Birds

We're very lucky where we are at the allotment, we are close to a major migration hotspot, backing onto a school playing field with lots of trees and traditional hedgerow around, so we get plenty of birds.

For the past couple of days we've had a fieldfare hanging around with the local blackbirds, chomping on local berries.  it's been many years since I saw one of those in these parts (though that might have more to do with my changing habits rather than any scarcity).

This year I've seen Hobby, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Whitethroat, lapwing, Lesser whitethroat, Chiff Chaff, Willow Warbler and common crane.  We also have thriving populations of blue, great and long tailed tits, dozens of house sparrows, tame blackbirds, wrens, dunnocks and song thrushes. 

Some pics from today

Another useful link

I’ve found the forums at Allotments UK to be invaluable.  Lots of really good people there doing what we’re doing and tons of knowledge, so I’m giving them a ‘heads-up’.

First of November

Well, things aren’t all that bad.  Collected 10 lovely bright red Apache Peppers today and herbs are still in full effect. Collected parsley, sage, rosemary and mint today and all the plants are looking healthy.  In fact, the only things that are actually ‘done’ for the year are applemint and the French Tarragon is looking quite sad.

All good though.

stuff

I am posting these mainly to remind myself how far we have come since May.

This is what was there when I arrived after the winter with a remit to do what I liked.  For those that do not know we had a baby in December and the months leading up to it saw no work on the allotment after not really doing enough during 2008.

Which turned into this after a month or so of graft.

And now I have beds like this.

Useful Link

The BBC has a decent gardening design sub-site, which I thought might be useful if you haven’t seen it.  I couldn’t get shockwave working on the designer software though.

Click here for it.

Progress Report – Winter Preparations

I’ve been quite busy doing some large and cumbersome tasks.  I’ve enlarged the beds and got next year’s rotation underway.

We now have two 22x8.5 foot beds, and two 20x

Technorati Tags: Winter,planting,digging

8.5 beds all dug and turned over.  Our onions are in, as are garlic, leeks and carrots.

I’ve got the new brassica bed dug and planted with cauliflower, curly cale and purple sprouting.  The leeks and beans that are still in there will be out soon, and that can be left to over winter and will plant some summer varieties in there once the frosts have done their job.

Next year’s legume bed is dug, it’s an odd shape because I’ve left the blackcurrant bushes in situ, but I’ve also planted in this year’s potato bed 3xgooseberry, redcurrant and blackcurrant giving us another 9 fruit bushes maybe in 2011.  Should be good.  Need to build a net for them at some point. 

Had a tidy up and a mow around, and things, apart from the nettles and tatty front fence are looking quite good.  As usual, a weeding and a trip to the dump are required but otherwise I’m quite optimistic about next year.

One downer, we’ve got leek moth caterpillars in our mature leeks.  We are eating them anyway :)  The creatures are about a centimetre long and pretty much featureless, and they don’t appear to affect the flavour.

Two for one recipe - Lowestoft Smoked Haddock and allotment vegetable soup and pie

Sorry for turning this into a cookery blog lately, but there's not a whole lot going on at the allotment as we are moving house. However, we continue eating at the normal rate and are still using our veggies. Here's our latest culinary invention*

The Soup

One needs:

• 1 Onion
• 1/2 a bulb of garlic
• 1 smoked haddock, purchased from a traditional smoker.
• 10 small potatoes
• 2 or 3 sticks of celery
• 3 or 4 leeks (use the whole edible bit of the leek)
• Marigold Stock (about 6 teaspoons)
• Creme Fraiche (half a small tub)

One does:

• Chop things up into about 1" slices (really no measuring required here, it's very rough indeed)

EXCEPT

• Finely chop the onion, garlic and celery

Boil up 1.25 litres of water, add everything except the creme fraiche
Gently Boil until the potatoes are done
Turn off the heat and using a hand-blender (or jug blender, or masher, or fork) blend up until you have a slightly lumpy soup.

