A woman's work is never done

Especially in the garden !

Yesterday was the foulest of foul days, which really made me crabbit. I sit there all week planning on what I'm going to dig, plant, move, tidy etd and when Saturday comes, it just pours !

Despite strong winds and the arrival of the promised hail, I managed to:

• start a compost bin for her upstairs and tidied up her path (she'll thank me forever I'm sure)
• found some paraffin (never believe a B&Q sales person that says they don't stock it - they do !)
• bought a new mini paraffin heater for No. 2 g/h and from those instructions worked out how to use No. 1 as well (where DID those instructions go ?)
  
• planted the three Lidl raspberry canes
• found a source of horse poo at a local stables but at £2.50-£3 a bag they can swing for it
• couldn't find the local mounted police branch stables .... I'll ask at work on Monday
  
• pruned my standard fuschia in a pot as it kept falling over in the wind
• repaired the cold frame as one of the lids had come apart in the wind (same wind, bloody nuisance)
  

It's much calmer and drier this morning so I'll be planting out Lish's Runty Elephant garlic, checking that everything under the fleece in the g/h hasn't been fumed to death by the heaters, and doing some more digging/weeding of the main border. And I want to sow some peas. I'm probably too late, but I've got plenty, so am going to give it a go anyway.

Now the front guttering has been repaired, I can sort out the front border a bit as well without fear of everything swimming in a lake of rain. The garlic seems to be coming up, but some of the bulbs seem to be coming to the top of the bed ! Perhaps they're bidding for an escape. I think I'll throw some more compost over them. The garlic and strawberry beds seem to be sinking ! I guess the layer of leaves is rotting down nicely.

Unless the fumes have got to them, the honeysuckle cuttings seem to have taken, as I can see new growth from some of the buds, the Little Gems are coming along but some seem leaves seems to be suffering at the edges from something or other. I'll have a closer inspection today. A couple of hollihocks have germinated but nothing from the Bear's Breeches yet which could be a bit problematic as they both share the same tray in the propogator.

I could see one broad bean poking it's head through a bucket and have stuck all 5 buckets in the cold frame for no other reason than to get them out of the way.

I'm using the bean/pea bed for mixing atm. Throw on a bag of multi-purpose, some bagged manure, sand, and grit and mix it all up with some clay and hey presto, I get some nice workable freeflowing, water and nutrient retaining soil for the pots. That's the theory at least !

And I'm going to pay a visit to bessie mate round the corner's place with a couple of black bags to nick his leaves. All this will take me until dark, so I'd better get a move on............... hopefully be back later with some pics.