Planting out

Thursday 23rd April
Spent the morning planting out sweetcorn, peas and broad beans. I've now completed the two rows of broad beans, using the beans grown on the window sill. I prepared the soil for the peas and the corn by digging in some manure. I then made a 6 inch wide, shallow trench for the peas out of the guttering. The ones from the cold frame were a little further on than the ones which had remained outside. I tried sliding the peas along the gutter, but found this difficult so just scooped them out with a trowel. I put in the pea sticks to finish the job. I have been growing sweetcorn in a propagator at home, and at 6 inches or so, these are now ready for transplanting. As I didn't have the seed packet with me, I went along and asked Peter W if he could tell me how far apart to plant them. He said about 12 inches apart in both directions and plant in a square as they are wind pollinated. Thery're quite delicate little plants and I managed to break two getting them out of the pots. That was before I discovered that using a small spoon made things easier.
Peter J has been making me some sturdy wooden markers at home, so I labelled them up and proudly put some of them in place. He joined me for a coffee, then removed the cover from the peach tree which is now in full leaf. Well we think it is! Then he had a go at using the refurbished strimmer. It was only a limited success, as it wouldn't run for long, and then was difficult to re-start. However, the edges he managed to do look great. The plot is looking well cared for now, with the newly grassed area showing quite a haze of green.
He picked LOTS of asparagus today - about 3 pounds. We have given some to Jo who says it's her favourite veg, and I'm going to try freezing some. We just can't eat it every day! We tried a new recipe yesterday - asparagus, prosciutto and mozarella parcels. It was very tasty although we used pancetta which was too thickly cut. We've been picking the asparagus every couple of days. You can almost watch it grow in the time it takes to have a coffee!
Bernie from next door had left out some flag iris for me. I decided I wanted to plant them next to the old bath tub. I've been helping myself to suitable rubbish such as grass clippings and edgings which have been dumped nearby and using them to fill up the big hole around the bath. There's still a long way to go, but I managed to find enough soil to build up the ground at one end of the bath so that I could plant the iris.
We haven't seen any more activity around the robin's nest so we're afraid that the nest may have been abandoned.