Squash lucky dip

I had perhaps two dozen squash seeds in the propagator when the weather was ridiculously hot a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately everything in it ended up getting cooked. I just couldn’t control the temperature enough. As none of the squashes appeared to have germinated at that point despite being sown several weeks previously I decided to abandon them and re-sow. No point in wasting the compost though, so I emptied out the pots to use it again. I found quite a few seeds that had gone mushy and removed them.

The following day I potted up fresh seeds and in the process found eight that appeared to have germinated, but not fully emerged from the seed case. Not wanting to waste anything, I potted them back up as well and returned them to the propagator.

A few days later and here we are. Of course at this point I have no idea what the plants will be. There must be at least four possibilities. I’ll just have to stick them in the ground and see what happens.

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Such a fun guy to be with

Whilst working in the veggie plot yesterday, I noticed this little mushroom in the grass, all by itself.

And then in the polytunnel, this one.

I assume they’d been triggered by the large swings in temperature (and rainfall, come to think of it) that we’ve had recently.

By the end of the day, the first had developed further.

No idea what type of mushroom they are, but even if they are edible there’s not exactly a lot of eating on either 😀

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No dig diary, 6th June 2026

The first thing to get done today was to plant out chile peppers and aubergines in the greenhouse where I spread compost yesterday. The peppers are a mix of Malawi Piquant, Biquinho and Khang Star Lingria, the last of which was a freebie with my order from Chillichump.

That done, I moved on to the polycrub, weeding again. This space has been largely ignored for the last nine months thanks to the many other problems I’ve had to deal with. It hasn’t even had a door on, so won’t have been the warmest space over Winter. Regardless, my weeding revealed two pepper plants that have survived and started shooting despite not even being watered in the heat we had a couple of weeks back. I’ve no idea what variety they are, but I can’t justify pulling up plants that have demonstrated such a will to survive so I’ve given them a good watering and we’ll see what happens now they’re not smothered by Cleavers and thistles.

I started spreading compost once the weeds were clear but didn’t get very far, so finishing that off will be tomorrow’s job.

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No dig diary, 5th June 2026

Weeding and compost-spreading in one of the greenhouses today, preparing for plants to go into the ground tomorrow: peppers and aubergines to start with, then melons once they’re large enough. Perhaps a few other bits and pieces too, once the garlic comes out in a few weeks time.

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Yanmar 1510D starter motor replacement

As I mentioned a few days back, the starter motor on the tractor has been playing up. With hindsight I suspect it has actually been close to failing for some time. Anyhow, I had a hunt online for possible replacements and found one on Ebay for less than £100. Quite possibly I could have had the existing one rebuild (or potentially even done it myself), but it didn’t seem likely to be any cheaper an option, particularly as the tractor sees a fair bit of use at this time of year.

Fortunately, having removed the side panel, the starter is pretty easy to get to.

Disconnect the positive terminal of the battery, unplug/unbolt the two wires on the motor and then it’s just two nuts that need removing, though one of those is a little awkward to get at. I used a ?” socket with an extension that was long enough to clear the motor body. That done, the starter just pulls off.

I removed the replacement from its packaging and had a slight worry. They’re quite different sizes and I don’t think the bendix gears even had the same numbers of teeth.

Following the advice of The Beautiful South I opted to carry on regardless and in proper Haynes manual fashion, reassembly was the reverse of disassembly.

I was half-expecting that the motor would just spin on its own and fail to engage with the ring gear on the flywheel, but as it happened the engine fired up first turn of the key, more easily than it has done for ages.

Now back to the mowing…

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No dig diary, 4th June 2026

At last the polytunnel is planted up with almost all of the crops I want in it this year, having been delayed by the cold and my blood pressure issues. All the tomatoes and peppers are in, just have cucumbers and basil to go once they’re large enough to transplant.

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No dig diary, 3rd June 2026

Sweet Williams in the cutting bed, almost all in flower now. Of course the difficult question is going to be, given that they’re biennial, where do I plant out the ones that I sowed this year?

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No dig diary, 2nd June 2026

I had to take some time away from, well, outdoors really, because it has been so hot and I just couldn’t cope with it. Once temperatures returned to something more “normal” for the time of year however, I got on with finishing the spreading of compost in the polytunnel.

Whilst I was filling the wheelbarrow I thought I could feel some residual heat in the heap (the last remaining from last year) so I put the thermometer into it. I was somewhat surprised by the result given that no material has been added since early November.

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DH Hell, yet again

“Delivered”. Never mind that rain was forecast later.

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Ok, so I’m confused

I have to admit that I’m partial to the occasional corned beef and pickle (or corned beef and onion) sandwich. Whilst opening a can of said bovine comestible today, I noticed this:

So which is it? 100%? Or 98%?

Make it make sense.

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