Add the creme fresh, garnish if you wish. Stir. Serve. Do NOT add salt until it's at the table (if at all). The celery and smokey fish does all that. A little white pepper is good, but should be the eater's choice. A little sprinkle of chopped dill would be nice.

That's the soup


So now you are left with half a saucepan of soup. So ...

One will need:
Another Lowestoft Smoked Haddock
Frozen Peas
200g Cheese


Boil up a pound of spuds and mash them with butter and milk. Skin on is fine (and good for you!)
Meanwhile reheat the soup, quite high heat (220, gas 6) you want it to reduce a bit. Put the peas in it.
Chop up the smoked haddock and add to the soup. Make sure it's only gently bubbling as it needs to spread it's flavour this time, but not disintegrate. 
Grate 200g of cheese of your choice.
Mash the spuds when ready.

Now get a pyrex or suitable pie dish, put in the soup, cover with mashed potato, cover that with cheese.

If the soup is loose, use a slotted spoon to transfer it to the pie dish, and lose some liquor. We used the left over soup as a kind of gravy and it was absolutely lovely.

That's it.  Two dinners from one, no salt pepper gluten preservatives additives nuts dogs red meat or anything.  Just lovely stuff.

*I'm well aware that somewhere in geography and history, some other million people have invented this.

Wild Plum Jam Recipe

As you may remember I collected a couple of kilos of wild plums from our local park in September.  They were very ripe and we’ve been moving house, so I opted to freeze them and come back to them later.

Here’s the final recipe we settled on:

Ripe wild plum jam recipe:
Ingredients:
1kg/2lb of ripe wild plums
1kg/2lb of white jam sugar
½ pint/275ml of water
Method:

1. Wash (and discard any dodgy fruits) then simmer gently in a heavy bottomed or preserving pan.
2. Add the sugar and stir gently till dissolved. 
3. Constantly stir with a slotted spoon on a rolling boil for 10 minutes, and observe your kitchen becoming a sticky mess as you remove the stones as you go.
4. Test for a firm set
5. Continue to boil rapidly and test at five minute intervals.
6. Put into sterilised jars and follow the normal rules.

Green Tomato Chutney Recipe

It's that time of year and this recipe addresses the problems of a glut of green tomatoes and the need to provide some sunshine in the winter time. It's my take on a basic theme, reflecting my preference for a little more spice than most. The brand names given reflect my preference, you can use what you like, I only bother where they taste a little different or add a little something.

1 whole garlic bulb. Peeled and chopped.
2 tsp celery salt
2 tsp ground cayenne
2 tsp smoked paprika (optional, Rachael won't have it in here)
250g raisins (optional)
2kg Green toms
500g Billingtons Unrefined Sugar
500g cooking apples, cored and chopped finely.
50g grated fresh ginger
6 Red Chillis. Not seeded. Chopped fairly finely.
600ml of Aspall's Cider Vinegar
750g chopped onions (not too fine)

Put the vinegar, tomatoes, onions and apples in a preserving pan ideally, I just use a big pot though, and simmer to soften for about half an hour.

While this is happening, use a pestle and mortar (or blender) to make a rough paste of the chopped chilis, garlic and ginger. You can use a little salt or oil to help the process if you can't get it "pasty" any other way.

Add the paste and everything else to the pan, keep the heat low (still on a gentle simmer) for ten minutes and stir gently and constantly.

Increase the heat to a more vigourous simmer and let the mixture thicken for a further 35 minutes or so.

Pour into sterilised jars, cover with vinegar proof lids and store in a cool, dark place.

Note, if you have ripe toms to use up, you can add them too. There's nothing magic about the green ones.

Weather Analysis

I thought it might be interesting to find out about our local microclimate, and I include it here in case anyone else does.

