Cut the grass at last

Mini-heatwave and not much rain. The ground is getting very dry and starting to crack.

Finally bought a petrol lawn mover (Ryobi, £150 with B&Q discount) and cut down the grass on the paths. Richard down on Sunday with Jack, so he was helping out with that. What to do with the old one though?



Got a few leek seedlings from Mum and planted them in the central box next to courgettes.

Only one of the french bean seedlings came up, so planted that amougst the runner beans, but I suspect it will get swamped.

Got some tomatoes from Mum and a few more from Steve O'Toole. Two largest planted at home. At the allotment planted one in tub, one in the pot that had carrots (which all got slugged) and one in a new pot which I'll leave in a tray on a pallette.

A spell of bad weather

Mum planted out some sweetcorn on Thursday (8x3 in bed, centre left). However they look a little small and that was followed by some bad spring weather ... rather gusty with short sharp showers and they dont look too good. Plus Michael was helping out and fell over and sat on a couple.

Also planted out butternut squashes in the fresher compost box at the back and made up a make-shift coldframe from the shower screen to protect them (although worried the wind will knock the screen over and it'll flatten the plants).

Courgettes planted at one end of the centre bed and closhed to try protect them also. Again worried the wind will simply blow the closh away. Plus one courgette in a large pot.

Continuing to dig our the far right box and resorted to filling up a skip bag as nowhere to dump the soil on the other beds. Tom helped alot on Sunday.

Bought a £25 strimmer from B&Q -- absolutleyl rubbish -- from a 5 hour charge, it only lasts 10 minutes and doesn't seem to hack down the grass well either.

Warm and sunny and no rain

A dry and sunny spell of a few weeks...although rain forecast for later this week.

Continuing to dig out the far right box and earth up soil around all the potatoes which are growing nicely -- about 12" high. Just over half the box is dug out...not sure what to do with rest of soil to empty it. Also set up one of the skip bags and filled that up with straw/menu mix, some green compost and grass and a few layers of soil.



The grass is getting rather too long. Unfortunately the lawn mover seems to have a petrol leak so need to find an alternative.