Easter Sunday -working in the vegetable garden

 

Happy Easter to you all ! What a lovely weekend we,ve had , with blue sky and warm sunshine .

I was working in the garden with a short sleeved cotton blouse and my straw hat , it was beautiful .

I just had to sort out this vegetable bed . The only thing in there to be saved was the Daubenton's Perennial  Kale , the rest of it was weeds ,weeds and more weeds .

I decided to cut down the Tetrapanax papyrifer rex . What was I thinking to have planted it there  ?   

I had to use a saw to cut it down and I am amazed at how hard it's trunk was , absolutely solid and very heavy wood ! Goodness me ! Sawing was very hard work and the blade kept getting stuck , twenty minutes later it crashed to the ground , I couldn't lift it and had to find a big , strong man to carry it to the compost heap , yes, really heavy !

 I'll leave it for now , but will need to try and get the rest of it and it's root out or I think it might go crazy , putting up shoots and become an even bigger monster than before . 

I did find three nice shoots with roots , which I have potted up and I will find a much better place for them to grow . It is a lovely plant /tree  , but just not in the vegetable garden !

After that I pulled weeds for ages until my arms ached . Three wheel barrows full !

Then raked over a nice thick mulch of well rotted manure .

                                                        Elevenses !

The Robin and the Blackbird had a good feast too and then I covered one end with a black plastic sheet and lay the wheelbarrow down over the other , really because it was very dry and with the gales forecast , I didn't want it all blowing away .It will also help to keep the ground warm .

 I am waiting for some chicken wire and posts to secure it all around this bed and then ,after this week's cold weather and the temperature rises again , I can begin planting things out .

Mean while in the shed , I begin pricking out and potting up my lettuce seedlings .

                                                  All potted up !

                                 Lettuce " Freckles " has freckles already ! 

                            That's all for now , a more restful day tomorrow .