Dereks Diary Part 2

Been at Blackleach all day today and I spent an hour this morning weeding and tidying up the herb wheel.

I said yesterday that the weather was a bit colder but today was the first really cold and frosty morning and the lawns were white over. Rosemary needed the car most of the day so I didn't go anywhere. I still hadn't brushed the sand over the back lawn but I thought I had better keep off with it being frosty. So I decided to start sorting all my canes of which I have hundreds. I do them in my larger greenhouse. I have first to shift my plants about to make room on one side. I examine each cane to make sure they are sound by applying pressure to the bottom to see if they break. If any breaks off the bottom of a cane it is still usable as long as the rest of it is sound. When they are all sorted into different sizes I tie them into bundles.
The back lawn had thawed out a bit in the afternoon so I did brush the sand over it , then went back to my cane sorting. I still have the front lawn to do but this is only half the size. however I find that scarifying the lawns then pushing in the fork in and withdrawing it , then brushing in the sand is really tiring work, and much harder than digging so this is one reason I left it till another day.

Today I have scarified and forked the front lawn and brushed sand all over it like I did for the back lawn. Glad that job is done for another year. Went in the greenhouse after and did some more cane sorting. I had done those 4 feet and over, up to 6 feet so I tied these in bundles and stood them up outside. I then began sorting the shorter ones. The canes over 6 feet long are kept in my shed on the allotment.

Supposed to be meeting Johnny Woods at 1.00 to get my leeks so I thought I would go to the allotment this morning. Before I went, though he phoned and asked me to go at 11.30 so I changed my plans and decided to go to the allotment this afternoon instead. So I went in the greenhouse this morning till it was time to go. Finished what I was doing with the canes first. In order to sort the canes I had to remove the shelves from one side of the greenhouse but I noticed that two of the brackets that held the shelves were badly corroded so I replaced them before I put the shelves back.
I had to go to the allotment sometime today because she wanted some sprouts but I thought it was too wet for digging and weeding. It had done 0.6 inches of rain overnight and it poured down while I was on the motorway on my way to meet John. While I was on the allotment I decided to take soil samples of all the beds. When I had done this it started raining again so I came home. When it stopped I took some samples from my garden and put all the samples (12 altogether I think )on saucers and put them on top of the kitchen cupboards to dry out.
As you probably know I organise the Salford Garden bird survey which is one of the jobs I do from Blackleach country park. One of the Rangers prints all the sheets and I got them last time I went. I spent yesterday evening stapling the sheets together and this evening I have put 95 in envelopes ready for posting.(I had addressed the envelopes previously ). I also send some to all the libraries in Salford. Besides all these there are several people ,including Sue A, who take part in it on line so these people will soon be receiving the forms.

This afternoon with the greenhouse being empty I have cleaned the windows inside and then put the propagator in position and fixed up the two warming benches. These warming benches have soil warming cables in between layers of sand ,about an inch below the cable and an inch on top. Didn't have time to transfer any of the plants back.

This is how the greenhouse is at present You can see the two warming benches and the home made propagator which is covered with sheets of glass when in use.