… so this morning, when I found myself awake in bed at 5 AM, thinking of the plumber and work, I decided I would get up for a change and go to the allotment to relax. And so I did.

Rather strange for someone who, like myself, is definitely not a morning person, I thought the sunshine out of the window warranted a go at sunrise gardening.

The three hours I spent weeding before breakfast were very productive (true in Italy there’s a saying that goes “Morning comes with gold in its mouth”), and I got home with a good crop to boot!

Still picking the come-again salad, while the second sowing slowly grows. Salad is really a worthwhile crop, has saved me good money this year, so I took advantage of the current Thompson & Morgan 3 for 2 offer on salad seeds, and also bought some corn salad from Seeds Of Italy, which should crop late in the year.

Now though – slight drawback – it will have to be bedtime already.

I arrived at the plot a bit earlier than usual, between 19.15 and 19.30 and it was quiet. Soil was ok and I managed to do some digging while having some banter with the neighbours. All good, except that suddenly I could not hear them any longer and I realised when I came back from wherever I was, just before falling face forward, that I had almost passed out. Ok, I am quite tired, I know, maybe low blood pressure.

But then I understood why it felt so quite: no bumblebees whatsoever – none on the phacelia, nor on the sage and not even on the borage that has started flowering. Quiet as death: it was horrible. I love insects, alive, going about their business and keeping me company. No idea where they all were.

While wondering about bees, my eye fell on the garlic: it had died back. So I had a look: most of it had not even grown,. and all was rotting in the ground. I planted three times more than last year just to be on the safe side, and my crop might turn out to be ZILCH. I’ll try and dry up whatever is left and see how it fares, but I’m not too hopeful.

Not the best of evenings. I thought my ROI is very low, would I ever be able to make a living out of my gardening? If anyone ever tells me that – having gardened for a few years – they are an expert, I will laugh out loud…. How long does it take to learn?

Mr Tod was running after crows on the football pitch outside the alltoment.

I have been to the plot a couple of evenings this week, and befriended a fox.

A sign of my loneliness, or possibly to exorcise my fear of him scaring the living daylights out of me by jumping out of nowhere, I started talking to Mr Tod when he turns up just before sunset. Running away or ignoring me were his first responses.

Yesterday, though, he was a bit more sociable, and even posed for me, at a safe distance (bigger pictures on Flickr).

I think we like him, as we have a hope he might chase rats away.

Besides the fox, wildlife is thriving, I even spotted a striped bumblebee I had never seen before!

Although I spend a comparative little time on the plot, the experience of the last few years seem to have resulted in more going happening: I have veg at all stages of development: from the brassicas who have just germinated, through the broccoli white eye that I potted on last week, the courgettes I planted out yesterday and the tomatoes and aubergines that, outside and in the tent respectively, are growing on, to my successionally growing salad.

Fruit also provides a varied landscape: from the wines that are prolifically flowering, through the strawberries that are overwhelmingly being prey to birds despite the cover, to the almost ready gooseberries and the raspberries, whose first few we enjoyed this week.

For the first time in four years I have managed some succession sowing, so I should be sorted with salad leaves most of the summer.

In April I had sowed some misticanza leaves in one of my two plastic “tents” for protection. By the time I came back from holiday in mid-May, they were ready to pick, and – hoping they might be cut and come again (the packet did not say) – I cut about a fifth of them leaving about 1 cm at the soil level, instead of pulling them out. Just to be sure in case they would not come again, though, I also sowed some into the other tent and…

Yeah! They did come back, so – as I picked another fifth – the first one is regrowing. In addition to that, the other bed is starting to germinate right now, two weeks on. This is great, and the first time I manage to do it successfully.

Pity I have not managed to do the same with rocket (it did not come up for two months and is just starting now to germinate, quite erratically) or radish (it bolted rather than swell at the root). I will leave both to self-seed. Last year leaving poorly germinated rocket to self-seed was the best thing I did, as it came back with a very decent crop the second time round, more or less September time. However that is not enough: I want more. If I manage to go a bit more often to the plot now, I will try some more direct sowing.

I have not written for the best of a month, what with my exam and – after that – some longed-for holidays.

The plot is not in bad shape, probably because it did not rain so much as to set the weeds on rampage (not even nettles!), but just enough to get the crops going.

Yesterday I picked a meter -ong asparagus, that was not even too woody all considered, and there is salad ready for next time I manage to pop in. The pumpkins I had planted out just before going away got frosted on their first night out but have done very well after that, and I will not praise enough the rather rough “Botanico” small growhouses I bought on Greenfingers.com (apparently no longer in stock 🙁 ) which have turned out to be deeply loved by the seedlings (or maybe it’s just the position they are in, under some blackthorns that shade them a bit).  Most seedling are in perfect shape, not least because of the precious help of lovely Carol, who has taken care of my greenhouses while I was away.

Hubby’s plot has a pretty grassed area covered in Veronica persica: speedwell (which I have always known before today as little Virgin Mary’s eyes, as my mother used to call it), and Leuchantemum vulgare: oxeye daysies.

Looking forward to a summer of gardening, now.

Weather is glorious, but no rain means a lot of watering needed, and seedlings wilting away.

I had to make some rhubarb jam, as the plants have decided to grow this year, and very fast… incidentally they are bolting with all this heat, and it’s impossible to stop, so after chopping three buds, I’ve given up.

Asparagus, also, has started to make good spears four years from planting: unfortunately, asparagus beetles (Crioceris asparagi) have noticed too! Here they are chomping away… I must say that the spears that have grown through a patch of self-seeded parsley were left alone, though: maybe companion planting is the answer. In the meantime, I have killed the offending pretty little nasties.

My first ever artichoke has also appeared on last year’s plant – actually two of them – they are a great temptation, but I will follow Mark Diacono’s advice in his book “Veg patch“: I will be brave and chop them off so the plant will concentrate on the root system instead 🙁

The plot looks lush: even my neighbour Keith noticed it’s looking at its best ever.

The home pond is also joy: frogs, tadpoles and newly emerged damselflies have been joined by newts! I do not have a good picture, and I have not had time to check which species it is, but here’s a blurry snap. All the creatures I had created my ponds for have now moved in: I’m happy!

But I am officially behind schedule once again, with my uni exam fast approaching, and the drought is not making it any easier to manage… that is one of the reasons I have not been writing much; however, you can follow the unfolding of spring in my gardens on the photo album.

It was warm, unbelievably so: in the greenhouse 35C/100F made it very uncomfortable to work, and outside plenty of water was required to keep you going. But glorious. Flowers. Butterflies. Fragrances. Even a new pollinator I had never seen before, like a small bee. Unfortunately I had no camera with me.

Most of the seeds I’ve sown since March have germinated: finally on top of the time schedule, I have already potted on artichokes, Calendula and basil. Hubby’s new little greenhouse came in very handy, and I have made a makeshift one with a spare wire basket trolley and some large bubble wrap: should be fine I hope.
And the last trench to sow potatoes is ready and weeded.

At home, spawn in the pond is alive and developing: I’m so glad.

Most of my seedlings and plantlets, nurtured over the last few years but which did not find a permanent place in the garden and plot, have finally fled the nest and been driven to a new home. As I was worried that several were becoming pot-bound, I contacted Richard, the mind behind the Guerrilla Gardener movement, who was passing by – it is good to know that my loved plants will end up making some derelict place more beautiful. I may see them again, thriving in the soil, on the website pictures!

The garden is now tidier, even if I still haven’t mowed the lawn, so at the end of a long day, I sat there enjoying it and realised I really look forward to the end of my uni exam so that I can pick up horticulture once again…