A weekend of extremes

Cracking day (Sunday) today giving me the chance to get on with some back end jobs like clearing out all the Tomato plants out of the greenhouse and sweeping out all the rubbish that seems to accumulate through summer hidden behind the pots and benches, if i get the chance this week i will get the scrubbing brush out and clean all the glass and spray some disinfectant about then I'd like to leave it empty for a week or more to give it a break . Also took up all the bamboo canes that have been on the plot wiped them over and left them to dry for a couple of hours before storing them away in the garage till next spring, it's surprising how long they last if they are stored in a dry airy place, Still a bit to do but it was a good start, Saturday was a day to forget with driving rain from beginning to end, you no when it's bad when you can't go out and are reduced to watching Football on teletext and that was pretty grim too with United losing to Tranmere 1-2 the only Bright spot was Leeds losing 2-0 to Peterborough, Scunthorpe managed a draw but unfortunately Leicester City sneaked a jammy win in extra time at Huddersfield. Supporting United is just slightly better than being a Spurs fan this year

Carrot and Parsnip growing Plans

As I found myself in town last week with the trailer on i thought I'd just pop round to my local scrappy for a couple of your bog standard blue barrels as i need a couple more so as to grow a few more long Carrots and Parsnips next season. Simple request you'd think but oh no Environment wont allow them to deal in them as they have to go to Warrington now for shredding and recycling. Next i tried the local brewery that has empty ones stacked up by the hundreds and another local warehouse. Same answer if you havent got a waste disposal liecence you cant have em, we have to pay thousands to send them to Warrington. I was never keen on Warrington anyway but by now I'm sick of the place. Mentioned my problem in passing to a farming friend today and he said i just picked some up that were dumped you can have them if you want. Success at last.

Is it the end of September already

It seems hard to believe that we are nearly at the end of September with just the Leeks and Parsnips and Brussel Sprouts left in the ground to be collected over winter, with the weather we are having now been about the best dry spell we have had since late June it has been easier to get on the plot without churning the ground up into a sticky muddy mess so I have spent the day covering next years Onion plot which is quite a heavy clay type soil with a bit of FYM and a good deep covering of compost at a rate of a barrow load and a half per square yard on top, the worms can now get to work over the winter and i will dig it all in around February/ March time. I am fortunate that i can make as much compost as i could possibly need on the farm by using all the grass silage waste and any straw that has got a bit damp over winter and so is not fit to use for our livestock plus i added any sheep wool that was unsaleable . Last April I heaped it all up in one of our empty silos and turned and mixed it once a week (Sunday morning job) with our tractor loading shovel the heat that is generated is hard to imagine when you start the process but after about four months of regular turning it starts to cool and break down into compost it still a bit lumpy but that will soon breakdown over winter. I will also give all the flower beds a good covering through the winter to keep them as weed free as possible for a clean start next spring.

Channel 4 Programme

Did anyone else see how to grow giant vegetables on TV tonight very entertaining and just goes to show the lengths some go to to be the best, I don't think i could get my other half out of bed at 4 o'clock in the morning to help deal with a infestation of red spider mite on me Parsnips, still he did get them to grow to well over 12 foot in length. Good luck to them all I say

After all the wet weather

After all the wet weather we have had for the last couple of months we finally made a start on our second crop of silage today Sunday, normally we would have finished this by the end of the second week of August but it has been absolutely impossible to get on this year, finally we get a dry spell and just as we are ready to collect it up, the Baler suffers a major breakdown . We have finally got rolling now 8.30 pm so it going to be a long night let's just hope now't else happens or i will have pulled the rest of my hair out with frustration. Sorry for the rant lets just call it therapy. Oh well Back to work now .