1st Day of Spring!

The first day of spring is upon us and the first batch of broad beans are in the ground. Hopefully I'll have the parsnips in this weekend as well. It's been a beautiful week with sun sun sun but I'm sure it will turn at some point to cold and rain again. I've collected several toilet rolls to plant the parsnips in and I will be putting these into a raised bed to prevent 'forking'. The ground at the lotty turns to clay not far down so it isn't ideal for root veg but not impossible. I'd like to make a fine grainy compost for them to grow in, raised up a bit to give them a couple of extra inches to grow in. It's an experiment so we'll see what happens.
I'm planting the broad beans in batches so that we have a steady crop. I've got about 10 rows in now and I'll put in another 15 the weekend after this one. They're under fleece so they should be okay. I've hammered the fleece onto the raised bed as sticks and stones don't really work from past experience. The wind just throws them around. I'll have a look this evening to make sure it's all still okay and that the fox hasn't had a go at anything.
I'm also going to try and nip out the growing tips of the broad beans to deter blackfly. We're still bound to get blackfly (we always do!) but I'm going to try and be vigilant this time. It's about time we had a decent crop!!

Time to spring...

For the past 2 weekends I have been preparing the lotty for spring. I've dug up the parsnip patch and found a nice heap of mare's tail buried nicely below. Grr!
I have moved the cold frame to it's new home (it's a bit delicate but should be ok). Plus I have pulled up the last of the brussel sprouts and dug over this patch for some new broad beans.
This weekend we should get the herb bed finally sorted plus some planting. New raised beds are coming along nicely and I've made a valued trip to LIDL for some gardening stuff. More slug/snail traps and compost. I'm looking forward to this weekend and potentially some seeds in the ground! :)