Of Lettuces and Leeks

We uncovered the leeks and what greeted us was a mass of weeds....well actually there were some quite interesting plants amongst them....mallow, borage and feverfew.

I brought those home to pot on.

And nestled in between all of that, some recovered leeks, which, if you remember, got eaten.

They are OK.

I remembered a technique that can be used when you plant leeks and that is .....you can cut the tops off as you put them in. I never do it myself.

So next time there will be some careful weeding going on.

We have some new ones to replace any lost.

We began our visit strawing the strawberry patch and later Paula and Steve netted them.

Thanks Tim for the straw. There was quite enough.

Can`t wait for the crop.

We weeded the carrots, spring onions and parsnips.

The two gooseberries are covered in tiny fruits.

I am keeping a watch for the gooseberry sawfly.

Next I pulled up all the myosotis plants in the lavender bed. 

I shall wait until it rains to plant anything in the bare ground there.

I put more French marigolds in the polytunnel and some nicotiania.

The first will deter greenfly and whitefly and the second will provide perfume I hope.

The lettuces are fattening up really well.

And Steve noticed our first cucumber.

This time last year the polytunnel wasn`t even up!!

The sweetpea plants were a bit scrappy when they first went in and due to losses from mice eating the seeds way back, I only had one plant per cane. Well it doesn`t seem to matter because these plants are fantastic. I tied them all in. I can`t wait for the first ones to pick and maybe if you come to stay you will find some in your yurt or the little house, filling the space with their unrivalled scent.

I have planted some late sweetpea plants and hopefully they will give us a later crop of flowers taking us well into the autumn.

My goodness we are enjoying the asparagus.

Asparagus, radishes, coriander and 3 tiny new potatoes from a plant growing in the wrong place.

There were lots of yurters around, all families with children enjoying the animals.

Here is Nicholas and his sister learning how to handle Harry and William.

Day has just given them a lesson.

Earlier they were busy finding worms for the chickens.

Tim was busy sawing logs to keep those yurt fires burning and in between he was showing new arrivals to their yurts.

Oh it`s a busy life.