Spring is here!

At last - a spell of lovely weather! The sun has been shining, the rain has held off for at least five days and I have been to the allotment and dug, dug, dug. I have also got sunburned shoulders, nose and ears!

So - since Friday I have planted all the potatoes, first earlies (rocket), salad potatoes (Anya and Charlotte) and maincrop (Picasso), sown red and green salad bowl lettuce and tom thumb lettuce, french breakfast radish, spring onions, corn salad and leeks. I have also planted a couple of dahlias that I had dug up last autumn. Of course all this planting and sowing has meant a correspondingly large amount of digging, raking, tilthing and soil preparation, but I have enjoyed it. The upside of all the rain is that the soil is easy to dig and the weeds give up the grip much easier than normal.

The broad beans have germinated and are growing well in the sunshine and the onions and shallots are all sprouting and taking off. The gooseberries are flowering and the three blackcurrant bushes I transplanted last autumn are looking good.

I have dug up the last of the leeks and parnsips and all we are eating at the moment is mounds of beautiful purple sprouting broccoli.

We have also begun the fruit cage over the raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants. The tame photographer has pounded in some tall posts and we started to cover it with netting, but on account of my inability to count properly, we need to buy some more netting to finish off next week - otherwise it looks good, and hopefully will keep the birds of the precious fruit. The strawberries have to remain unnetted for the time being, but we can spread netting over them for the fruiting period.

At home, I have sown greyhound cabbage and runner beans for planting out when the weather is a bit more clement.

All in all - a hugely productive and enjoyable weekend!