19 September 2011 - Those trophy pictures in full

Quinquennial review

Those of you with long memories will realise that this year's annual show was our fifth.

The Working Party on Key Performance Metrics (Annual Show) has conducted an analysis of the entries and results over the five-year period.

2007

• one entry
• one 2nd Prize
• 30p profit
  

2008

• four entries
• one 2nd Prize, two 3rd Prizes
• 30p loss
  

2009

• seven entries
• two 1st Prizes, one 2nd Prize, two 3rd Prizes
• 110p profit
  

2010

• seven entries
• two 2nd Prizes, one 3rd Prize
• 40p loss
  

2011

• five entries
• two 1st Prizes, including MacMillan Trophy, one Highly Commended
  
• 100p profit
  

Cumulative

• 24 entries
• four 1st Prizes, including one MacMillan Trophy, five 2nd Prizes, five 3rd Prizes, one Highly Commended
  
• 170p profit (although it should be stressed that we're not in it for the money)

Categories

• potatoes: one 1st Prize (heaviest), one 2nd Prize (Novice)
• onions from seed: one 2nd Prize
• garlic: two 1st Prizes, including MacMillan Trophy, one 3rd Prize, one 3rd Prize (Novice)
• apples: one 3rd Prize (Novice)
• courgettes (zucchini): one 3rd Prize
• tomatoes: one 1st Prize (Novice)
• raspberries: one 2nd Prize, one 2nd Prize (Novice), one Highly Commended
• hand-knit jumper (sweater): one 3rd Prize
• any other vegetable: one 2nd Prize (borlotti)

Trophy wife

I know we've left the blog alone for a bit, but here's some news: at today's St Stephens Gardening Club Annual Show – our fifth, more anon – we won a trophy!

This year's results in full:

• coloured potatoes (5) – no prize, but a Post-It Note read: "beautiful potatoes – a bit large for exhibition"

• heaviest potato (998 grams) – 1st Prize!

• garlic (5) – 1st Prize and (get this) MacMillan Trophy for best exhibit in Class 1 (vegetables)!

• raspberries (12) – Highly Commended
  

• chard – nothing.

Our victory and trophy are all down to K's masterful arrangement of the garlic. It's our first – but not our last – trophy. Very exciting. We're on the road to the Big Time.

Picture of the happy couple to follow.

30 January 2011 - Shaping up

Today we did some good preparation for the season ahead. 2 good hours - the longest we have spent on the plot for what seems like months! Very invigorating and good to reconnect with our little patch of earth

The beds with green manure have all now been dug over and extra manure added if appropriate. The carrot bed had all our left over growbags dumped in it. We hope this will give our roots the conditions they need. Note - parsnips too, as they fork if the ground is too rich. Another bed doomed to grow brassicas was limed and similarly dug through. Two beds are now covered in plastic to warm them up.

N did his pruning thang with the apple trees (note - we shall wrap them up once they start budding to avoid the disaster of late frost last year). After pondering he left the plum and cherry just in case this is not the right time of year for them. He dug up two very invasive raspberries to donate to our new allotmenteers, Chris and Dave, and cut down the remaining plants to the ground.

Our potatoes, purchased in Ayletts, are starting to chit. This year we are growing Sarpo Mira x 10, Sante x 10 and King Edward x 10 (maincrop), Anya x 5 (second early) and Arran Pilot again x 5, Rocket x 10 (first early). I shall post a picture of them chitting for your viewing pleasure.

The mousetraps continue to trap the pesky vermin and - sadly - we suspect one robin.

No sign yet of the garlic we planted recently and the strange old garlic is looking good.

Weather note: cool and cloudy, not unpleasant. Not anywhere near Spring-like that. We hunker down and hope.

2 January 2011 - Happy New Year y'all

Happy New Year - and here's to another great year of growing (some) fab produce.

This is by way of a Note for the Archive really rather than a genuine Blog. It is to record that we planted the garlic today - 56 Solent White (Bed 9), 13 Elephant (stalking along on the bank) and 18 Large Solent White (Bed 5). And the strange mutant garlic from yesteryear is still going. We are a little afraid of what it might become.

