Chitting, Digging, Barking & Pottering

Today sees the first day of a 2 week holiday from work, so it has been a day for pottering, and getting all those jobs that you have wanted to do but just haven’t had the time.
On Friday I had my potatoes delivered from JBA and I was on the whole pretty pleased with them as my regular readers will know I am growing 9 different varieties of potato this year some are heritage variety’s that aren’t common place. I washed them all this year this is something that I don’t normally bother with but I have read a lot of blogs lately and lots of people do this so I thought I would give it a go this year. The potatoes are now resting peacefully in my greenhouse in my garden.  

Another job that needed doing was digging up the Brussels sprouts that didn’t produce any sprouts but did get infested with whitefly this was the only crop this year that put on a poor show.
I have had to throw the towel in and concede defeat with sourcing free bark chipping for the plot, I tried everything, the local council, local tree surgeons whom on the phone were happy to oblige but when asking when you could collect it or have it delivered new came true to their work I even drove around trying to hunt it down by local roads and woodland areas where work was being carried out but all I got was a big fat nothing! So I have started buying bark. This really goes against all that I am aiming for on my plot but I did do extremely well with sourcing timber for the raised beads and the shed both of which practically cost me nothing, you can’t win them all. So I have been busy laying this down on the plot too it’s starting to look good and hopefully keep all the pesky weeds down this year, when it’s all covered I will post a pic.
Other jobs that I have planned for the next 2 weeks are:
·   Make a new compost bin as 1 isn’t enough this will also help me keep it turned.
·   Make a leaf mould bin as I have 10 bin bags scattered all over the place,
·   Start digging the beds over.
·   Finish barking the pathways
Let’s hope the weather is kind to me.