Climate Description: Changeable, temperate climate
Location: Northern Hemisphere, England
Annual High / Low Daytime Temperatures: 22°C / 7°C (72°F / 45°F)
Average Daily January Temperature: 7ºC / 45ºF
Average Daily June Temperature: 19ºC / 66ºF
Annual Rainfall / Precipication: 658 mm / 26 inches

I have gone fully pikey.

Despite the flurry of posts today, I didn't get to the allotment. I took the family to the local petting zoo instead. But now that I'm a fully paid up member of the semi-self-sufficient underclass I couldn't pass up the opportunity to avail myself of the wild plums growing on the trees in the local park. Ripe, sweet, absolutely delicious and the only price you pay is the comments from people who just don't get it. Bugger em. Enough for a couple of jars of jam, I think :)

Aubergine alert!

We've finally got one, and it's a beaut!

I know this falls way below the criteria and standard of a proper blog entry, but I'm excited!

Time please, ladies and gentlemen

I have called time on the tomato season. Not because we were running out, but because frankly I was just sick of watering every day. An Indian summer is a nice thing, but needing to go the greenhouse regardless of whatever else is happening has been a pleasureable and rewarding thing for the last six months, but enough is enough.

We have about 5 lbs of green tomatoes for making chutney and about 2 pounds of lovely yellow, red, black and cherry tomatoes for eating up. Excellent. I've composted the plants and used the contents of the grow bags to fill the old wheelbarrow I found (along with some bricks and some new drainage holes) and this will be full of Nigella, marigolds and nasturtiums next year.

Leeks, Beans and Fencing

Most importantly, our new neighbours have built us a fence. Decent posts and pallet wood. Really very nice of them and something we've been trying to find a way to do for months.

Picked a couple of leeks today. Very nice too.

The bean harvest is in full swing and going very well indeed. Couldn't be happier with yields.

I have some new plants to go in, caulis, carrots, kale and some very small leaks. Now preparing the beds for them. More on that later.

RIP Walnut Orb Weaver

Sorry for the rubbish phone pics.

I got my gloves out of the conservatory to do a bit of weeding, had a quick look, put them on and got on with my jobs. Five minutes in and I feel a nasty little spike in my little finger. Sadly, my reaction was to whip the glove off and crush whatever was in there. I was pretty sure what it was before I had my hand free, though.

Eventually I managed to turn the little finger inside out and there was a slightly emptied spider. What a shame. Oddly, it had dragged all sorts of bits of grass and tiny twigs in there with it.

The actual bite was pretty innocuous, it felt like a minor splinter except for an odd feeling of force. The aftermath wasn't so pleasant, minor lightheadedness and nausea for a couple of hours. Minor. Totally unsure whether any of that was envenomation or more likely latent arachnophobia and injured pride :)

Mostly gutted that I killed something.

Rat-tail maggots

Have finally managed to identify the long tailed creatures living in the comfrey/urine fertilizer. Rat-tailed maggots apparently, the offspring of hoverflies. Quite pleased about that, hoverflies are good things.

Read all about it

Tidying up for winter

Have sorted out the wood for the edges of the new bigger beds and layed that out. I'm going to do another dig n weed before calling them finished and putting the boards up.

Rachael's spud excavation has left me with two more beds dug and ready, I'm assuming roots are the next thing in the rotation, but really, things are rarely that transparent and I'm still not sure.

Have finally got the pond dug in, boarded off and covered with an old grill I found in the post war rubble at the bottom of our plot. Within two hours it had a dunnock bathing in it, and two frogs. Plenty more frogs seen since. I've part filled it with bricks, and surrounded it with bark from some old logs we had lying around, so we have some hopefully useful habitat. I say 'pond', it's actually one of those blue sea shell sand pit/paddling pool things that Rachael found blowing down a road one windy night, so that's a bit of recycling going on there.