Weather note: somewhat less cold (a balmy 3 degrees) and cloudy.

Kill record: 3 more stiff little bodies to collect - yay!

December 2010 - Deep and crisp and even

Well it has been a long time. Festive greetings and a Happy New Year to all our readers!! We have been distracted by the Downstairs Improvement Project over 6 weeks in October/November during which time we more or less left the plot to its own late autumnal devices, having done the requisite sowing of green manure and plonking of real stuff on appropriate beds. It does show our growing confidence with the plot, that we can let it be for a while without panicking. We did of course pop up and avail ourselves of produce as and when required - kale, cabbage, leek and parsnips.

And then the snow came. On Saturday 17 December there was a blizzard for about 4 hours in St Albans. Traffic came to a halt and the main roads were blocked by stranded vehicles. And the allotment became a place of magic, our very own Narnia. We went up the next day and we were the first to go there after the snow, as was evident by the complete lack of tracks, other than those of rabbit or bird.

After marvelling at the transformation, we managed to find ourselves a little winter harvest - miraculous isn't it - that snow and ice can fall and yet some vegetables can still be found. Our ancestors of course had to deal with this on a far more perilous basis. We have also been eating and enjoying our potatoes, squash and garlic as per usual. And had our first dried beans yesterday.

The cold weather has been with us for some weeks now, the temperature hovering around 0 degrees, and it hasn't really inspired us to get on with our usual tasks. We have garlic to plant and beds to reinforce, the shed to clear and tools to clean.

Just after Christmas we had a very welcome visit from my friend and colleague (and some say one of the wise men) Joseph. He is the first from my place of work to witness our pride and joy. The plot looks somewhat shabby and sorry for itself at the moment, various things having died or grimly carrying on. The leeks especially seem determined to keep up appearances. I think - and hope - that Joseph was genuinely impressed with what he saw. He asked the odd intelligent question and seemed happy to pose with a garden implement for the blog. He certainly appreciated the home-cooked produce the night before - a stunning Spanish pumpkin soup, followed by shoulder of lamb with garlic, potatoes and peas. I attempted a raspberry and blackberry fool which refused to set - but was drunk nonetheless with appreciation by the guestage.

We realise that the Downstairs Improvement Project has prevented us from the usual excitement of ordering seeds and potatoes. We will get on the case - because no matter what the weather throws at us in between, spring will come and we must continue our great endeavour.

Pest control note: Many mice have been caught. Most pleasing. Especially as one of the parsnips clearly had been nibbled.

24 October 2010 - Beans and stuff

And so dear reader the mighty Tower of Borlotti was finally laid low and the runner beans dismantled as we had the first sharp frost of the year. We picked a lot of pods and then - fatal error - took out the beans. Unfortunately some of the beans got rotten very quickly afterwards and had to be jettisoned. We now know that you leave the beans in the pods as long as possible and dry the pods first. We are trying to dry out the remainder. The trouble is that they are nice and moist in the pod, and that liquid is very hard to dry off. It is quite viscous. Never mind, we have learnt the hard way.

Last weekend I sowed a couple of row of turnips - apparently the leaves make nice green veg. No sign as yet.

You will be relieved to hear that we found the garden book with the proposed plan for next year. So there is rotation and scope for innovation too. We want to try brassicas in two places - covered and not covered - and see how things go. Here is the list for next year for posterity.
Bed 1 - carrots, parsnips, leeks, shallots (no manure)
Bed 2 - potatoes (no manure)
Bed 3 - corn, courgette, beans etc (manure)
Bed 4 - brassica (manure and lime)
Bed 5 - in two sections - brassica and peas, squash, onions, garlic and corn (manure/manure and lime)
Bed 6 - onion, spring onion, celery (manure)
Bed 7 - strawberries
Bed 8 - undecided (Others or Brassica) (manure)
Bed 9 - garlic (no manure)
Bed 10 - undecided (Others) (manure)

Whether to manure or not is quite complex. We have already described the green manure strategy. More green manure was sown (Bed 4) and we planted a few little chard seedlings which had been started in the greenhouse. The brassicas are looking very good in their enclosure apart from the bloody White Fly which I spray futilely with organic spray.

