Welcome bumblebees

Bumblebee hotspot

The beautiful spring weather has brought out the bumblebees and butterflies. They just love the heather slope and seem to come from miles around to feast on the nectar. So nice to hear their droning again. The only other plants in flower at the moment are gorse and daffodils, but the bumblebees don't seem to be interested in the daffodils at all.

Mother and child daffodils

The first of our fancy daffs

With the higher temperatures we thought it was best to harvest the remainder of the swedes and Jerusalem artichokes (which had already started to sprout). We selected the 27 straightest tubers and immediately replanted them. Guess what we'll be eating in the next few weeks...

A fish box full of neeps

And another one of Jerusalem artichokes

The tomato seedlings are doing well and are enjoying the sunshine in the conservatory during the day and the warmth of my office during the night. No sign of the chillies and peppers yet, but they have been duly sanded so they shouldn't be long.

Bring on the polytunnel for this lot

Another 250-odd hedge plants have been ordered (field maple, alder, willow, elder, populus, beech, cotoneaster, hawthorn, tilia cordata) and are due next Wednesday. A 20-foot polytunnel is coming as well so we'll be very busy!

View down to the middle paddock

I've been making friends with the broadfork (a fork with a bar across and handles either end) - what a fantastic tool and what a fantastic workout. You step on it and move it back and forth and, hey presto, the soil is nicely aerated and loosened.

The freshly broadforked middle paddock growing area

In the veg garden, some things are coming to life.

Luscious globe artichoke growth

Broad beans a-coming

The hens are all in production again. Yesterday we had a six-egg day. Good work, chucks!

Under Soruss' watchful eye

Open season

The 2016 growing season has officially begun here - I sowed my first seeds today.

Sowing station in the conservatory

In a pleasing symmetry I've sown six varieties each of tomatoes, chillies and peppers.

Tomatoes: Tigerella and Black Sea Man, the two favourites from last year. Plus new this year: Dattelwein, Red Alert, Orkado Cordon and Black Cherry.

Chillies: Gusto Purple, the best performing chilli from last year, Cayenne, Cheyenne, Poblano, Hungarian Yellow Wax and Nemek Twilight.

Peppers: California Wonder, Alma Paprika, Padron, as last year, though hopefully it will be a better year than last year - with more heat and less aphids. Plus Astor, Gypsy and Gourmet.

A big thank you to North by North where most of these seeds came from. I haven't looked up the varieties, other than Dattelwein, so it will be a surprise to see what colour, shape and size they are!

I've also sown a lot of Leek Musselburgh (the rest of the pack is going to be sown direct into an outdoor seed bed later this month - this produced good results last year), Purple Pak Choi, Tatsoi and mixed oriental salad leaves.

The potatoes are chitting

The seed potatoes and onions sets are biding their time in the cool attic. The plan is to sow the earlies (Dunluce) in the first week of April and the main crop (Setanta) two or three weeks later. The 400 onions (Sturon, Stuttgarter, Sutton and Centurion) can hopefully go in last week of March. I've already planted out the shallots under a cloche. 

Awaiting burial

The overwintering brassicas (Cauliflower Barcelona and Spring Cabbage Caraflex) look big enough to be planted out. I'm just waiting for this frosty night to be over. The winter salad Valdor is doing well in the greenhouse. I'll leave half of them in the greenhouse and plant out the rest.

Valdor in one of the tomato containers

The veg garden is almost prepped. Jim's aerated the soil in about half of it with his new broad fork - it's well needed after all the rain. He's also dug in a lot of compost into the raised beds so these are ready to go now.

Ready for action

The main theatre of action at the moment is the bottom paddock. We've uncovered a new growing area that had been under plastic for 10 months and the soil looks good underneath (now the question is: How stony is it?). With the aid of two hard-working Glaswegian friends we've covered another 150 square metres with black plastic. This will be next year's project: four rotating beds for the large crops (potatoes, onions, brassica, legumes). This will make it much easier to keep track of where they've been growing and rotate them properly.

New growing area, with rotation beds in the background

We've also commenced a major hack-back of the bramble & weed area by the pond. The pile for the Easter bonfire is growing higher and higher. We will leave a few of the brambles in the hope that they will be producing tastier fruit than previously after this pruning. But the rest of them will have to be rooted out one by one. Who needs a gym when you've got a garden?

Hacked back brambles as far as the eye can see