Cleaning up

Once a year I clean the windows in the house - usually in the spring but if we have a celebration coming up (last year it was a cousin's 65th birthday) I time it accordingly. If you only do them once a year they might as well be seen.

Last year, thanks to my son's ant farms being sited just in front of the kitchen window, I never managed to clean the kitchen window. On pain of death would I move those ant farms and the windows stayed grubby. Today we were looking at the difference two years' dirt makes compared with only one year's. This reminded me that the greenhouse glass had never been cleaned and it's been up for nearly seven years! So this afternoon Ralph (the same son) and I went up with buckets, sponges and one of those rubber window cleaning thingys and set to. A few bulbs coming up outside the front of the greenhouse suffered the inevitable boot treatment but I'm sure they'll forgive us.

The result is amazing. I had no idea how dark the inside of the greenhouse had become! I am now determined to replace the glass that was lost during a tornado that swept through our garden about five years ago. The plastic we put in (temporarily!) has long since lost its transparency. Unfortunately, whenever I mention new glass to Max he mutters about not having enough clips to hold the glass in and the cost of the glass will be more than the price of a new greenhouse (well, ok then....!).

I also spent some time taking out all the old plastic flower pots that have been shredded by time and goodness knows what insects. Also, all my seed packets have been shredded - my fault for leaving them in there but what on earth is in the paper and foil casing that provides such irresistable nourishment for these insects?

So the greenhouse is looking almost pristine and I have a great feeling of a job well done! I've already put some mesclun seeds in there and in a few weeks time I'll put some early carrots in there to try and get an early crop.

Outside in the veggie patch I've weeded all the beds and planted all the remaining onion sets. For anyone who's interested we've put in: Red Comred, white ones that I've lost the name of, and two types of shallots: Longor and Mikor. All the garlic, onions and shallots that I put in last autumn are coming up nicely.

This weeks jobs include weeding the flower beds and turning the potato plot again - this time with manure on it. Photos later in the week as there's nothing to see yet!