The mysterious garlic is going great guns, as you can see. It is very odd but at least we now only have to buy one lot of garlic. We think Solent White again, as it is so very good and keeps well.

We also ponder the compost situation. We have acquired a great mass of dying left-over plants which are not going to rot quickly. Next weekend we are going to make some adjustments which will mean covering the open section so it rots down quicker, and that we have better access to the stuff which is in the compost container. Another load of kitchen stuff will be taken up and added to the mix.

A lovely time on the plot. This time of year is quite special. We still consume produce (broccoli, celery, cabbage, beans) but it is definitely slowing down. We are on the cusp of Hallowe'en and even the weeds are looking sleepier. We are donated 2 lovely Cos lettuces by Jan and Pat and march home laden with good things - including a Monster Parsnip destined for lunch. We are thrilled by the size of it. Some things definitely do work out in the end.

16 October 2010 - Autumn bounty

Hello peeps. Two October weekends in the plot and there is now increasing evidence of slowing down. Last weekend we planted over-wintering onions in the carrot bed (kindly donated by Jan thus saving a dash to Ayletts), dug up the remaining potatoes, picked a cabbage and celery and raspberries and broccoli. And apples and blackberries (for free). Oh and the second large pumpkin so we're all good to go for Hallowe'en/Bonfire Nite.



Potato note - the maincrops (planted in the new bed near the shed) were not great in yield. We don't know whether it was because the soil was insufficiently enriched or the soil is pretty stony. We have now manured the bed and covered it over. The second earlies on the other hand were much better, and we also had quite a few volunteer tatties. We think we have sufficient for the winter.

The green manure planted in Bed 1 is looking great but the other bed didn't come up, so we sowed some more of a different type. We ponder whether it's OK to put green manure on a bed that doesn't need manuring for next year's crop. We think it's OK because "it's plants not manure". The Tower of Bolotti is still intact and we will harvest and dry the beans soon.

Last weekend I did the plan for next year's crops which I shall share with you once I have found the damn book where the planning is done (a scribbled freehand plan of the plot with lots of pencil rubbing out). We are having extensive internal works (new kitchen, decorating etc) and everything is a bit discombobulated at present. One thought is that next year we could trial growing brassicas without netting, as we note that those who Go Commando (as it were) do not seem to suffer disproportionately, whereas we get nasty slugs which could be eaten by the birdies if they could be reached. The thing about crop rotation is that it gets tougher each year, and the division into groups is all very well (Brassicas, Roots, Others) but you are more likely to want to eat more Others as it includes stuff like garlic, beans, peas, courgettes, etc, than Brassicas, even though rotation means you should follow Roots with Brassicas (or whatever way round it is).

Yesterday we pulled up and harvested the last of the courgettes. Not quite as productive as last year, especially the yellow courgette, but still tasty. We also pulled and harvested the butternut squash (25 fruits - a record) and 13 (small) yellow patterned pumpkins. They are drying out in the greenhouse. We think that we didn't dry them/harden them off enough last year, resulting in about half our crop being spoiled.

One of nature's miracles has also happened. You will recall our sorrow at the dodgy garlic harvest - only half the cloves we planted were able to be harvested - and the theories about whether it was our own garlic or the new stuff that was dodgy. Well it turns out that we now have a load of garlic growing exactly where the dodgy stuff grew. We cannot work this out as I'm pretty sure I dug up all the nasty yellowy plants that grew. One thought is that the new garlic was an autumn planting variety. Which in turn saves us more money as we were going to buy autumn as well as spring planting variety.

These reflections may seem trivial to you, but there is something joyous about getting something for nothing, and for your disappointment to turn out to be misplaced. Only occasionally do we win battles in our plot, and yesterday we felt we had truly trounced the naysayers.

