[cloddopper]

For the last four months or so things have not been too clever & neither have I .
 My elder two brothers 70 & 75 became ill around November , they had strokes & heart attacks then died with in a few week of each other .  During that period I've also been struggling with disabilities & being told I'm allowed a carer plenty of points for that but am one point short of the higher rate PIP's ( an appeal has been set in motion but it does take its toll on you . )

As a result I'm well behind  in getting seedlings in trays in the heated UV propagation  bed . I, don't have anything in the glasshouse heated mist propagation bed & I still have several of my square foot gardening beds to clean up & prep for this planting season.

Today & yesterday I brought up my seed lists to date In the computer , & printed off a working set which I heat sealed in clear envelopes  .
 I've had a master sowing cropping schedule reprinted as 40 sides on white heavy of A2 card .
 This afternoon I wrote out the crops to be sown with thair sow perios 7 likely hartvest time on the sowing schedule . I now have a plan for 106 small 15 ml  airtight containers of seeds to be sown this year .
 Obviously some of th containers are different varieties of th same seed .
Carrots .. Valerio .. by Franchatti ( sp ? ) have done us proud right through their sowing & cropping cycle .  Yesterday morning saw me harvest the last ones to clear the final carrot square in a bed out .      I got  10 x 2-3 inch dia by anything from 6 up to 14 inches long . Once the tops were twisted of I buried then in a big plastic bucket of well dampened  chopped coir mulch . That & another big bucket stored in the same manner should see us in carrots till early June

 Tomorrow all being well should see me sitting down  using my home made vacuum seed sucker.
With lick  I should be able to individually sow seeds in a couple of hundred of my bottomless seed tubes & get them in the heated UV lit propagation bed .
Late sown things soon catch up this time of the year .

 We have almost consumed all the sprouts , side leaves & tops . , there are still several everlasting  Kales & a dozen or more of 10 week over wintered  leeks to go .

The PSB is starting to develop .
If our good weather stays like this till Sunday we should be having some with our roast beef & Yorkshire pud .

 Our  rhubarb has suddenly started to race out of the ground with large numbers of thick red stalks .  That compost mulch I put on a few weeks ago & the slow release plant feed sticks I pushed in near the crowns on th same day  have come up trumps again .

[devonlady]

Oh, Dave, I am so sorry for your trouble, losing brothers is hard to bear.
Good for you for carrying on, I find it hard to.
                                                          Sylvia XX

[cloddopper]

Thanks DL,
Death is part of the cycle of life , both of them,, like me have has an amazing life & done all manner of things all over the world .
Neither of them turned up their toes wishing that they had done something that never happened & none of them ever mentioned wanting to do a few more years work .

John was 71 & Bill 76 so they were not too worried at the prospect & eventuality of leaving this mortal coil .
 Both Bill & John  successfully completed their cycle , they both had grandchildren kids .

 I'm quite sure that neither of them would want me wasting away worrying about them either .
Luckily I was able to see both of them a few weeks before their demise.

Anyway that garden of mine .
Things are appearing to be a little slow / too cold at present .
I've got a few score of my bottomless seed tubes sown up with various seeds & I'm starting them off in in seed trays on the heated UV bed in our office.

I'm sowing a few seeds every fortnight to give me contilual crops throught ehir sgrowing season .
 I remember the year just after Alison & I got married .  I said to her, "  Sweet heart can you sow a short row of kohlrabi please ? They are at the front of the shoe box of seeds in an unopened packet ".

 I carried on deep rotavating in a foot or so of four year old cow much & straw where the polytunnel was to go .

 Suddenly she came up to me , her face beaming with pride at her first time of sowing seeds . " Darling can I have some more seeds please "?  she said .
Me ..
 Errr yes , why ?
 Alison .
I've sown all of the kohlrabi .
 
Puzzled I asked her to show me where .
 There between two long seed labels 25 inches apart were two full packets of kohlrabi seeds.


All I could do was smile hold her hands , then hug her as I explained about placing the seeds about 2 inches apart & at 15 inches between rows and that a short row would be about half of a six foot long row  ...... the bed's width  .

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Sorry to hear about your brothers, it must have been very difficult for you. I am glad you're getting round to doing the garden, I still haven't completed mine, I am starting to sow some veg seeds though... So far I have a tray of plum tomato seeds, runner beans and summer fruits, IE squashes, I have pumpkins to sow now... I did sow sugarsnap peas earlier on this year and they have come up with vigour, I put them into their own boxes with canes to grow up, they seem to be doing very well. Gardening is rather difficult when you are having to juggle lambing/calving around it... But it does have to be done doesn't it? As reggie perrin says, time and motion wait for no man
All the best with the gardening Dave and keep up the good work
WBF