Weed of the month

Forget-me-nots. All over the place. I'd have hauled them out weeks ago but I read somewhere that they're very attractive to honeybees so I've given them a reprieve.

Only for a little bit longer. Watch out little blue weeds - your days are numbered!

Happy gardening

The compost fairy

Well, so much for sowing seed! Of the seeds sown last time I posted, only three tiny parsnip seedlings have appeared and I don't know what happened to the rest. So I've sown some more, just parsnips this time and I also added a row of beetroot next to the potatoes. Over the last week or so I've been planting out pak choi, spinach beet and lettuce seedlings, but the big job has been watering (an hour and a half each time I go) and there's still no sign of rain!

The big thrill this post is that the compost fairy (burly bloke called Joe) has been, so I've now got plenty of good organic matter to dig in or spread over my plot. Just in time to enrich the bed I'm getting ready for the cane beans. Excellent timing.

Happy gardening

J admiring Sandy and Roger's plot next door.

Our own plot is now strimmed (thanks J) and dug over (that was me) and is looking nice and tidy but a bit empty. The garlic, broad beans and onions are coming up. The potatoes are yet to appear but the rest of the beds that aren't given over to permanent planting are waiting for their new occupants. I've sown some seed, carrots, parsnips and spring onions but they haven't appeared either and I think they may have dried out during the very hot week we've just had. So.......




.........I've been popping seeds into pots at home like a crazy obsessed thing. I didn't even stop when I ran out of windowsill (there's more under the piano) I can't wait till they're big and strong enough to plant them out. Let's hope there's going to be enough room for them all!





Happy gardening (exciting, isn't it?)

Rhubarb rhubarb

This week, I've been mostly eating leeks and rhubarb. Actually some of the rhubarb's still sitting in the fridge waiting for me to do something with it. The leeks are good though.

Both my rhubarb plants were flowering but I cut the strange, knobbly flowers off because I'm told they waste valuable stalk producing energy. Probably a good thing, but I often don't really know what to do with my rhubarb. This week I bundled up a little pile of stalks and took them into work. Somebody there knows what to do with them. They disappeared anyway!

Happy gardening. Enjoy your rhubarb.

Early drought

It's been another lovely day but already the dry weather is adding the extra job of watering to all the other work we do at this time of year.

During the last couple of weeks I've put in some Charlotte potatoes, the rest of the broadbeans (Bunyards Exhibition) and sown a couple of rows of parsnips and carrots but the ground is now so dry that I need to go and water every couple of days. It is really, really early in the year for all this watering. An effect of climate change maybe? Or just weather, which as we all know, can be unpredictable.

Whatever the reason, I can't just leave my newly emerged plants or germinating seeds to dry out!

Happy gardening (and watering)

No excuses

Really, no excuses. It's spring. I've had the week off work to get the allotment started for the year and it's been great. There's been real warmth in the sun and the soil's turned over nicely. And I feel great too, aching obviously, but purposeful. Invigorated.


At the start of the week I did a lot of digging and forking through the great clods left by winter, hoiked out all the weeds that had taken over and started a tiny bit of planting. So far, only broad beans (Meteor) and red and white onions (Red Baron and Stuttgarter) But most of the groundwork is done, my potatoes are chitting and there's another packet of broad beans ready to go in the moment I get time. Oh, and today (this is the icing on the cake) we have frogspawn in the pond!


I wish I had another week off next week!
Happy gardening

Ice Ice baby

This little iceberg was on the water tank this afternoon. It was a glorious day, cold but sunny and the first time I've ventured up the hill for ages.

I kept warm by digging up leeks and sprouts and then clearing some weeds.

My neighbour was planting asparagus! Very exciting. There are a couple of asparagus beds already on our allotments but I don't think it would work terribly well in my rather clayey soil. I'll stick to the leeks and sprouts for now. Maybe next year.

I returned home to a house that's as icy cold as the allotment. The wretched boiler hasn't worked today so apart from one room that we've managed to warm up with a fan heater, I might as well be spending the evening in the shed!

Happy gardening. Brrr.