almost ready

Although the soil is cold it is not actually frozen so I’ve been digging out more compost from the heap and applying it throughout the garden. As a companion all afternoon I had a robin who was either pecking in the heap or among the freshly spread compost. Disturbed ground means lovely creepy-crawlies for dinner.

The ivy you can see in the pic is invading from a neighbour's garden. Some people might think it looks very rustic to have ivy creeping over hedges and fences but I hate the darned stuff. It's just about the most pernicious weed imaginable and very difficult to get rid of. We used to have some trying to get a foothold on the front of the house and the only way I could get rid was by burning it off with a blowlamp.

The main veg plot is now just about ready for this year’s crops. All I really need to do is a final rake over when it dries out and then apply a dressing of BFB with pelleted chicken manure for the brassicas.

In addition to the compost from the heap I also added crushed dried seaweed and will, of course, be giving the crops my liquid seaweed feed throughout the season. So, that's most of the preparation done now all I can do is wait for spring!

A couple of weeks ago I sprouted some out-of-date pea seeds in the kitchen, intending to use them in a stir fry. Well, I didn't use them and they kept growing so I've transplanted the clump to a pot of compost. Wonder if I'll get an extra early crop of peas this year?

early peas?