A Ton-a-Muck! (plus updates)

Hi there all,

Been a rather busy week. I have made good use of the dry days and relatively mild weather and have cracked on with the leveling out, and adding of manure to the intended veg patch. BUTI ran out of dirt to level with, so had to order some from a local supplier. It got delivered today, a whole ton of topsoil, along with nine bags of farmyard manure mix (on offer @ 3 for £10). Didn't take as long as I thought to get it all barrowed round the back, about a hour's work in all. This is what a ton of topsoil looks like on the side of the road!

Thing is, cheap enough as it was at £15 per ton (plus £7 to deliver) it was rather stony and there was a bit of vegetation in it too. Not quite as 'sterile' as advertised, but I can't be bothered to moan about it to them. Good job I don't need any more as I won't use them to supply it to me again!! Have a look at the size of one stone!

Honestly, I have enough of my own, I don't need to pay for someone else's!! It was quite a sandy mix, good job really as my garden soil is pretty sandy and open anyway, so it was a fairly good match, except look at the difference in colour. . .

Weird. Hmm, I wonder where it came from? Stony, woody vegetation, sandy, kind of yellow in colour. Oh well, I'm sure it will mix in with my own dirt well enough and with the muck I have to dig through it too.

Yesterday I did a bit of slab laying. I moved two of these concrete 2ft x 2ft slabs round from the 'oriental' area where I had them stashed, dug out some of the (rather compacted and slimy) lawn, forked it over to try and level it out, then manhandled the slabs into place. Tell you what, these guys are effing heavy!! Ooooh me poor back! Glad I had my old gloves on, they rip your fingers to shreds too if you aren't careful.

I also took delivery on my 'spud' order from J. Parkers. It's a collection of four types of spud, and also has four spud bags to grow them in. Must admit though, the bags look a wee bit small. I am used to growing them in compost bags! I'll have to save a few from my 'muck' digging and put some in those too, see which comes out best.

There are four varieties (shown below still in their bags), Charlotte, Swift, Kestrel, and King Edward. I also have a bag of Pentland Javelin too, got them the other week from Poundland. Hope they grow OK, seeing as they were only £1. That bag at an angle there is a collection of 8 Oriental Lillies. LOVE these, they smell gorgeous! I know they are not edible, but I just love them, so there!!

One last update. Its been five days since I sowed the Microleaf kits, and I promised a report. They are not big enough yet to be snipped. Some were very quick to germinate, one still hasn't - the Celery leaf. Wonder if it will. . . The Basil leaf went all gooey and looked like it was covered in a clear jelly, but it now shows signs of germination.

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