doctorlou

Bloody dog keeps running all over my asparagus bed so I rigged up a netting frame around the asparagus bet. I have planted nastersham seeds every where, I hope the bees will like them, they certainly like the blossom.
Three more rows of early spuds have gone in and I have various cabbages and beetroot growing in cold frames.
The greenhouse is constructed at last and I have , corgettes,leeks and salsify planted in little pots. This is such an exciting time in the garden not a time to do it all especially as I have agreed to go back to my old Hospital and do four clinics a week because they are desperate to meet bloody targets!

Fantastic day, started with walk in the sun with the membership secretary, along stretch of river belonging to a fly fishing club I am appliying to join.
I copsed pea sticks from my next door neighbours little orchard / wild garden, taking care not to make much noise as my neighbours dog has bitten me 3 times!
I planted two rows of peas and two rows of broadbeans. Then I set about beating flat copper pipe and nailing it round the top of the bottom raised bed, I only hit my thumb three time! All the raised beds have copper tape which I am slowly replacing. The other half came home mid afternoon and drove himself mad trying to glaze one of me new little green houses. I bought two I hope he will not lose the will to live until he has put up the second!
Also planted a load of nastertiums in containers. The bees were very active in the sunshine bless em!
I have four trays of different cabbages and some brussels growing up in one of my three cold frames and a tray of beetroot.I had to mend the lid of one of the cold frames and after several failed attempts to mend with nails I resorted to 'No more nail' glue, worked a treat though my nails are covered in the stuff. It was good to be alive today.

What a day. I rotorvated my large potato patch. I have a brilliant  Mantis which takes the back breaking work out of this chore, digging trenches. The early spuds are in, it is great to be planting again. I was interuped numerous times by my other half puting up one of the two greenhouses that I bought the other day. They have metal frames with strong plastic windows and measure 6ftX4ft. I have a proper greenhouse but it is not in the kitchen garden so plants tend to die in there because I forget to check on them!
Anyway 'kits' and my husband do not mix. He ALWAYS says 'these instructions are ludicrous'( it would help if he looked at the picture of the finished product, it REALLY helps.) 'This bit does not fit' (he has put it in the wrong place) 'There are not enough nuts and bolts' (He has misplaced them) etc Followed by stamping his feet and having a tantrum. It happens every time, I don't know why I ask him to do it but I think it is good for him to do something physical! 'Look on the bright side' I said, 'the second one will go up twice as fast!' If he doesn't get taken away in a straight jacket before then!
  I have also rotovated and raked two of the raised beds and recovered them with membrane after applying the stinking chicken pooh. Greens go in next week.
By the end of the day we both got into our hot tub to get the feeling back in frozen fingers (I have mild Raynauds and he is on beta blockers for hypertension) and to help with the aches and pains. I could not be fagged to start cooking at 6.30pm so we walked down to our local pub for food. It's ok and fills a hole, the menu reads better than the food eats!

I ache all over having worked for at least 6 hours yesterday and today. I have just about finished mending the snow damage to my fruit and vegetable cages.http://community.webshots.com/user/loopy130?vhost=community See my garden photos by using this link. You will see that I have 5 large vegetable cages in raised beds and 2 larger fruit cages.(All were buckled by the snow(
We have sucessfully kept slugs at bay having put copper tape all round the raised beds but the tape is not robust so I am now hammering copper pipes flat and nailing it to the edges of the raised beds. I was squating on my haunches doing this yesterday for about an hour and my thigh muscles are agony from being on stretch for so long.
I bought some starter plants today, cabbage, broccoli and brussels and they are now in one of the cold frames.I have bought a load of chicken shit pellets (nitrogen ++) my bloody car still stinks of it. I cant wait to start eating my own fresh veg again, I have carrots and a bit of spinach and some cabbage on the brink otherwise it's the surplus broadbeads and runners from the freezer.Happy gardening
Went to the Village Garden Club last night, subject 'Organic Veg growing' I did not learn anything new other than crushed garlic in water left to rot a bit, then makes a good spray for green fly and caterpillars, we shall see!!

I spent several hours in the kitchen garden today. Dug up a few beds and a bit of weeding. I planted shallots, red onions and garlic and since cold weather is predicted for the next few days I hope they will survive. I have put copper tape nailed all around the raised beds and some repairs were needed. Copper tape is prone to damage so I am going to hammer flat some copper piping and use that instead. Expensive but permenant and the fact is it really works to keep the slugs off. I put some bone and blood fertilizer on my asparagus plants also. I have my spuds chitting away in the summer house and will probably start getting them in next week. I have finished repairing all my fruit and vegetable cages that were damaged by the snow. If it snows again I will run out and take the top netting off, one learns by ones mistakes!!