The chickens have escaped!

I’ve spent quite a lot of time in the last few days staring at the ground in the veg patch; hoping that if I stare long enough some little veg seedling will pop it’s head out and say hello.

Sweetcorn and runner beans are just coming up, but sadly some old packets of bush beans I found at the back of the cupboard don’t look at though they’re going to do anything at all, which is a real shame. Same thing goes for the carrots, which really don’t keep for more than a season, but luckily I have some more of those which are more recent.

One successful planting has been all the cucurbits. I had several packets of various odds and ends, pumpkins, hubbard, courgettes, etc and I have planted them all in my many and varied compost heaps. Last year I planted them direct into the soil, but as it’s so terrible they weren’t amused and refused to grow – by putting them into the compost heap I hope to give them all the nutrients they’ve ever wanted, and more besides! I just made a hollow in the top of the heap about the same size as a cereal bowl which I filled with soil/compost. Put seed in and water well. The warmth from the heap also speeded up germination by a couple of days.