What on earth has that man been feeding his horses on? I’ve spent another hour or more today on the first four vegetable beds that I started yesterday, and still there are great lumps of manure lying around despite all my work and some of the hardest frosts we’ve had in a while.

I thought the weather and the worms would have done more to help but some of the lumps are almost like clay, and you know how sticky and difficult that can be.

Anyway I think I’ll say these four are done for now. I’ll leave them for the earth to settle and then when I’m ready for planting I’ll give them a final rake over to get them level and break up any last remaining lumps.

The red onions have germinated quite nicely on top of the boiler. I’ve put them on the window sill today and will put them in the conservatory, with the leeks tomorrow.