Almost liftoff

Pretty much all the hard back-breaking work is now done in terms of shifting tonnes of sand, boring holes, lugging bales of peat, planting spuds and getting greenhouse frameworks sorted. A good job too as I've lost so much weight i'm now only 14stone 6lbs and am wasting away. From now on it's a lot of sowing, planting, feeding, tying up, tweaking and generally fannying about in order to make sure your stuff stays fit and healthy for the next few months.

I got 50 late sown onion plants in today, the so-called Frisco variety which is probably Tasco as Frisco appears not to exist. I planted them in this long bed through a weed suppressant membrane as I am still trying to eradicate bindweed from it.

My tomatoes are looking good as are the 'Bonica' aubergines I've planted in front of them. I've never had plants look this big and this healthy before so hopefully i'll be able to exhibit some for the first ever time this year. There is a danger they could get shaded out by the tomatoes as they climb up into the greenhouse ridge but we shall see. Ideally you want to be planting them in a separate bed with plenty of sunlight but as I haven't got that luxury I will have to manage. The bed was well rotavated and a good layer of horse muck put in the bottom which I hope will benefit both crops. The bottomless watering pots will also feed both.

And it will soon be time to put my gobby predictions into practise and sow my peas for Llangollen. The two inclined poles will be carrying my runner beans, the first sowings of which germinated today. I have some new plans on how to grow runners this season and will be going into this in June. The row where the spade is sticking out had a deep trench dug last weekend and an 8" layer of horse muck layered into the bottom of it. This is where I hope to be growing a couple of rows of the best peas ever witnessed at National level or else I'll run round the streets of Llangollen naked shouting Ian Stocks is my hero. In front of that are my bags of Kestrel and NVS Amour spuds.

All kinda exciting aint it?