March and April are always funny months for the garden, but I think 2018 is the most challenging yet. In a normal season, I've already started to sow early salads - way too early in general, and have to re-sow as the first lot fail.
This year was always going to be different with the works in the house taking priority, and the fact that we ripped up the old raised beds last year, rotavated, smothered and killed perennial weeds, and then planted potatoes through weed suppressant matting. Added to that, the various cold blasts from the East, and you get a very slow start to the season.
I found some 1 meter square raised beds - not very high - at the local supermarket and started just buying 4, but once I saw how well they worked, got another four. We got a trailer load of well rotted horse manure - extremely well rotted actually - and over an exhausting weekend, sieved the lot and put a good wheelbarrow full in the first three raised beds and the rest in a one tonne bag, covered for when the rest of the beds are ready. And then things stopped again with the weather.
Yesterday I stopped work early and topped up a bed with basic compost from a store and sowed the first seeds of the year - radish and carrot. I know you aren't supposed to sow roots where you have manured, but actually the manure is covered with a good layer of less interesting material, and our soil is light and not hugely well nourished other than where chickens have been.
Then there was the effort to protect the bed and the seeds and the nice fresh soil from the garden vandals - five chickens and four cats can wreck havoc on a vegetable garden. Metal frames and horticultural fleece were what I decided on, and I will report back on how well that works in a month or so. Cats plant themselves.
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