Plotting

I havent been at the computer for a few days, a combination of Easter tide, school holidays and pleasant weather have conspired to keep me from the keyboard. Amongst other things I have been down on the allotment once or twice, which has been very pleasant – Good Friday being the traditional time to start planting potatoes, I have managed to get my First Earlies in, Winstons in case you are interested – here they are arriving on the back of my bike…

My second Earlies (Lady Balfour) have still to go in, I had meant to have put them in already, but time has conspired against me. I’ve also been planting out the strawberries, which have taken up last year’s garlic patch, where they will be happy companions with some self seeded borage. I have cloched some of the strawberry plants in the hope that they will come into fruit a bit earlier.

Another big project has been the beginning of a wildlife pond in one corner of the plot…

At the moment the pond is rather mis-shapen, with steep plastic slopes on each side, I shall have to undermine them a bit to change that landscape. The aim is to have some fairly wild plant growth around the pond, which at the moment looks like nothing more than a large (and unaccountably rectangular) muddy puddle. As you can see, a neighbour has kindly donated a plastic duck… he also donated a few young fish, who I expect to die imminently. Either that or they will grow huge and eat any wildlife which attempt to cohabit with them… sigh.

In the background you will see some of my garlic, 56 plants in total in that bed, which are coming along nicely. Next to them is a boxed off Asparagus bed, I am keeping a close eye on it, but as yet no Asparagus is showing.

Some of the broad beans survived, and I am trying to protect them from pest attack as they are now flowering and should begin to fruit before too long. Rhubarb is springing up all over the place, and we have plenty of herbs on the go now. Seedlings are all over the house at the moment, I’m looking forward to getting them hardened off, this year I plan not to destroy them on the way to the allotment!