April Review (A little late)

I have had a bit of a tummy thing the past couple of days, so unable to get down to the plot until now. It is a real mess at the moment, but I'm feeling a bit tender to do much about it. I bumped into my plot neighbour and he volunteered that I was doing a great job. I almost burst into tears, but I put that down to the stomach ache, rather than the praise. 

So here is the rather conservative list of things I gave myself to do at the start of April:

• propagate spring seeds. Will need to be done on a weekly basis for at least this month, maybe longer
• construct mini greenhouse in the garden for growing on vulnerable seedlings
• acquire manure and extra compost for beds
• build beds
• dig up informal areas on the plot to plant out the comfrey and wild flower seeds
• reduce planks and soil bags on plot to minimal.

I managed all of those pretty well except reducing planks and soil bags to minimal. They are still relatively maximal.

So, pics for comparison:

End of March

End of April

So, because I'm not very good at taking pics, there are some things you can't see. Actually this month I've:

• Constructed and filled three raised beds
• Dug over 10 beds and cleared of bramble and couch grass. Covered most until October
• Terraced 2 beds,
• Made a bench
• Made a bay for and moved two compost bins (and their not entirely rotted down contents. Not my best day ever tbh.)
• Planted beetroot, carrot, spring onion, pea and sweet pea seeds. Planted spinach seedlings.
• Made tunnels of fleece and insect netting.Made windbreak for spinach that made no difference.
• Germinated seeds indoors for: Purple sprouting broccoli, runner beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes, tomatillos, courgettes, savoy cabbage, leeks, celeriac, parsnips and basil (but not mint yet. Stubborn.)

Insect netted, waiting for brassicas.

Poor spinach, windbreak never helped much

Bench and bins 

Beetroot seedlings. Thinning out required.

Last month this was all black plastic.

So, May. Here's my todo list:

• Keep potting on my seedlings until I can get them out. Having seen some people's seedlings on social media, mine seem very behind. My current mantra is 'gardening rewards patience' repeated x 1000.
• Put up runner bean stalks and pea sticks
• Get on top of tidying up
• Plant potatoes
• Continue to mulch my no dig beds and get the cardboard to cover them until autumn.
• Thin seedlings and plant more root seeds
• Kill wood mountain