… in fact, the cime are out already, so is the cabbage and some tomatoes! No sign of courgettes though.

I was too tired to stay, but I have picked another 200gr of strawberries and almost 1kg of broadbeans! There is quite a few holes (slugs?), though, possibly due to the fact that they grew slower than last year.

This weekend I will do another round of catching up, and taste the elderflower cordial, of which I got 3 bottles in the end.

For a combination of rain and chores I only managed to get to the allotment quickly once over the last week, but – oh mine – how good the strawberries were, and this time nothing less than a couple of handfuls!

Next time I go, the broadbeans will be ready to pick as well, and the potatoes are flowering, so they are on their way too.

Made elderflower cordial tonight for the first time ever: the moment in between the end of cooking and the tasting of your creation is always a bit of a leap into the unknown, but this time I am a bit uneasy as I have used tartaric acid for the first time. Anyway, if I survive the tasting I will share the recipe 🙂

In the last three days I have been catching up for the whole of May, sowing as many seeds as possible before it’s too late:

• Sweetcorn
• Courgettes
• Beans
• More tomato and chillies
• More spinach

The kiwi plant is finally on the mend and putting out shoots, and broadbeans are on their way. But this is most definitely strawberries time, and I’m picking a handful every day. They taste as no shop strawberry: worth having an allotment for that alone!

On another note, I think I am running out of land, with potatoes taking up two beds and the greenhouse (and over my compost heap!) and another three beds taken up by alliaceae.

Another evening spent watering on a trickle, as nematodes require wet soil to survive.

But I had a little more stamina, so I transplanted the self-blanching celery, which beat my record of tinyness of transplant, as the seedling were just a few millimiters. However, I decided that last time round celery grew better in the ground than in the tray.

I had a nice meal on my spinach and cime (complemented by some broccoli), and even went as far as to buy citric acid and a couple other antioxidants to stock up my larder: I will make elderflower cordial, and possibly try some of BBC James Wong’s herbal remedies.

Spent most or the afternoon watering in the nematodes, with water just a trickle from the tap as so many people were watering thirsty plots.

That certainly did not enhance my mood that was already tried by the thing that is increasingly driving me insane at the allotment: things left around in other people’s way!

There’s some for all tastes: plastic sheeting crumbled and left across the path to host slugs, cans of water at the bottom of the path, flapping nets in the middle of the path, rubbish thrown in the middle of what should be a path, and again netting rolls, sizeable plastic tunnels and even barbecues! All in the path!

I am not totally innocent as for example I have to leave a couple of pallets leaning against my shed and marginally in the way while finding the time to make use them. But all my neighbours seem to suffer from this spatial incontinence throughout the year, and particularly someone that I have figured out must have been an only child, considering the amount of space he takes up and the little consideration for the others (not only me!).

He is otherwise nice and even remembers my name, but I cannot help fuming when I see his stuff all over the place and I am afraid it shows when talking to him that I am so irritated (so Italian of me) even though I do not like to make a fuss and so avoid mentioning it (so very English!)… He must think I am a bit of a nutter!

Anyway, spinach is thriving and broadbeans are out, no sign of agretti but the nasturtium has beautiful red flowers. And the website must have been right about the gooseberries, as they have become so big… which also tells you that my humming line must be working and keeping the pigeons at bay!

Horrified although not surprised to find more than 10 asparagus gone to seed, but picked the most delicious strawberry. And a little bag of goodies, mainly herbs.

Surprises multiply, with last year’s cime di rapa growing in between tomatoes – just as well, as the ones I sowed more recently are tiny (10 cm as opposed to the 50-60 plants that I am used to from Italy), and already going to seed.

Major work ahead, watering nematodes in – did not have time today, just came to dispose of the obnoxious rats, really.