Monday 23 April 2012

My brain hurts!

My first husband used to jokingly say that in some areas (particularly in practical areas) I had a Curry's brain. I don't think it was meant as a compliment!

This business of trying to print four different photographs on to one A4 sheet of photographic paper has really taxed me to the limit and I have temporarily given up before I have a nervous breakdown. A friend (thank you S) has sent me step-by-step instructions and, when I have recovered some equilibrium I shall attempt it again.

As to farming matters - for weeks it has been so dry that there has been no point in putting fertiliser on the grass as it would just sit on the surface - the ground was like concrete. Now, after days of heavy rain, the reverse is true. Luckily, in the interim period the farmer got his fertiliser spread. Now it is the rolling that is waiting to be done and the ground is too wet. I don't suppose there is ever a perfect year for weather as far as farming is concerned and farmers through the ages have learned to take what comes, which is one of the farmer's favourite expressions.

In the garden, at last it is in a fit state to do something and this morning beetroot plants and onions have gone in and salad leaf seeds have been sown. If you didn't know that beetroot could be grown from plants rather than sowing the seeds then do try it - we bought some on the offchance last year at the Garden Centre and we had the best beetroot crop we have ever had.

We are eating Swiss chard from our garden - last year's plants which we are cutting regularly to stop them going to seed, which they undoubtedly will now given half a chance. It was so good to eat the chard this lunch time, cut straight from the garden and just wilted in a saucepan. All the vegetables in the greengrocers are so sad and getting 'past it' now aren't they? Roll on the fresh peas and broad beans and those little tender sweetheart cabbages!

7 comments:

ArcticFox said...

did you look at picasa's "collage" function?? I ought to go and give my mate a hand with his raised vegetable beds at some point as well..... oh to be in england now that spring is here...... rain streaming down the windows as I type!!

John Going Gently said...

pat, if I can get close enough to the veg patch this week most of my stuff will be in too!

Heather said...

Husbands can be very cheeky at times! Hope you get help with printing your photos - I have to shout for my daughter.
There are flower buds on my broad beans but the beetroot seedlings seem to have come to a halt with all this colder weather. I have never seen them sold as plants - that's a great idea.

Unknown said...

The sea and the weather are both as unpredictable as each other - which is probably why sailors and farmers have so many superstitions. Does the Farmer have any odd rituals to ensure good crops and weather? Planting by the moon's cycles? Throwing rusty nails in with the seeds? Wearing the same dirty socks for weeks on end? :)

Jenny Woolf said...

Yours is the second post I have read about planting seeds and now I really must do something about my poor waterlogged parsnip seedlings, like move them somewhere dryer. If they have not already perished....

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thank you for visiting.

H said...

I am working up the energy to set my beans and peas, but I need to break up the vegetable patch again first and mix a little more compost in.

The tomatoes will go in the greenhouse. Everything is ready for them, I just need the actual plants.