I managed it; all my summer seeds have been started now. Most of them are up and growing, except the very latest: French beans, cucumber and squash. Some of them are not as far along as I'd hoped (broad beans and peas) and some are racing away (lettuce and zuc). But I'm not done with seeds yet, not for a while. I'll be moving on to my autumn and winter seeds straight away, as soon as I can free up trays.
In fact, I freed up one tray at the weekend, planting out my tomatoes at the allotment. The son and I went up and filled the last remaining container (a big one like a raised bed) with well composted manure; the pile of it next to the stables is sadly diminished now. I still need some for when I plant my zucs, cucs and squashes in a few weeks' time, but luckily for me, no one else seems to be digging it out any more. There is also huge pile of fresh manure, which probably has some composted stuff at the very bottom, should I desperately need some.
We then planted out most of the tomatoes: the cherry tomatoes in the tall, deep containers and the plum toms in individual plastic planters. We'd filled those ones a few weeks ago and they were very dry, so we kept running a dripping hose on them as we planted. Then it rained overnight and the plants really perked up by the time I visited the next morning.
We'd had a prolonged dry spell since around Easter. Maybe that's it for dry weather this year! (I said that last year and was so wrong.) My water barrels have filled up again and it's forecast rain and cool temps for at least a week, after about a month of short sleeves weather. I like to plant for both possibilities: a hot summer or a cool one. While not everything will succeed, it also means not everything will fail.
I moved my ten chickens up to their coop and yard at the allotment so they can clear out the grass. Will they stay there all summer? Will it just be a short vacation? I haven't decided. It means a bit more work for me, as I have to visit both morning and evening; the husband broke his leg in March and can only just hobble around now, and the son is preparing for his GCSEs, very important exams at school. And the daughter is only six. It has to be me, and when I get sick of going twice a day every day they'll be coming back home.
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