Verdant and damp

I could pretend but I cannot lie. I am very, very wet. Damp trousers, wet shoulders, three layers of fleece a bit soggy… but pleased with my morning’s work.

So much for my mowing list I wrote out last night.  I had plans to do all the wonky curves before I lose them under yet more growth; working from the orchard and then heading to the lower terraces and maybe up to the track and along to the duck pond.  But no.

I woke up to drizzle and my plans had to change. Rats.  Even just getting to the potting shed is a bit of a battle with the billowing (and wet) grasses on the path.

So what to do? It’s perfect weather for planting. Drizzling and chill.

The reddish Merveille de Quatre Saison lettuce is fantastically complicated and colourful. Subtle, but it’s a goood foil for the dark green mustards in the salad border. In went about twenty of those, plus some Webb’s wonder.

And with the plodding to and from the potting shed for more plants, it was a good bit of exercise.

Emboldened (and getting damper) I even planted out a few rows of swiss chard (rainbow colours)  and then decided to seize the day and do the kale.

I have some fantastic new varieties to try out this year.  All put on some hearty growth in the potting shed, so I’ve decided to get them in and they can fight it out.

I have only allocated one raised bed for the kale, so they are a bit crammed.  But I have my secret weapon. Organic chicken manure pellets in the planting holes.  I read about that in an interview with a Belgian gardener who thinks her plants need a boost around June.  And she lives in Belgium where it rains a lot.

Well, it’s raining a lot here, so my brassicas might just get a good start in life. For once.

And after scrabbling about under the lettuce lattice, I actually just lifted the whole top structure off the kale bed before giving it a good hoe and weed and planting out.

I hope I can do it for the other beds, as one has to stoop rather to get under the chestnut barriers.

Ah, the rain has eased up. I can head back out. With a different waterproof jacket I think; the other one was rubbish at keeping out the rain.