Also found an old wheelbarrow (with no wheel) at the back of the Russian vine/bramble mess so have nailed some holes into it, and will empty the growbags into it and then plant Nasturiums, Nigella and maybe some other pretty things for next year. Have decided to control the nasturtiums next year, following the potato incident :)

Potato Harvests

The spud harvest was dug up today. It was a little disappointing as we only really made the same weight in potatoes as was planted, with the exception of the Maincrop, (Desiree) which doubled their weight. However, they are all edible and tasty. The Salad's (Charlotte) did the worse barely making their own weight.

The lack of weight is not really surprising though. Firstly, they all went in very,very late, June I think, so about 3 or 4 months behind schedule. On top of that they were planted in a bed that hadn't been manured after the greedy brassicas had taken all the nutrients out of the soil. Finally the Earlies ( Maris Peer and Pentland Javelin), had to contend with a huge number of extremely vigorous, self seeded nasturtian plants that we were too sentimental about to keep under control.

Next year we intend to get some more exciting potato varieties than those available in B & Q. We did attend a Potato Day at Stonham Barns early in the year. However we arrived quite late and then I spent most of the time breast feeding Daniel in the car. Gavin said he was too scared to buy the potatoes he wanted (which were the very ones I wanted), in case he got it wrong - as if I were that scary and evil! Anyhow, hopefully now we will both be trusting his judgement in future, as it seems we both want the same thing anyway.

Can you dig it?

Serious digging today. Joined up beds 2 and 3, 4 and 5 and redug bed 7. Did large portions of bed 8 and removed about 50% of the carpet. Evil, evil stuff. It's biodegradable, they say, meaning you have semi permanent lumps of the stuff to make your spade go 'doooing.' and jar your back. Ugh.

The allotment looks like a tip while I move things around. Big fire tomorrow night, a bit of tidying up, and some photos to follow.

I need to weed! A lot!

Here's a picture of a lovely autumn visitor to our homes, that I found in ours, last night. The fastest running true spider lives in England and he is Tegenaria gigantea (aka Tegenaria duellica) - the giant house spider. Totally harmless. What you most often see is the male of species running around in Autumn, looking for a female to give him a hard time.



"Roll on tomorrow, onward verily again to our realms!"
The unknown gardener.

Autumn has begun

And not in any subtle way either, weeks of gorgeous warm sunshine gave way last night to ferocious cold, storms. The wind did some damage to my bean pole arrangements, but nothing to the plants, and crucially for me, the greenhouse survived intact. Amazing really.

It will soon be time to make chutney from those last few tomatoes that refuse to ripen. We have about a dozen ripening on the vine and perhaps 4 dozen that don't look like they will. I'm a little disappointed with yield this year, but perhaps that's just because I've been taking them as they ripened so haven't really seen a bountiful quantity in one place. More plants will be grown next year, and more varieties. More on this in another entry, it's turned into quite a big subject for me (a huge excuse for surfing seed catalogues).



Cleaning up in the greenhouse today I found this fine example of Nuctenea umbratica (Walnut Orb Spider) hiding under my seed trays. Very large (about 4cm from front leg tip to bum) but very, very quiet and I don't think it meant me any harm, which is just as well really, as it can do some. (Warning: Not safe for arachnophobes!)



We've also got quite a nice garden spider residing in the greenhouse. This one's a bit more active, but we coexist quite happily.


I emptied my long dead Savoy seedlings into the compost bin, and put the empty trays back on top of the spider, who hadn't moved. Hopefully I was gentle enough to allow him/her to get comfy again (they were empty and very light.)

Disaster (of the minor kind)

Every single one of our brassicas has been devoured by Large White catterpillars. I'm slightly annoyed about this. I've lost 20 Curly Kale and the same number of Early White Sprouting brocolli. There is nothing left but rough stumps towering to a height of about 1" from the ground. Somewhat of a setback. Ho hum.

On a brighter note, our beans are doing fantastically. I have all the ones I planted going great guns now.



And my leeks are doing far better than my expectations.

Leeks

My squashes, I think, are finished for the year. I'll give the courgettes another few days to surprise me, but my South African gem squash plant has ceased to function. Will grow those again though, they were delicious.