So, for winter, we have growing: parsnips, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, kale, petit posy and leeks. We also sowed some turnips, not for the root but for the leaves which are meant to be tasty. We'll keep you posted.

19 September 2010 - Family Occasion

Well looky here - it's both sets of our existing parents! For the first time, N's mum and K's mum and dad met for Sunday lunch and a parental inspection of the plot. All in all, a very nice interlude before we went away on holidays for two weeks. So not much allotment news for the last part of the month. See you in the next post.

To [sic] for me – 5 September 2010

The judges have spoken. Far be it from us to quibble.

However…

• runner beans: no prize – beaten, I think, fair and square by quality competition
  
• runner bean (longest): no prize – the measuring tape cannot lie
  
• parsnips: no prize – our multi-pronged beasts, a Post-It Note advised, were given too much fertiliser
  
• garlic: 3rd Prize – despite the fact that the 2nd Prize-winner hadn't had its stalks tied (rules are to be obeyed)
  
• any other vegetable (our borlotti beans): 2nd Prize – a respectable finish; 1st Prize went to the Ladies' giant celeries
  
• raspberries: 2nd Prize – against some strong competition
  
• a jar of chutney: no prize – a Post-It Note: "To sweet for me"; a fellow entrant was described as "To hot for me".

Is this the place to debate the skills-set required of chutney judges? Or that they should cherish flavour? Perhaps not. Perhaps I'm just infused with bitterness, the way some of our potatoes are infused with ants.

Work cures all, so with middling heavy hearts we returned to the plot. Here's where we are, at what can be described as the twilight of Summer.

Bed 1: dead peas and petit pois removed, leaving a squash plant and some late-planted peas.

Bed 2: K rearranged the brassica to give them more space. The frame and netting seems to have held up (held out the Evil Cabbage White Butterfly) for the most part. Next season, I want to have a go at erecting our old tent's inner 'rooms' as shelters.

Bed 3: Roughly a third of our first- and second-early potatoes have been harvested.

Bed 4: The lovely black french beans are done, leaving some corn, courgette and celery, along with the Leaning Tower of Borlotti.

The Bank: Home to two major pumpkins, a newly discovered squash, rhubarb, a lingering asparagus and some thriving comfrey. Also home to nettles, blackberries and weeds.

Bed 5: Corn finished, leaving celery, squash, red onions, a tower of runner beans and chard.

Bed 6: Mediocre carrots, many victims of mice. Sharp spring onions, thriving parsnip, alleged kohlrhabi and (eaten last night) three artichokes (delicious).

Bed 7: Still full of do-nothing raspberries, plus some volunteer potatoes.

Bed 8: Our maincrop potatoes.

The Fruit Cage: Raspberries galore, yet no apples, cherries or plums (we are not alone in our fruit failing). Satisfactory blueberries. Something oniony in the seed bed.

That's better. I've forgiven the judges, and am even more inspired facing next year's competition.

Showtime! - part one – 4 September 2010

Once more we face the judges' results at the annual St Stephens Gardening Club Show. We spent this morning, like anxious parents at a teenage beauty pageant, staging our exhibits:

• runner beans
• runner bean (longest)
• parsnips
• garlic
• any other vegetable – we choose our first-ever crop of borlotti beans
• raspberries
• a jar of chutney.

The mood seemed sombre to me, many people grumbling that this past growing season had not been their best. Entry numbers seemed low to me, too.

Well, we'll see the results in an hour's time. Fingers crossed (like the twisted roots of our parsnips).

29/30 August 2010 - All things bright and beautiful

Let's now catch up with ourselves - hold on tight now - you have just left behind all of July and touched on the first of August. We now reach the end of August. Time travel is a marvellous thing! As is the glorious vegetable on the right there, our first globe artichoke (from seed).

On 29 August we attended the christening of Next Door's baby, Henry. A truly heroic day of drinking and festivity, enlivened by a visit to the plot by Next Door's relatives, Norman and Malcolm - and neighbour Dave (who is hoping to get a plot real soon). Our guests commented on the smallness of our plot compared to their vast empires up north where they grew "real crops", none of this fancy corn and that. We put their comments down to sour grapes about the paucity of their own produce.

