The leaf bin has been stirred up and the drier top layer has been removed in favour of J’s somewhat slimy leaves. They’ve been mixed in and as everything compresses again, I’ll add the oak leaves back. I probably won’t up end the leaf bin until next year.

I’ve spread two sacks of manure on Bed 1 and Bed 10. It needed a bit of breaking up and I’m going to leave the beds open for now. I can always recover them if weeds start. Bed 1 needs a straw covering too at some point.

Bed 2 has had a sprinkling of phosphorous and a bag of compost. The low beds are being brought up more generously this year. In a year or two, I won’t always need to add as much new material.

I’ve sown half a row of chard, left a line for beetroot and/or carrot and left half a bed of space for French beans, which I hope I might do better this year if I actually tend to the plants more.

In the afternoon I did and level 3  then 2 mow all around. It needs some more aggressive edging, as I’m still left with the paths climbing the sides of the path and I don’t want that to get away from me. There are also some worm cast mounds and weeds that have appeared over winter that I need to sort out.

I’ve sown half row of carrot and and half a row of beetroot in Bed 10. New kinds this year: Maestro carrots and Moneta beetroot, which is a monogerm. The seed looks quite a bit flatter than Boltardy.

The goldfinches returned today, making a lot of fuss at each other at the top of the tree. The robin was following me around and hanging about in front of the shed to summon me. He took mealworms from my shoe and later took them from my hand a couple of times. I hope to get that on record next time. And if I could find a way to do it without being folded in half, that would be good too.