Here's today's harvest

Today's Harvest

Fire! hehehe.

Burned absolutely masses of bindweed, old junk and dried weeds today. Most enjoyable. Particularly the very intense green flame from the Russian vine.

Didn't get up there today.

A bit of a non-entry today, as I haven't managed to get up there. Rachael took over watering duties. Just thought it worth noting that it feels very odd not going, perhaps some sort of masochism has set in. Hmmm.

Some shots from today

Decided to get serious with my intervention between bramble and Russian vine, two plants I've come to realise have a massive sense of self entitlement. Nothing grows underneath them though, which means we have an almost clear bed of leaf mould, so it's not all bad.


Some pics from today, hopefully not too random :)




Also, I saw my first Harlequin today. Last year the media did their best to replace their usual "OMG we're all gonna die!" with "OMG all the lady birds are going to die!" due to the arrival of these little beasties. Well I've seen loads of two and seven spots this year and this is the first Harlequin I've come across. And it didn't even bite me.

Got a bit done today

Rachael did a bit of weeding and I looked after the kids till she went home. Once I was on my own I had a bit of a go at the Russian vine that's costing us the bottom ten feet of our allotment and swamping our shed almost totally on most of one side and completely on the other. I found a fruiting Elder tree under it, which was quite a nice surprise. I think a few days of concerted effort might actually get it under control. Will endeavor to do it this week. As usual topped off the water butts and watered the greenhouse growbags.



Rachael came across a recipe in the River Cottage cookbook for pickled Nasturtium seed pods, which odd as it sounds, taste reminiscent of capers, and possibly better. We've got lots of nasturtiums so we found some pods and tried a few raw, and they are very nice indeed. Will pickle the few dozen we have and report back.

We dug up our first potatoes today, the yield is pretty low, probably because we didn't manure properly, but the spuds themselves are very good. We had them with a melange of courgettes and beans and a salad of lettuce and my own radish pickle - all from the allotment. Very nice indeed.

I love August

Loads of stuff going on at the moment, courgettes keeping me busy, tomatoes coming to fruition and the herbs all looking good. Blackberries are coming on stream. The only real effort is the mowing and daily watering. Tomatoes are greedy plants and need pretty much a can full per plant per day. Aubergines haven't done anything yet, but the plant looks healthy so I plod on with the water.

A bit of background on 2009

Daniel was born in December and those first five months were pretty hectic, and also wet and cold. As a result, there was always something more immediate to do than get out and dig. That's not to say that I didn't think about it daily, like any other job you really know you should be doing, but aren't. As a result, with rumours of our allotment being taken away, it was May 28th before I got down there. Fortunately my instinctive obsession with new projects kicked in - all that remained was industrial relations negotiations, which I won't go too far into, but I realised I could only save it if I was allowed my own head, so Rachael graciously agreed to step back while I kept it going this year. I'm still stuck with her beds, rotation and scheme but we will be doing it 'together' next year and hopefully on a more equal footing because I'll no longer be a total noob.

Back in May, I was greeted by a water meadow. It was a quite amazing bed of wild flowers and brambles. A casual glance would have given you no clue that this was cultivated land just eight months before. Over the next few days I made strides with the brush cutter, and eventually the lawn mower and then the spade and fork.

Progress report

Beds 1 and 2 (spuds) are doing fine. A surprise crop of Nasturtiums are in bed 1 on top of the potatoes. Fine with me. Herbs at the bottom of the bed are looking great now.

Bed 3: Have planted Kale and white sprouting, all doing fine. South end is doing better than North end, and I think that is just down to situation and prevalance of bindweed. Needs weeding. Chives are now in flower and finished (as a crop, but I love the flowers)

Bed 4: Lettuces are just great. No problems at all. One or two small icebergs but most hearting-up nicely. Harvesting and eating regularly, and it is amazing how much taste they have compared to shop bought ones.
Radishes harvesting, and I made radish pickle yesterday. 2nd crop to come.

