So much to do at the end of April. My sowing window is almost closed for summer plants. But next up are autumn and winter plants, some of which are already going (leeks, cabbage and Brussels sprouts). And as usual, I'm running out of space to plant everything out. I want to grow it all! But where do I put it?
I had earmarked a bed at the allotment for my squash but now that push comes to shove, my cabbages are ready to plant whereas my squash aren't even sprouting yet. I desperately need kimchi so I can't neglect my cabbages, right? It's ok, I have a backup plan: when I harvest my garlic I'll put the squash there, despite it growing in that same bed last year. It won't mind, so long as I put another generous helping of well-composted horse manure on the bed first.
I also wanted to grow my tomatoes directly in the ground but it looks like that's not going to happen either; they'll have to grow in containers again. About half of my containers are already full of overwintered onions however--I'm not certain when these will be ready for harvest, but I can tell it's not imminent. Luckily I've acquired a large wooden shipping box and have filled it with some of that horse manure, ready for at least four plants. I already had another one, just need to fill it. They are more like raised beds really, not like the individual plastic planters I already have.
I finally got those lethally prickly rose branches sent off in the gardening waste collection but even after two pick-ups, I haven't cleared all the bamboo roots! That was a big plant. There's still a mighty clump waiting for the next collection in two weeks' time. I'm kind of wondering if I should have saved some more of it to grow as screening, for instance in the small front garden (recall I did save one small piece, replanted in a container sunk in the ground out back). I guess it's not too late to break up that big chunk--I'm sure it'd still grow even three weeks after uprooting. In containers, of course.
I think the Snowflake ducks are settling into the flock, a few weeks on from their forced integration with our two old ducks. Initially I was letting them free range with Boy Duck and Girl Duck but locking them up in two separate yards overnight (Snowflakes in one, Boy and Girl in the other); however Boy Duck--and as my sister once remarked, "that duck is a jerk"--had nightly been breaking out of his yard and into theirs. So after a bit too much of that malarkey, we decided they might as well be locked up together. And after a few weeks things have somewhat calmed down--at least we're not hearing panicked quacking at all hours.
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