Smokin'

Well, look what I found when I opened up the lid of my black compost bin! Two or three weeks ago I'd put it over some of my rhubarb to force them for the first time. How exciting is this?? I'd already picked a few of the larger stalks before I took this photo, but even so....! Yay! Look at the difference between the forced and the little unforced one next to it. Yum, yum!


The stalks that had already been picked all pink and delicious looking.


We were allowed to have a bonfire today so we had a busy time at the plot while it smoked away. Hubby weeded and dug over a bed and sowed some bulb fennel, rows of swede, beetroot and an ever optimistic row of carrots. I'm also going to chit my parsnip as usual and get a row of them in too.


I weeded the some strawberries and cleared away the old straw, pulled the fleece off the spuds (fingers crossed for no more harsh frosts x), moved the broadies that had survived to a patch at the end of the bed (12 in the end) and sowed two more rows.


The boy and the girlie really went to town on their beds. Weeding and sowing seeds (they were let loose on my seed boxes, goodness knows what they sowed!). They did a great job though and really seem to be taking care over them.


Another excitement was with the monster berried blackberry that I moved in Autumn and was certain I had killed. Ha! The fella is stronger than that, it just looked dead, but now has baby stalks poking out at the base - hooray! I'm so glad I didn't dig it up, I just couldn't bring myself to do it (or rather get hubby to do it - I don't dig out roots!!). However, I'm not sure quite what to do with it now, I'd moved it to allow the stems more space, but when I thought it'd died I'd tied the loganberry in it's place. I'll work something out, but I'm certainly not moving it again!


And finally a plot pic on what was a lovely warm sprig day :o) Bliss!