Cups, huts, and a stinky bin

 

100 plastic cups. I am making holes in the bottom of them.

For why, you might ask, am I doing that....

Not to drink out of, that's for sure, and you are right.

The Market Garden Project is requiring lots of pots.
These I can buy in bulk from the UK for a good price.

However, now am using, these insert trays I can plant lots of seeds at the same time...

 about one hundred basil seedlings in this tray,

 

 

.... and this tray is planted with celeriac, feverfew, thyme, cumin, caraway and chervil seeds.

 

 

So I have upped the production of seedlings, which I was a bit stuck with doing earlier on, but now I need lots of pots to grow them on in.

That is when Lester suggested using white plastic cups, and at less than £1.50 for 100 they are very affordable. The posh pots from the UK can be saved for public sales.

 

I am doing better with keeping up with succession sowing, and these little seedlings are being brought  on until big enough for Vegetable Plots 1 & 2. VP 3 is now full up. So, too, are the flea beetles which are feasting on the brassica seedlings planted out a couple of weeks ago. But although looking very ragged the seedlings are holding their own. An extra daily task now is to spray them with dish soap water to keep the flea beetle numbers down. I don't know who is winning, the beetles or me, but the plants are still alive, which is good. 

 

 

Another daily task just added to the list of 'things to do' is the stirring of the stinky bin of rotting nettles. Making nettle soup, that is what I am doing, and it is to be fed to the plantlings.

Just some freshly cut young nettles plus some water, and then mix, and leave.

You know when the mix is 'done' when the stink is really stinky.

But it will do the plants some good, and that is what I keep on my mind as I scoop jugs of nettle soup into the water can, which is not the most pleasant of tasks.

 

 

 The Chicken Hut Project

The Hut has now been started!

 

.... and at the finish of the day.....

 

So the plan is to start off with this hut, then build another to sit beside it in an L shape.

We prefer to have several smaller huts rather than one big one. It means that the chickens will be able to choose where to roost for the night, and where to lay their eggs.

It is very hot here at the moment. We seem to have gone from early spring to mid summer temperatures. Yesterday was 29 C, today was 31 C, and tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter.
Lester thinks that it is going to be a long hot summer this year.
I think he might be right.

Just taken the dogs out for their last loo.
Up from nowhere sprung a gale of a wind.
Had to rescue the trays of seedlings as did not want them blown away.
They are now on the floor in the hallway and on the stairs.
They are all tucked up for the night, as soon shall I be....
Bye for now
Vx