Obviously now it’s up I am spending ALL my plot time in the greenhouse. So far I’ve edged a path with some spare (and a bit dubious rot-wise) old decking and filled it with cardboard and woodchip. I hope that doesn’t mean I have invited a new population of woodlice into the thing, but it was a quick and easy fix given that, for once, I had what I needed on site. The borders are 2ft wide on the long sides, and 2.5ft deep on the short end because I miscalculated the path and made it too short. Luckily I have long arms…

I’ve started digging over the borders – it’s harder than I thought not to undermine the sleepers. The ground there is very, very solid. And orange with a blue layer running through it. The plan is to dig in about 3 barrows of rotted manure, mix in some BFB and top with a bale of compost. Then cover and leave till plants are big enough to go in. I’m about half-way through that at the moment, so should be finished at the weekend.

I can see how easy it would be to go completely overboard on accessories…there’s so much stuff you can get! I’ve bought some rings on T-bolts to use to fix bamboos along the top for supporting tomatoes and I thought I might put up some deep guttering with excess strawberry plants in next Spring. Also on their way are yellow sticky traps, shelf brackets and an autovent (thanks for the info Alan!) – I don’t want to be worrying about getting to the plot every morning and night.

My current dither is about staging.  Because I am going to be growing in the borders, I want to have staging that can be put away. I think I am going with a wide shelf at the back of the greenhouse (which is the south end…) and living with the plasticky bits and pieces I have already. Unless someone wants to buy me folding staging…

At home I’ve re-sown some Kent Blue peas, rosa bianca aubergines (found a few more) and put in Amythest and Minidor DFB. 2 of the Shishigatani squash are up, as well as the Genovese courgettes saved from last year. Now to find my cucumber seeds and line the rest of the squashes up.