Weeds, Weeds, No more weeds

I spent almost the entire day on my knees, hand weeding the remainder of the long borders and not a moment too soon as some of the weeds had flowered and would no doubt have set seed before next week, starting the whole cycle off again. As it is, both the long borders are now completely weeded and looking good, especially as things begin to green up and send up new shoots, The daffies are beginning to flower too, which helps add a bit more colour, the geraniums that were divided many many many times at the end of last season and replanted along the inside of the box hedge are starting to put out leaves, the oriental poppies are beginning to bulk up, the campanulas against the wall are beginning to do the same, in fact the whole border looks completely different from the way it looked not so long ago. And there are somewhere in the region of 100 more perennials in the greenhouse to fill it up even more, not counting the tray of lupins I sowed last week (two of which are already up)
Anyway, after watering the contents of the greenhouse, I didn't do much bar weeding, so not really a very exciting week to report, so I'll just show you some piccies and be done with this week.

First off, the clump of daffies by the door into the garden

followed by the contents of the greenhouse

The Rhubarb is really starting to motor (it'll soon hide the remaining Ground Elder!)

And another ariel shot of the long herbaceous borders (okay, not quite ariel but taken from the top of the potting shed)

And finally, a weekly report wouldn't be the same without the view from the potting shed.

Byeeee................

Dave's Got A New Toy !!

But first.....
Having bought the veg seeds for the year (with the exception of tomatoes and seed tatties which Sally is going to organise, here is what we intend to grow in the garden this year....
Leeks - Musselburgh
Cabbage - Hispi
Spring Greens - Offenham Flower of Spring
Savoy Cabbage - Tundra
Cauliflower - Cheesy
Runner Bean - Achievemnet
Climbing French Bean - Cobra
Beetroot - Bolthardy
Parsnip - Gladiator
Carrot - Early Nantes 5
Onion (from Sets) - Centurion & Sturon
Perpetual Spinach
PSB - Red Arrow
Kale - Black Tuscan
So enough to be going on with.
Anyway, upon getting to the garden this morning, I planted up the onion sets of Centurion and Sturon (50 of each) into 10 cell packs. They were just planted into straight, unadulterated MP Compost and then placed in the greenhouse, alongside all the perennials and sweet peas, all of which seem to be coming along nicely.

Then, unable to resist the temptation any longer, I set about assembling the new 4 Stroke (Deluxe) Mantis Tiller. After a bit of confusion over the handle configuration, it was up and good to go.

Having assembled it, filled it with oil and petrol and starting it up, I gave it a go on the small area at the far end of the lower long border. After a few false starts (it doesn't like stones !!) I mastered the technique and I have to say that it is a very impressive piece of kit. I have used one before on well cultivated soil but never on weed-ridden, root-infested virgin ground, which is what I decided to break it in on. Well, it's gotta start somewhere !

So it was off to where the veggies will be this year. Now this area is littered with the buried roots of a lot of the scrub trees that I cut down when I started the initial clearance, so I also took a fork, a spade and some loppers with me. The roots that the tiller got jammed on, I either dug or pulled up and the tiller did an admirable job on the rest of it. A big rotavator mgiht have been quicker but after the initial sod-busting, it would be redundant, whereas the Mantis will be a useful tool throughout the various  garden areas, even when they are fully planted up.

These piccies above show the area under cultivation for this years veg crops - there is about the same sort of area after the pile of black polythene, so that should be sufficent for this year, whilst I work on clearing what will become the permanent veg patch.

The daffies in the border still aren't in bloom but are damn near to it -there are a few out under the holly tree down the bottom of the garden, but I reckon another fornight and we should have a decent display to photograph.

The rhubarb is going mental - the following pic is of three (yes only three) crowns that I transplanted

soon after I started in this garden - look at the number of heads coming through - ridiculous! (And please ignore the Ground Elder and Couch Grass - these plants obviously had troots that were entangled through the actual crowns themselves, hence the reason they are still there !!

So that's about it for this week, just one final thing to do - this weeks piccie from the Potting Shed...

See you next week.

.