Today was a day to atone for past sins by putting in a good amount of time on the plot, not just doing the usual stuff. We ponder why we don't appear to have so much of a glut as previous years. We think it may be to do with the fact that we are growing more varieties of things and that N has been working at home, so has thus been able to harvest courgettes, etc, in a more managed fashion.

For some time, I had been worried about possible overcrowding in the brassica bed. So today we took some sluggy stuff out and moved other plants (the winter cabbage, petit posy and kale) into more commodious accommodation. The broccoli is still going great guns and despite the bloody white fly we seem to be holding our own. We have already had a couple of summer cabbages and took another one today.

There are still onions to harvest (from seed). N is not convinced of the need to grow onions from seed, but I am not so sure. They seem to be as successful once they get going. We topped up the eternal bin of comfrey juice which is quite simply foul. But it seems to be doing our produce good.

One of the highlights of the plot is the Leaning Tower of Borlotti. We all know that Italians build wonky buildings; here is the proof that the leaning tendency is not confined to medieval bell towers. The borlottis are very beautiful and we look forward to drying them for the winter. We will also have a fair number of butternut squash. Other winter produce this year will be the parsnips (which look amazing), winter cabbage, kale, petit posy, carrots (we hope), leeks (a bit weedy still). Lots to look forward to.

Perhaps we should finish by listing what we took home today: broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, artichoke, blueberries, raspberries, purple beans, green beans, celery, courgettes, spring onions, rhubarb. We think it is the most varied haul so far, and of course the usual challenge then is - what do we do with it all? Various goody bags have been made up, freezing has taken place and a summer pudding made of all the fruit. A perfect way to spend a Bank Holiday Monday with a sore head.

1 August 2010 - Summer Time

Hi there. Lots going on at the plot, though not necessarily photographed, so this is by way of a catchup. We had a slight hiatus in recording in July due to rockin' out at the famous Latitude festival. Only light maintenance and harvesting was possible, usual weeding chores, etc. We have been dining on potatoes (first earlies) - not a bad harvest but not quite what we had hoped. And lots of corn which has been much better this year, as well as a continual supply of broccoli. The peas kept valiantly going but for whatever reason, they were not happy. The carrots on the other hand were very happy - but so were the bloody mice, who have by and large decimated our hopeful harvest. We have caught around 10 or so to date and remain grimly determined to keep calm and carry on. Beans of various types - especially the little purple ones - made their appearance. Watch out later for a very special picture of our borlotti beans.

There are two giant pumpkins on the bank - huzzah. We have come to realise that only the mighty pumpkin can withstand the onslaught of nature. The green manure has been partially successful, only the blue plants really got the idea. We are sorrowful about the lack of apples, due to the late frost. We know we are not the only ones. As if to compensate, there are blueberries and raspberries galore.

Onto 1 August then when we had a visit from our nephew Luc and his mum (up top). They were duly complimentary of our progress and Luc did a bit of watering too. We also harvested a truly magnificent red cabbage.

I find that we have forgotten - forgotten!! - to record the garlic harvest, or even when we took it up. I think it was in the first half of July. Let the belated record show that all of the duff garlic utterly failed, but the other half was fine. Not overly large bulbs which we think was due to the dry spring. Should be enough to last us, and perhaps even enter in the local show. We haven't yet plaited them up. And four elephant bulbs too. Next year we vow to plant more elephants, as they are great fun. Let's fast forward to the end of the month....

27 June 2010 - Promised Picture Spectacular!

22 June 2010 - Long time no see

Dear all - apologies for not posting sooner but usual lame excuses apply, including two weekends away camping. Hairshirt now over. No photos for this blog but we promise that the next one will be a Picture Special.

