8/9 and 14/15 March - The Lost Weekends

I don't know what happened. We just lost the momentum for a bit, distracted by trivial non-plot matters such as the felling of a tree in our garden, our cat's first rabbit of the season and such. But we will try now and capture for you two weekends worth of plot activity on 8/9 and 15 March. Because we don't want you to think that we have lost interest in the plot - far from it.

(The thing I am realising about blogging is that it's really meant to be contemporaneous, not a Proustian gathering of thoughts. Is it better not to blog if you leave it too long to remember the minutiae? We have probably deprived you of a better quality blog because we have now forgotten some infinitesimal moment that you would have enjoyed. On the other hand, the act of remembrance can be a great editor and maybe the reader appreciates that more.)

8/9 March

A lot of seed action. We have got Red Baron and Napoleon onions sown at home in a seedtray just showing. We moved the brave broccoli and leek seedlings to the garden cold frame and sowed 2 small gutters worth of Excellencz and Kelveden Wonder which perch nicely on the conservatory window ledge.

On the plot, we prepared the new seed bed (located now in the Pagoda if you recall - keep up) by hoeing, raking and putting some of the nice pumpkin soil on. We then actually sowed the first seeds in the seed bed - cabbage (Primo), broccoli and leeks (Ironman and Malabar - as an experiment to see they do better than the home sown ones), sunflower.

We also sowed the grass seeds for our lawn. All very therapeutic. No garlic showing as yet but we decided to lift up the Enviromesh from the elephant garlic as it is so big and strong. The comfrey is looking good.

The weather was nice and mild and we had lots of feedback from Jan who had gone to the Council's allotment meeting. Seemingly, the Cottonmill Lane site has security problems that make ours look like toytown so we feel very lucky. The Council are happy to act as postman for our plotholders to arrange an open meeting. I have booked the Falcon pub to host the evening.

Also a spring tidy for our plot shed. A tidy shed is a tidy mind.

Our allotment lock. Very old skool.

14/15 March

Very exciting - we plant our first Early potatoes - Arran Pilot. They had chitted long and hard and were definitely ready for the off.

We also planted some Belle de Fontenay potatoes purchased from Homebase as a sort of comparison on a hastily improvised bed next to the comfrey previously covered with carpet. We work out the distances between rows and potatoes very seriously and wonder if we have left enough room for the maincrops which need more space.

The garlic planted two weeks ago (or maybe more in Blogland?) is now showing. The daffodills are looking fab, including the few that have sprouted up uninvited in the plot. We carefully allow for them when moving or doing pathways. They could be very old.

One of the autumn raspberry canes already has tiny little leaves.

The weather did an about turn overnight so Sunday was meant a dash in the rain to sow sweet peas around the inside of the Pagoda. We have lovely ideas of a fragrant monument to lure in the bees and nice insects. We have to sow them even though it is nasty wet and cold because the seeds have been soaked overnight in warm water, like it says on the packet, so we can't leave them otherwise they will go mouldy.

We promise we will be better bloggers.