What a joy to see the first of my seeds germinating. The onions were eager to get going, tiny little white and green strands unfurling before my eyes, and now four of the tomato ‘Heinz’ have sprouted within 24 hours. I always have to work hard not to dig around in the soil to check if the seeds are sprouting! Very poor gardening etiquette!
Seeing all this activity makes me itch to sow more, but I will restrain myself to sowing my sweet peas in the greenhouse and chitting some more potatoes when another egg box becomes free.
Speaking of eggs, increasingly at the forefront of my mind is the thought of keeping chickens in the garden. One thing I’m curious about is the annual cost of keeping them. It’s easy to find information on initial outlay, but I’d love to hear from anyone keeping 3-5 chickens, as to how much it costs and how many eggs they collect across a year.
Today’s task will be to move the autumn raspberry canes into their new position, before the warmer weather comes. I’ll be mulching with chipped pine branches.
I’ve decided to plant my onions at the base of my raspberry canes this year to maximise space, they should be almost ready to harvest by the time the raspberries start fruiting and can give way to a late summer salad crop, for which the raspberries can provide some gentle shade. An experiment in companion planting/a way of making space when I try to grow too many things!
This morning another amaryllis has bloomed bring much needed colour. It was meant to be pure white but it’s still utterly beautiful.
Tonight we’re having ham hock for Sunday dinner. I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.
An enjoyable post and good pictures.
It’ll be interesting to see how the onions and raspberries do being grown together like that.
That’s a wonderful looking amaryllis. xx
Thank you! I really got into growing them a couple of years ago and have have varieties growing at the moment, including this surprise one! Our house is cool, dry and bright but not much direct sunlight and they seem happy with that. X