So I have a chunk missing out of one finger now, but it was worth it. One month ago, I started the raised bed. Today. I repaired the sides – one with a plastic spike and one with duct tape ugh. Raked it over, pulled out a log that had magically risen to the surface (I have a plan for it), added a forty-litre bucket of compost from Bin 1, a few kilos of grit, half a bag of Perlite and around 75 litres of peat free compost, mixed and raked and levelled it. Hammered in the hoops. Made A-frames.

Planted Red Baron onion sets, nasturtium Black Velvet, Scorpius spinach, borage and Gniff carrot. That’s about half the bed. Leaving the other half until end of month, when I can sow beetroot, parsnip, cornflower and whatever else I think I can fit in it. I just covered it in fleece again because we’re about to have another cold night. Should be the last one for a while, so I’ll take the fleece off in the morning.

And then wrestled the netting over. It’s not quite pinned down all around — it needs to relax a bit. So right now it’s just ziptied to the hoops and stretched over the A-frames until it calms down. I doubt it will protect completely against the cats, foxes and squirrels that make this patch such a nightmare, but I can at least make it harder for them. I’m going to spread the top with grit and organic Slug-Fuck-Off end of the coming week.

Now it’s time to wash out the propagator and start some peppers and tomatoes indoors.