Spring has sprung

After a funny winter, sometimes cold sometimes warm and then a cold snap after a warm spell we have got the onion sets in and rotavated some of the straw mulch in and it is only 25 April. My wife invested in a Mantis Tiller quite small, fairly light and revs at a high speed. It certainly gets the job done. I used with the border trimmer to tidy up the edges of the path and then fitted the rotovating blades. It is a very simple job to change blades, just pull out the retaining pins, slide off the blades you are using and put on the new blades by rotating to match up the flat parts, slide the blades on and put the pins in.

The plum tree is in full blossom and looking very pretty. The Berberis Darwinii is also looking amazing with the orange blossoms. Some of the paving needs a bit of sorting out and a few weeds that are showing need dealing with. The pots have collected a bit of weed as well and some need topping up with compost. That means lifting them out of the pots after a good watering, throw in some new compost to raise the level of the plant and then get as much compost as possible in down the sides of the rootball.

The first early and second early potatoes have been planted fairly close in the linkaboard boxes that have been given a dose of horse manure and compost before putting the potatoes in. They have then been covered with a mix of compost

and soil and will be topped up with soil as green shoots emerge and need earthing up.

The asparagus bed has been mulched with a covering of some of the straw cover on other parts of the bed. The new asparagus plants have also been planted. So in that case it is time to gate on with moving some of the paving.

Seeing as the plot is fairly well advanced we booked a few days off to visit the Keukenhof in Holland. Travelling over from Hull by P&O ferries on one of their mincruises. The fare includes transfer by bus from the port of Rotterdam to Keukenhof and back to the ship. With the new faster ferries you leave Hull later, get in earlier and return later making a lot more time available for visits like Keukenhof.