Thursday 28th June 2012 - seeds, earthing up potatoes and ... a newt!

The day started as usual, bit of sun... bit of rain...

We began earthing up the potatoes. This means literally what it sounds like - we add earth around the base and cover up to two thirds of the plant's leaves which then begin to grow out again. We do this to ensure there are no tubers - or potatoes - growing above the soil.

Next we planted some seeds out in our raised beds -

To do this, we used a board which is the same width as the raised bed and used it to guide the side of a trowel along to create a small trench in which to sow the seeds...

Before sowing, we added some compost to the bottom of the trench and a little bit of water to give them a good start.

Then the seeds were sown and gently covered, hopefully they will begin to pop out in a couple of weeks...



Lastly, for this week, we discovered a little visitor to the project - a newt!

It looks like, from basic identification by a less than qualified newt practitioner to be a palmate newt - however - these are easy to mix up with smooth (or common) newts - either way, a welcome visitor to the plot!