Slow progress

Both of us slowed down by a cold virus this week and OH got it far worse than me. Am enjoying doing a spot of nursing and fussing. Still, the garden and the allotment are waiting. I postponed making the ladder shelf in the end and went foot-shopping instead.

Got quite a bit done today: managed to shred a few more leylandii but the shredder kept bunging up with the resinous twigs and had to be dismantled every five minutes to clear the blockage. Sawed up more old fence panels for the evening's fire.

Then I finally got round to sowing this year's seeds. We're only lagging behind last year's sowing by 3 days. Had made a happy find in the shed: lots of bags of seeds, mainly broad beans and runner beans, and we like loads of those. So, sowed today:

* a small tray of red cabbage Red Drumhead
* a larger tray of tomatoes
* 2 pots of basic "Purple Ruffles"
* a large tray of perpetual spinach
* 3 pots of kale "Black Tuscany"

* 2 pots of kale "Scarlet"
* a large tray of courgettes, with some Halloween pumpkins and a single watermelon seed
* a large tray of "Waltham" butternut squash
* a large tray of broad beans "Bunyard's Exhibition"
* a large tray of runner beans "Aintree"
* a large tray of sprouting broccoli

These are now in our mini greenhouse. If I can find the jar with the IKEA Ivar shelfpins, I can take some of them in to germinate more quickly. Those of you who have ever worked with IKEA Ivar shelving, you will know that when you don't need the pins, they'll be everywhere, under your foot, in the jar where you keep the spare keys, in random drawers, biscuit tins... The moment you really do need them to instal an extra shelf, they'll dematerialise, instantly. Not even OH could do his magic today -- but he's ill so his powers of intuition are weak or rather, submerged under a sea of snot.


Also repotted my lettuce seedlings, grown on the windowsill from last year's self-seeded lettuces. If all goes well, that should turn into 9 heads of lettuce fairly soon. Must remember to sow the next batch.

Must sow more at the weekend. Hopefully, OH will feel better then so that we can go back to the garden centre and buy more seed compost and also compost for the planters.  

Finished off the evening with Recession Roesti with creamed chanterelles and 30%-off Lidl salmon.