Well the vegetable garden is going well! Todays picking is delicious. Nodig, organic.

Really enjoyed speaking at the ICC European annual conference in Madrid. Fabulous hospitality from Cricket Spain! Wonderful to meet so many fabulous people who all share a passion for cricket and the good it can do!

Brilliant night at the #GMA awards, hosted at Anfield by Liverpool FC. I was pleased to award the Professional Cricket Grounds Team of the Year award to Lancashire CCC.

Great to see the flood recovery well underway on the New Road pitches. This innovative method allows Stephen Manfield the WCCC HGM to germinate seed and grow grass when the conditions outside won’t allow for at least another two months, and with soil temps of 17 degrees it’s easy to see why.

Was intending to start installing micro irrigation today (work often takes me away from home for a few days at a time) but it’s what can only be described as ‘minging’ up in West Cheshire today so I bottled out and went to find some seed potatoes instead. I chose Pentland Javelin for first earlies.

Garlic. The first thing that has been planted out in my little plot since it’s creation (ignoring the beans that were for a green compost) and a week after the mushroom compost went down in the beds. There are other rows dotted about the edges, intended to deter pests for crops to come. #nodig

And have the start of a planting plan mapped out (needs refining). Will be adding irrigation next weekend because I’m often away for several nights at a time once cricket things start happening.

Grew impatient with the field beans that I hadn’t grown first under glass (though not as impatient as Mrs Grassjunkie was becoming with the large pile of compost on the drive) so applied cardboard and then 4-5” of the lovely spent mushroomy stuff to the beds. Have enough left for last bit in March.

We’ve been at it too. I think it’s too early but the kids conspired to force decorations up for the start of advent and that’s become our tradition. I did my Chevy Chase impression with the outdoor lights and survived to tell the tale and the tree is up. Frippery to follow during the week.

Well I got some pathways down and today, assisted by my able assistant (youngest daughter), managed to get some field beans into the ground in three of the beds as a green manure and to help the soil recover. It’s a bit late but they won’t grow in the bag and I’m banking on more mild weather. #nodig

Finally completed my greenhouse today by installing a central path, a bed with several inches of compost on one side and staging over soil on the other. Next is to mark out the beds and install simple paths. I was going to sow a green manure of field beans, but the weather has really set me back.

I wish it wasn’t raining 😭

A prisoner of war camp in 1945

If you are someone who uses the clegg hammer in sports turf, then this number will surprise you. The new soil currently in use for England squads goes rather harder than normal!

I’m away for work so the big dog spent the night sleeping hard on my side of the bed. Apparently he’s now gone back to his bed for a rest.

Jason from Surrey Loams Ltd and I looking at the new Gamechanger cricket soil we developed so England cricket squads could practice in conditions more representative of overseas. Genuine pace and bounce in these decks, they take spin well and are suitable for UK grasses and climate.

So for my first Bluesky post I thought I’d share pics of how my little vegetable plot is progressing at home. This was meant to be a nodig project but then I found the remains of an old building buried a couple of inches under the turf over the entire area😵. Rubble now buried 1m+! Nodig from now on!