Satisfying time

3 weeks on and things are definitely looking good and there's a noticable difference.  So my plan to lure Mr Lottie into building the chicken coop worked.  This was the start of it going up back in February.

And this is how it looked today when I left.

All 4 side are up, the doorway cut out, chicken wire dug into the ground to keep Mr Fox out the best we can and a baton of wood attached, ready to support the roof.  Phase 2 begins tomorrow when Mr Lottie starts building the base for the shed.  It's hard not to get involved with the construction side of things, even if I do pretend he's much better at it than I am.

My skills lie in research.  We have clay soil and over the first couple of years we soon came to realise that different weather brings different problems.  Too wet and it's really claggy to work, too dry and it's baked solid.  Last year I found out about Phacelia and sowed 3 different areas, all to be dealt with in different ways.  The first bed I simply cut down late Autumn.  The second bed was also cut down in late Autumn and dug over straight away.  The final bed was sown slightly later than the others and I let the winter frosts take care of the foliage.  The second and third bed have been dug over this week and the result is-leave winter to take care of things.  Mr Lottie (who mocked my green manure plans) actually enjoyed digging that area.  There were no weeds to take care of and no compacted soil, even though it was dug one less time at the end of last year.

Mr Lottie digging over the 2nd Phacelia bed

Apart from the chicken coop, we've made good progress, especially for how early in the year it is.  I have to admit though, all the 'seasoned' plot holders are way ahead of us but I'm more than happy at our progress.  The rhubarb I was so late in splitting has been transplanted.  I gave it a healthy top layer of manure and it's showing good signs of life. 



This years brassica bed has been dug over, marked out and just needs to be covered over until we need it.

Brassica bed 2012

The strawberries have all been transplanted, trimmed and given a liberal covering of tree chippings.  I hope that the internet wasn't lying when I read that strawberries like the acidic soil tree mulching will cause.  I trimmed and donated about 30 plants to a childminder who's just started 1/2 a plot with her kiddy winks.

The very last bit of unworked land we took on last year has been semi de-nettled and de-docked, just in time for us getting our new (and final) half plot.

Before

Blurry after

So now we have a total of 2 plots.  All carefully planned for over the last year.  I'm really looking forward to working our new plot.  My neighbour is cutting back from 2 plots to 1 1/2 and between him and his mum the land has been worked for over 30 years.  After the nettles, docks and digging up enough shale to build my very own Hadrian's wall we've dealt with for the last 2 years, it's going to be bliss.

At some point I might even get round to uploading this years timetable and plans.  Until then, happy sowing.

Lottie Lover