Bed 5: Squashes are finally fruiting. One good courgette on plant (about 8") several more on the way. Needs weeding. Fennel looks nice. Corn is beginning to show cobs. Runner beans doing great.

Bed 6: Broad beans. Tiny. Blackfly appears to have moved on. I am beginning to suspect that I have in fact a perfectly healthy crop of dwarf broad beans. Dwarf runners growing well, I have staked them, just in case. Probably a waste of time. Leeks doing really well.

Bed 7: Done and empty

Bed 8: Needs one last fork over and dig.

Greenhouse: Toms doing well now. Have some red and many yellow ripe. Squash doing really well, whatever it is will be fruiting soon. Lots of fruit on the Apache pepper plant. Very long fruit. Russian Taragon doing ok, one looks to be dead but feeding and watering anyway.

Tomatoes outside greenhouse aren't fruiting at all. Maybe they need more shelter from the wind or juset more time. Time will tell.

Border: Rosemary bay, thyme, artichokes all doing fine. Second artichoke harvest now ready. 1 of 3 plants looks nearly dead after massive blackfly infestation.

Jerusalem artichokes are doing really well. Very vigourous.

Jobs to be done: Plant cabbages, empty incinerator and have a fire. Tidy up. Kill wasps. Bring down nettles. Have a fiew. More harvesting.

Things done: Made gooseberry jam (some of our own, some scrumped from next door), rhubarb jam, redcurrant jam, pickled radish.

Observations: Very glad I didn't compost the broad beans. Absolutely delicious. Today is much, much too hot for doing serious work.

The allotment fed me today.

Been picking at stuff all day, but actually put a summer salad on the table that was 100% allotment grown. I haven't started actually murdering my own pigs yet, so the ham was bought in. Very satisfying (not to mention enormously tasty!)



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Getting there

A one week gap between visits has left my best tomato plants looking decidely sorry for themselves, although the fruits are fine and ripening nicely. I've fed them with organic sea weed fertiliser after giving them a really good drink; so hopefully they'll perk up.

Some good chillis sized chillis are now coming.

Generally now taking the fruits of my labour rather than planting anything worthwhile. Tomatoes, radishes, mint, broad beans are all coming through nicely.

The beans are interesting, the plants are tiny but the beans are normal looking. Will continue to sit on the fence about them. The runners I planted are coming up.

Second batch of white sprouting brocolli are looking much better than the first. Glad I put them in.

One, and only one courgette so far. Most distressing.

Wasps have made a nest in my nettle patch, which needs sorting.

Interesting Black/Silver flat spiders in the greenhouse.

Scrumping!

We made jam last night from the the neighbour's abandoned fruit plants :) There is something decidedly nice about sneaking about and getting fruit you shouldn't techincally have, only slightly spoiled by the allotment rep telling me in advance I really shouldn't let all that lovely stuff go to waste.

Rachael made the jam while I made up a plastic kit of Darth Vader's TIE Figher (Twin Ion Engines, you know.)




Radishes are nearly there.
My lovely pumpkin is being eaten by mice. Bugger.

Progress report

Bed 5: My broad beans are stunted and covered in black fly. Fit only for compost I think.

Bed 3 and 4: Have given in and used slug pellets. Tired of seeing my squashes start only to be gone the next day. Read the instructions after use, and found I have overdone it somewhat. Dug them in. Still might be too much. Oh well. Manured bed 3 with organic chicken manure pellets.

Planted some basil and parsley in the greenhouse.

Dwarf French Beans in bed 6 germinating already.

My comfrey soup contains some WEIRD wildlife. Little elongated ovals with sharp pointy tails. Body about 1" and maggoty and the tail about 2" and thin and sharp. There are Thousands of them, writhing over each other. Somewhat horrible. Wonder what they are! It's a pretty hostile environment in there.