This isn't to say that nothing has been going on. Au contraire. The celery, winter cabbage, kale, posy (cross between kale and sprouts), corn, courgettes, butternut squash, pumpkin, beans and everything that was in the greenhouse for the allotment is now ensconced on the plot. The brassicas are now surrounded by a lovely tall netted structure which should keep out the dreaded White Cabbage Butterfly, but not, alas, the damned Slugs who have munched where they should not have. Tonight N harvested our first broccoli - looking forward to eating it later.

The peas have come up but not many and in what is now becoming a familiar ritual, I madly sowed some more last weekend. We are not going to repeat the famous harvest of the first year and we put it down to dodgy seed peas and not adopting the N approach to sowing peas - which is loads of them in the row regardless of crowd control issues. We also sowed the remaining runner beans from last year into a wigwam removed from the purple beans. Unfortunately my attempts to integrate them into the fruitcage doesn't appear to have worked. The purple beans are so small that we removed the wigwam - they don't appear to need the support and seem to be humble little plants with gorgeous purple flowers. The borlottis are learning how to twine around their wigwam and being very Italian about things.

The various onions are all doing well, and those in the fruitcage (overwintering) now look readyish for lifting. The shallots have finally made an appearance, though not all came up. As for the garlic, it is truly a tale of two halves. The sickly lot finally expired for no reason that we could see, whilst the others (around 50 plants) look amazing. To my shame, I did not record which garlic was which when they were planted. Ho hum.

Mr Rhubarb has yielded plentiful amounts so far, with various amounts donated to hungry work colleagues. One in my office made a delicious rhubarb and ginger crumble. The overwintered chard is now taller than me, and is flowering. We decide to leave it put to see what happens. Other chard (Rainbow Lights) sown earlier in the year is coming up well and the spinach has been (largely) eaten.

On the fruit front, things are a little less successful. Unfortunately we think we will get no apples this year - because of the late frost while the trees were in bloom. This is a Big Lesson. Next year we will wrap them up. The blueberries, loganberry and raspberries all appear to be OK. The strawberries have flowered and are making fruit, but it seems much slower this year. The plum tree got covered by nasty blackfly and was doused in horrid pest stuff. Fruit does appear to be more problematic in terms of bugs and susceptibility to climate.

In the new J bed, the various carrots and spring onions are coming up a treat, as are the parsnips (hoorah!). We have approx 25 to last over the winter which will be great. And if we put in any to the show, we shall not pull them until the day itself.

On the bank, we planted various squash and two pumpkins. Over time, the squash have been decimated by the unfettered wildlife, but the pumpkins are holding their own. The green manure we sowed earlier has come up but yet to flower. And the Elephant Garlic looks great. We also have several "volunteer" potato plants on the bank, and elsewhere on the plot too. Also a couple of similar strawberry plants that have happily taken up residence in unauthorised spots. No sign at all of the wildflower seeds we sowed - I think they'll appear next year.

All the potatoes have come up, and after the fright of the frost, appear to look very healthy and numerous. We are getting to the end of using last year's potatoes - it is now somewhat of a lottery - and are looking forward to lots of scrummy new potatoes in their place.

Leeklings are coming up in their cosy nursery though we are anxious that we don't have as many as we should have. The ones we started in the greenhouse seem to be ahead of the game.

The everlasting challenge and chore is to keep on top of the weeds. The worst task by far is the fruitcage. It would take strimming every day at this time of the year to truly keep them at bay and it just isn't feasible. We are thinking about applying weedkiller to the bank over the winter in a last ditch attempt at discipline - having tried all the green methods available, maybe it's time to admit defeat. Other plots don't have the same issues as us because we are directly next to wild land. Having said that, we wouldn't want any other plot and love the situation at the far reaches of the site.

Quick greenhouse report - tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and cucumbers all coming up. The tomatoes are an interesting mixture of home sown, donated (thanks Tim) and bought plants. We have completely lost any idea of which kind of tomato is what. The ginger never materialised (sob) and the carrots sown in the autumn appear to be still going with no obvious sign of carrotage. Generally speaking, those plants that we started off in the greenhouse seem to be doing well on site. We've sown some more broccoli for a late summer harvest.

