markers and plant as many things as you like! Worthy of a Blue Peter badge I think!