Progress report

Bed 7 dug and weeded. French dwarf beans sown today. More radishes sown in bed 3.

I am a monster

Feeling truly horrible! Our neighbours (a guy and his father in-law) have recently abandoned their allotment due to some shenanigans at, or rather slightly too close to, home. It's pretty much a meadow now with a few very tall brassicas and fruit bushes. Finally there is some talk of someone else getting it so I got the brush cutter out and made a start on the big stuff, and decided to lift some of the carpets. There was a squeeking noise from the undergrowth when I started that should have alerted me, but after lifting a bit of carpet I notice 5 baby rodents. The people who are busy raiding the previous occupants stuff identify them as rats - and variations on 'kill the rats!" fill the air. I dutifully hid them in the nearest bush, hoping mum comes back and moves them somewhere a bit more sensible. They are blind and pink, probably only a few days old. It doesn't look good for them. Then the mother appears standing about 4 feet from me in plain view, squeeking - it's a field mouse, not a rat. I feel awful. Despite the mouse damage to my pumpkin, I don't mind them at all, and all babies look like babies to me now. Cast somewhat of a pall over my day. Some consolation that she'll probably have another litter in a couple of weeks.

Dug over the bottom of bed 3 and dug out some of the annual weeds, planted 12 or so white sprouting brocolli and some more kale.

Things haven't exactly impressed me with the speed of their growing, but I think I'm just being impatient. Have started watering the beds and things seem to at least be getting started now.

Have acquired two new compost bins, bringing up our total up to 3. Also nicked a disused hose.

Bought some brain to apply to cucumbers in the hope of detering, or at least sating the slugs appetites.

Put some shelves into the greenhouse.

Dug over bed 7. Onions planned to go in here.

Tootling about

Weeding and mowing today. Strimmer problem is getting really annoying.

Strawberries looking good.

Fed tomatoes and courgettes with Miracle Gro slow release tabs. Will see how they do.

Big day (or felt like it, anyway)

Rachael came up and weeded the strawberries. I used grass clippings as a bed for the burgeoning fruit, should hopefully keep the slugs off a bit. We've had a little damage on the fuit we've had so far. Nothing really major, but an annoyance none the less.

Bed 3: I planted 8curly Kale and 8 white sprouing and made a net from old sticks and shop bought net.

Bed 4: I planted two rows of radishes. Scarlett Globe and French breakfast.

Bed 6: Planted 24 fingerling leeks. They've been in the greenhouse for a while in pots, hopefully got them in in time. The method use was to make a hole about 9" deep with a broom handle, place the leek in the hole, and water. Leaving the leek in the hole without backfilling it or stamping it into place. This is recommended in The Vegetable Expert so am trusting it.

Greenhouse: Sowed Pak Choi and Savoy Cabbage.

Filled the water butt from the tap, had a light strim around the borders. Strimmer needs looking at as the wire isn't feeding. Another job.

Listened to Guns N Roses on the ipod all day. 'kin awesome.

A really hot day

Actually had my top off. Very nice for me. Not so nice for the neighbours. Haha.

In a shockingly environmentally friendly turn of events, I used last year's dried out jerusalem artichoke sticks as tomato canes. Free and zero miles! My how things change.

Very little done today as there was a great MotoGP race (Rossi taught Lorenzo a lesson I think will define the season, viva 46!) and I had to do jobs around the house.

I carried two growbags up from the local shop, about 300 yards. Jesus they're heavy! (Or I'm unfit). Anyway, I think my back is in its previous state of fitness once more. Good. It's been painful and a little worrying that I'd done something permanent. I filled one of the bags with 4 tomato plants cadged from our neighbour, purpotedly yellow tomatoes. The more the merrier. One bag still spare.

Watered the greenhouse plants. Noticed a couple of very pretty wasps in the Jerusalem artichokes - not yellowjackets - one black and the other yellow. Some really pretty little spiders in the greenhouse too. Long forelegs, green and yellow. Will have to look them up.

