Planting out

Arrived at the plot after I had taken a trailer load of rubbish to the tip and collected a load of council compost. Spotted Mike who let me borrow his rotorvator to break down the soil in the legume, root & onion beds. I had put a covering of council compost on each & rotorvated this in. Once I had done this I planted out the broad beans I sowed in loo rolls & poundland shallots.

Broad beans

Shallots

In the greenhouse the radishes have sprouted.

All the onions (Stutgarter Giant).....

And shallots have started to sprout also. I will harden these of over the next few days & then plant them out.

I still have loads to do including more digging (groan!), seed sowing and planting out of seedlings & so it goes on......

Rotorvation

After the aborted attempt to share a rotorvator with Dominic, My husband came up trumps - his landscape gardening friend let me use his for the bargain price of 30 pounds - Result!

Anyway today was the the day for rotorvating the bottom of the plot & once I had been shown how to use the machine, they left me to it.... I eventually made it home completely exhausted & aching so much I could not even sleep. The machine was a very heavy beast with absolutely no sense of direction & it would only go round a right hand corner. I also ended up with numerous bruises all up & down my legs. The soil was not broken down enough to sow into but was ok to level out.

This was the beast, and I can honestly say that I felt just like Barbara from the good life as I motored it back home at the end of the day.

This is the bottom of the plot once I had rotorvated it and evened it out. It has gone from huge great craters to slight undulations!

I can now get on with putting out the fruit bushes and the apple tree that I have got ready & waiting.