Wednesday 18 May 2016

The Planting out begins !


 So we're just back from a lovely week away .... but a little worrying since the morning we  on which we left  , I had young plants only a short time out of the greenhouse , left to harden off ...the weather had suddenly turned very hot . I had to leave all the greenhouse windows open , worried about my veg seedlings and cacti about to flower , but everything is fine . ..and there was also the small matter of my having seen a young deer in the veg garden ,actually on the morning that we left ! No idea where it had come from....never before seen any deer here on the Lizard ....any one know anything about deer around Mullion  ?  Delightful to see , but I was concerned that it would hurt itself as it scrabbled through one of my fences .
  Anyway  as you can see I added an extra hazel pole at each end of the bean frame for extra strength . Put on the horrible green plastic netting that I have recycled for the  last three years . I take great care to remove all the dead vines and roll it up tying a rag to the ends so that I can unroll it again the next season ,like you do your Christmas fairy lights : )


Last Earth Day I made myself a resolution to become more plastic aware , that is I will recycle what plastic items I still have and then use alternatives .
This year I am growing Firestorm Runnerbeans which are said to be a cross between runnerbeans and french beans .They germinated very quickly , these have been hardened off and I planted out about 8 of them . The courgettes are germinating rather erratically , which is good I suppose ...the largest of these I nestled into the warm earth and spread sharp grit around . Six Swift sweetcorn  in blocks of three , I will sow some more direct into the earth now .


 On the other side of the frame I have sown  direct into the earth Blue Lake climbing beans and a few Prizewinner Runnerbeans . I will still sow some more in the greenhouse, just in case and to get succession of crops .
 I have pushed in some spriggy hazel pea sticks for some peas to climb up . The peas are germinating on the kitchen windowsill at the moment...this way the mice dont eat the seed and they dont seem to bother with them once they're up .


I am also trying to not buy so many bamboo canes now , they are shipped in from far away and are expensive . I will use the ones I still have till they are not fit for purpose .
 So this means a little bit of hard work cutting my own  hazel bushes , which I am lucky to have . I make use of the branches , cutting them so that I can hang up my coat and garden tools close by  to where I,m working..you cant do that with bamboo canes !
Bamboo canes get brittle and sharp , you can really hurt yourself on them if you're not careful , I am constantly looking for things to cover the cane tops with , so that no one will poke their eye on them .
I will still use them to thread through the chicken wire surrounding each of the veg beds though , to keep the bunnies out .I just cant get the Hazel sticks to push through the holes in the chicken wire so easily .  I would like to not use horrible chicken wire and make woven Hazel hurdle fences around the veg beds ..but I dont have enough hazel to do this .
 Oh well , there you go ...but at least I am becoming more thoughtful about all this .


 My Tibetan Prayer flags are looking a little worn now , but God and the rain ,the sun and the moon know that I am trying to be a more careful Earth loving person .


                                                        Cheerio for now !


2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 20, 2016

    I feel there's much benefit when we become mindful with all we do.

    Good for you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow...you are going to be earning plenty of naps after all of this work! And I love that moon shot :)

    ReplyDelete