Spring Break

It's the two week spring break (rather than Easter Holidays) and I don't think I've looked forward to a holiday as much as this for a long time. I was hoping the weather would be consistently spring-like so that I would be able to go to the allotment every day (or thereabouts). However, April showers are here to stay - and hopefully bringing with them May flowers - here's hoping. Anyway there have been breaks in the showers, and apart from Sunday when I came home drenched, I have been to the allotment plenty of times and kept dry.

Last week the Tame Photographer took to his bed with a nasty cold, and he also had to work on Sunday, so I had a couple of trips to the allotment without a photographer. I did take some photos of my own, but they really are not a patch on the real thing! Most of my visits have been concerned with making 'a fine tilth' for sowing seeds, and then duly sowing them. I have sown perpetual spinach, spinach beet, turnips, more radishes, pak choi, peas, tom thumb lettuce, January King cabbage, and parsnips. This year I thought we would grow a large variety of vegetables to see what do best, and then maybe concentrate of them next year. I thinned out the original radishes and salad bowl lettuce and the coriander, beetroot and carrots have all germinated. You can't imagine how excited I get when I see these tiny seeds gradually developing in small plants. It really is miraculous!

I prepared a couple of new beds, this time digging in some ancient 'rooster' (pelleted chicken manure) we found in our garden shed, and a bit of growmore for luck. Also, at the moment I am covering everything I plant/sow with either chicken wire, netting or fleece, mostly because the local wildlife enjoy digging in freshly prepared soil that smells strongly of chicken manure. Everyone to their own, I guess!

Yesterday, the tame photographer arose from his bed and came with me to the allotment. He continued the process of creating a fine tilth (a job he is spectacularly good at) and sowed himself a half row of radishes and a half row of carrots. I pottered around weeding and digging and the like. We then made a foray to B&Q and bought some chicken wire and a new sieve (for the continued production of 'fine tilth'!). I had also been back to the allotment to show a friend around. She is interested in getting an allotment herself so wanted a guided tour. At one point we were accosted by an old boy asking if we had permission to be there - the first time I had met someone who was not totally welcoming - and I did wonder what he thought two middle-aged women were up to (maybe a spot of vandalism, or more likely industrial (or horticultural) espionage).

I've just looked at my photos, and decided not to post them - too embarrassing. I'll just wait until better ones appear.