Boinging into 2010

Trousers very kindly built me three Valentine Compost Bins from some wooden pallets he acquired! and I'm truly grateful, as the compost heap on the right was starting to get to Triffid proportions. Then, completely lost for something constructive to do on Saturday morning, what with a bloke making me a noo kitchen in my Kitchen, I thought I'd turn the Triffid into the new bins. It's actually pretty good stuff already, but will romp away now as it heats up over the next 7 days. Then it'll be ready to turn again into the next bin, and so-forth. (the Aerobic composting method, as opposed to Anaerobic, just in case you were wondering!).

I started filling the second bin with compost as well, but got severely told off by Trousers, on account of the fact that I'd be 'well overdoing it' and wouldn't be able to move the following day. The nice man in my Kitchen backed him up, so I poured myself a nice cold glass of Pinot Grigio, and made a huge Lasagne for the freezer instead, in the only available corner of the kitchen that wasn't covered in sawdust - no, honestly.... don't even GO there!

And d'you know what? Not a bone in my body ached the following day. Unlike my head of course. Too much ice maybe?!

I've brought the Strawberry troughs into the Draughty Dutch Greenhouse for a bit of a tidy-up: get all the dead growth off, inspect for fatalities etc. The plants on the right are last years' propagated 'runners' - plants for free, that's what us gardeners like best!

I'm in two minds as to whether I grow them up off the ground in my Wellie's Workshop Strawberry Planter again, or do I plant them on Terra Firma? Actually..... now that I've acquired the first of my two outside taps, and I've got all that automatic drip-watering stuff I put together yonks ago, I think I've just answered my own question.....

The green troughs here are Autumn Bliss Raspberry plants that I brought to The Funny Farm when we moved from the cottage last April, and I'm intending on planting them on the next biodynamic fruit day. In fact they're not the only Raspberry plants to be moved, as the existing ones need relocating to another bed in order to get some semblance of order around here! They're popping up all over the place!

Thankfully, we've not yet had the next installment of snow that was forecast, but I thought I'd take no risks where my germinated Parsnip seeds were concerned.

I germinated them on damp kitchen paper in the kitchen, then transferred them to compost-filled sections of loo roll cardboard, and then planted those into the soil.

It might seem a bit overkill to protect them this much initially, but there's 40, and I'd like it to stay that way. Which has just prompted me to make a mental note: check that the slugs aren't having a sneaky picnic at my expense?!

I shall be making a second sowing (for harvesting as younger roots) on the next biodynamic root day on the 24th, so I could always make up numbers then, if I have to (always good to have a Plan B waiting in the wings).

I've also put together the framework for my Tent Cloches, which does set a challenge each year when one's lost the instructions.... Seeing as this is the Root Bed, I'll cover them and warm the soil up here for an early crop of carrots, Beetroot, etc..

I haven't provided pictorial evidence to back this up, but I'd like you to trust me on this one.... Each and every sheeps on the entire Funny Farm is popping out baby little Baa Lambs in the blink of an eye. I've lost count on who I told you about last, but Liquorice Sticks, The Twins and No.3 are best buddies now, boinging round the field like spring-loaded Zebedees, and the latest additions, at last count, No. 6, No. 7, No. 8.........Just where am I going to get the inspiration for all of their names?!

Which reminds me of an old joke: Picture the scene....

A boating lake. A couple hire a rowing boat to take out onto the lake one afternoon and are late returning it to the boathouse. Spotting them through his binoculars, the boat man reaches for his megaphone: "Come in No. 6!"..... He waits a while "Come in No.6!". No response. "No. 9, are you in trouble?"

And there endeth the blog.

You've been brilliant company again, as usual, so thank you for listening.