I replanted the remains of last year's apple mint. Pointless sentimentality really, but it was the very first plant I bought and I'd really like to rescue it. Where it was last year there was basically just a stick, but I noticed a bit of green on it so have put it in a large pot with a lot of compost and brought it into the greenhouse. Rachael thinks it's gone, but I'm hopeful some love can turn it back into a plant.

The cucumbers look utterly terrible.

Planting

Ate our first strawberry of the year today! Shared with Rachael. Summer has arrived!

Found a largeish garden spider lurking in the inner band of my hat. Quite glad I followed the inexplicable urge to check it!

Bed 1: Rachael planted potatoes, from B&Q of all places, and we covered with membrane. I planted a tray of herbs (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Spearmint) aiming for a nice abundant herb patch of whatever is most vigourous. A little survival of the fittest is OK here. Teamwork today. Nice!

Bed 4: I managed to plant 11 sweetcorn, 45 lettuces (Lollo Rosso, Iceberg and Cos)

Bed 6: Planted 18 broad bean seedlings. Not sure at all what they are going to be like, very small indeed and way late for planting.

Bindweed continues to be a major hassle. If we ever find a use for the stuff then a new empire can arise, built on this rare and precious resource, and it's capital shall be my allotment.

My planting regime is following the old Russian maxim of 'God likes things in threes' - lets hope the allotment god feels the same way about my little rows of threes.

I made comfrey and urine soup today, utlising the piss bucket, for use as tomato food when they come into flower.

A female kestrel was hunting over me today, always a stirring sight, and made me think that I really must build a kestrel box for next year. It must be the day for raptors as I also saw a male sparrowhawk getting seen off by, of all things, a couple of swifts. Plucky little things.

Jobs to be done soon:

• 6+7 to be dug properly.
• Mowing
• Incinerator emptying.
• Stakes for tall things.
• Extra tomato plants to be repotted
• Lettuces to be covered.

Also, but not so urgently

• Clear the bloody carpets that are ruining our allotment.

Coffee and a cigarette on the patio set, elbow on the ipod and my Black n Red a5 ringbound notebook under a gelpen in my right hand, large billowing clouds in a bright blue sky. What a joy.

"I must have been working the ropes when your hand slipped from mine." der de doo de doo.

Oh my god, I can't believe it ...

Having strimmed and mowed I have started digging and weeding the old beds. Prepared beds 1 and 2 by single digging and covering with food scraps. It smelt awful! Planted spuds into bed 2 through membrane.

Dug and weeded row 3 and 4, planted runner beans and squashes (courgettes, pumpkin and munchkin) in row 5. Planted some fennel at the top. Not sure I seperated them enough, we shall see. They may have gone in in pairs. Not really sure how they are supposed to look. Will have to see how they go. 11 sweetcorn plants at the end of the bed planted in a grid 18" apart like Mr Flowerdew says :)

That's the top half of the allotment back into shape. Phew. Generally I'm a bit worried about the survival of my plants as a lot of roots were very tangled and it seemed a bit brutal pulling them apart. Shall suck it and see. Better in the ground than in pots I think.

LOADS of red ants around the place. Beds 1,4,5 and 7 all have colonies. But been working in there with bare hands all day and no bites. Actually feel a little protective of them. Weird! Lots and lots of aphids!

Planted 3 20p cucumber plants in the greenhouse. Very sad articles, but they were almost free because of it. Stuck them in a spare grow bag.

Mum came and weeded the greenhouse and I membraned the greenhouse floor, so hopefully less weeds this year. All greenhouse stuff now in pots or growbags, not in the ground like last year.

Joining row 6 and 7 together to make a big bed (about 2x10) with a plank down the middle for access. Only started. Really, really hurt my back. Bollocks.

Wildlife around today was house sparrows, goldfinch, songrhrush in the herb border, wood pigeons, crows and a female wolf spider.