Weather note: various cold and hot spells over the last few weeks combined with the usual quixotic English late spring weather. Certainly a later start to the growing season. Weather is now warm and settled so watering is a priority.

15 May 2010 - Potato shock

Jack Frost (and our friend Doone - see below) has been to visit. Yes, in the second week of May, practically everyone's potatoes have been hit by frost. The foliage of most potatoes look like small brown lumps. Ours have also been hit, but not so badly - there are still stalks at least. We worry and ponder. We are told that "they will come back". We earth them up and put the protective environmesh back over them. Frost has also hit our apple trees but hopefully we will still get a good crop. The strawberries seem to be OK. Our plot appears to be less affected by frost than others, maybe because we are bounded by trees. Makes up for the stones.

Another significant incident was the discovery of the still limp corpse of a small bunny laid neatly out on our allotment bank. There were no injuries and the eyes were still shiny. Was it a message? Had Archie (our bunny-killer cat) been at work? We will never know but we rejoiced as there is now one less rabbit to eat produce. Having said that, an exceedingly fat rabbit just sat in a neighbour's plot as we drove by. You win some...

We were honoured by a visit from Doone, a friend from Southampton. She was mightily impressed by the plot, the innovative creative solutions we had devised for raised beds, the fruit cage and the current state of the crops therein. We endowed her with some sticks of rhubarb and had leek and potato soup for supper. She was also taken with the garlic plait which is still looking fab and endorsed my strawberry jam (unlike the judges at the last show, chiz). Here is a link to a website explaining how to plait and the picture is of the garlic we did in 2009 for her future reference. She is now going to get her husband a greenhouse, having seen how fab ours is. We reflect on the contrast between our young, hedonistic selves and the two magnificent, accomplished and high-achieving women shown above.

So as we'd not been up for a couple of weekends in any serious capacity, we had quite a bit of stuff to do - strimming, watering (very dry), weeding and such. Weeding the beds is pretty easy but we have to keep an eye on the weeds that come up round the side of paths. The innovative plastic board solution appears to be keeping stuff out in the fruit cage. As one of us was not feeling very well, the session was not overly strenuous.

We planted out some more peas (more peas more peas more peas) and some mangetout, which were making bids for freedom. They are securely wrapped in mesh for protection. We also install all the leek seedlings into one tiny bit of the fruit cage so they can get established. The carrots are coming up fine and the first parsnip seedlings and kohl rabi (hooray!) are beginning to show. The spinach I planted out several weeks ago is getting into its stride now, though its fascinating to see that the four plants, in a line, decrease in size in order - must be something to do with the way the sun falls.

N harvests some comfrey and we donate some to Jan and Pat. We also put some in a bin and cover it with water. In a few whiffy weeks, it will be Magic Juice Extraordinare.

The giant garlic is holding its own on the bank and (we think) we can see the beginnings of small plants (green manure and wild flowers). We sow some poppy seeds given to us by Jan and think of a row of gorgeous orange flowers in the late summer. Some of the sweet peas that I have hopefully sown seem to be coming up at the side of the fruit cage - but they have to battle the weeds. Shallots are finally coming up and the onion sets appear to be growing well. The onions from seed are still looking little but we are confident. Lots of onions this year. The yellow garlic appears to have recovered slightly.

We are feeding the strawberries and overwintering onions with Magic Juice but nothing else as yet. It still doesn't feel spring-like enough - everyone agrees that it's a different feel this year. We have courgettes, celery, squash and beans bursting at the seams in the greenhouse but it's just not warm enough yet. We reckon the last weekend in May/first weekend in June which feels very late. Winter cabbage, red cabbage, petit posy and cauliflower are also waiting to be put into the earth. I feel an urge to rush everything out so that we can prepare the greenhouse for its next phase of existence with growbags and wire for aubergine, peppers, melon (! still not dead), cucumber and tomatoes (of course).

