Backfill and backache

The hottest day of the year, perfect weather for digging a pea trench. I got the usual jokes about shallower trenches in the war, digging for oil etc.

This afternoon, as the mercury touched 25°c, I was a lone allotmenteer (mad dogs etc), left hacking at clay and rock, all for a nice moist rootbed for petit pois. Trench dug, cardboard laid, wet newspaper added, grass clipping and poo dumped on top. Back filling left as an evening job for the week: perhaps when the weather cools later after Wednesday.

Consolation came in the form of a bath and a beer. Peas will follow in about 8 weeks.

If I had a hammer…

I’d probably go up to the allotment in the declining light and the North Devon bluster and pound some nails into timber. The aim would be to construct bordering for my onion and garlic beds, keeping out crawling weeds and stuff. It would also provide a hiding place for slugs and snails.

But, that’s why if I had a hammer, I’d also have slug pellets.

Excuses

Just like last year, things up at the allotment are behind schedule. By now, runner beans and two types of peas should be climbing up poles and netting. Back the breeding farm (home, that is), leeks should have been sown. And, I should be thinking about cabbages and broccoli.

Alas, my body has let me down. Not to mention, occasional lethargy, laziness and bad weather.

Still, at least the first lot of runner beans have been placed under the sturdy pole construction. Another batch of beans are on the go, as are petit pois peas.

The pea bed is a work in progress. I’ve been lax in collecting manure. So, there’s a part filled trench from where the little marvels are supposed to be poking. I won’t mention the undug petit pois trench.

Oh well. It looks a lot better up at the onion and garlic beds. They’ve even been cleaned of weeds. (After this phot was taken, obviously.)