Shortly after the last blog, we took proud delivery of our 10 sweet potatoes. They looked a little tired and needed extensive resuscitation. Two have succumbed. They are very sensitive to cold so they have been hogging the warmth in the kitchen in root trainers. We hope to put them out on the bank. An interesting experiment if nothing else. As they are tropical plants it is definitely a gamble. If the summer is lukewarm and wet they will perish. C'est la vie at the cutting edge of horticulture.

Weather note: quite cold over the past two weeks. Sunshine and showers.

April 2010 - April is the Cruellest Month

So said T S Eliot at the beginning of The Waste Land - though obviously this poem could not have been named after our plot, which is beginning to show definite signs of life and growth. We have been very busy each weekend, putting the finishing touches to beds and making a real move against the weeds that cometh in from the bank at the back. We are confident that the plastic sheets that were going to be recycled will prove an effective deterrent in the Pagoda.

One important lesson for you backpain sufferers though - do not dig for hours on end, as we did on the bank, to prepare it for wildflower and green manure seeds. Many and severe were the repercussions! We had visitors for the Easter weekend, who were duly admiring of our plot and even lent a hand. We reflected on how different it looked 3 years ago and how much more confident (and yet still prone to disaster) we are. The daffodils made a triumphant - and much later than normal - appearance.

We have to start by extolling the virtues of the greenhouse. It makes so much difference to be able to start things off in comfort. Sowing and thinning seeds is easy and what used to be a bit of a chore is now a regular Saturday retreat into a kind of quiet cultivational ecstasy. Things that we have sowed are: green beans (from last year), purple beans, borlotti beans, corn, marigold, dahlias, cucumbers, aubergines, melon (though who knows), many kinds of tomatoes, peppers, peas, mangetout, celery, winter cabbage, petit rosy, red cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, winter squash, pumpkin, butternut squash. Not bad eh?

The salad bed at home is also now looking fab thanks to a great new protective (against the cats) structure and is bursting with parsley, chard, rocket, spinach, lettuce and radish, with some spring onions too. It's so good to go to the plot with the seedlings and put them in their new home. So far, we have installed cabbage, onions, broccoli and some peas on the plot (the latter may have been too early because of frost as they look a bit peaky).

Things that haven't worked so well were the mangetout that we overwintered in the greenhouse. Planted out in early March, it was clearly too soon and the poor little blighters just froze to death (the weather still being rubbish then). Also one lot of the garlic we planted has something very wrong with it - it is yellow and shrivelled in places. We cannot recall whether this was our own garlic from last year, or shop-bought. We hope it will pull itself together.

Otherwise on the plot, the potatoes are now showing, and the overwintering onions are doing well, though a bit yellow round the edges. This yellowing, like with the garlic, could mean a lack of water, as it has been exceptionally dry. We have had to water.

Regular onions, carrots and shallots are beginning to come up, as are the various sets of peas frantically planted to ensure that we get a bumper pea crop this year. Spinach, chard and radishes are also beginning to appear. We have sown two main lots of carrots, with room for more, and some kohl rabi (?) a vegetable we have never encountered hitherto. Parsnips have been sown too in the amazing J-bed (the envy of Jan and Pat).

We picked our first rhubarb last weekend and had a lovely rhubarb custard fool dessert. It is a lovely plant and we hope we can live up to its expectations. I have been looking up rhubarb jam and wine recipes - watch out Hugh F-Whittingstall.

The newly planted fruit trees (cherry, plum) are doing well too, and we are heartened to see plenty of apple blossom on our existing apple trees, especially the one that didn't really do much last year. We have put disgustingly sticky bands round each tree to protect them from the ants (remember, the aphid incident of last year). Do not underestimate ants - I peeled a potato today from our store and cut it open to find lots of happy looking fat ants which had spent a whole 6 months inside! They will be here long after us.

It is still not reliably warm enough to put out the beans, corn and squash - it has to be at least 5 degrees at night for a week. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will be able to do so. What we really need (and I shouldn't be saying this about to go on a camping weekend) is a lot of rain here - but not on our campsite please.

Weather note: warmer than March, not much rain