… I have not taken my camera with me lately, but everything is coming back to life and it’s fresh green, or colourful and fragranced! I love walking around and smelling fragrances in the air!

Yesterday I had friends with me: we popped in quickly at the allotment and had some fun picking leeks – the earth is so compacted they snapped broken!

Tonight after work I just had enough time to

• reinforce my pond’s barriers (there were suspiciuos floating leaves severed from the water plants),
• water the seedling (which are all doing fine) just in case it is going to rain for the next three days and I can’t access the greenhouse, and
• pick my first crop of rhubarb: 5 stalks. They smelled beautifully when I took them off. However, the leaves were already open, so I hope I did not leave them too long and I am going to poison myself with oxalic acid.

I’m making compote, my favourite, with brown sugar and a squeezed lemon: it’s bubbling away right now…

Quick crop update.

With a cold and a temperature, I still had to run down to the allotment as it was two days since my last visit and seedlings are unforgiving…

… celery, in fact, was already wilting in patches: I made it just in time. Nasturtium is out, aubergines, sunflower and chamomile are doing very well and so is spinach, but no sign of chillies, tomatoes, spinach beet or agretti yet.

Lovely spring day today.

Crop updates, the pleasures of gardening.

I came to the UK almost 4 years ago.

Before that, had anyone told me that I would dream of spending an hour or so shovelling shit after a stressful day at work, or that having slipped with my work shoes in the above mentioned – I would feel all the better for it and arrive at home singing so loud: ‘Sara, svegliati e primavera’ (Sara wake up, it’s spring, an Italian pop song of the 70s) that I surprised my husband, I would probably have believed them. Nor would I have believed anyone telling me I would wake up of my own accord one hour before necessary to be able to sneak out of work early…

I do sympathise with both foreigners and locals that do not see much of a fascination in gardening! However, it worked magic on me…

So many things happen at this time of year, and today it was really warm and sunny to boot!

Watering seedlings every day is having an effect: the aubergines that I thought dead have timidly emerged – completely unexpected – and a closer look revealed that the spring-planted broad beans Express have come out with almost 100% reliability. Besides, most of the soft fruits are putting out fresh green leaves.

The manure is almost all spread and the ducks have not been back!

‘Saaaara, svegliati e’ primaveera… Saaaara sono le sette e tu devi andare a scuooola… ooooh Saaara…’

Crop updates, wildlife developments

The ducks were not there tonight, so it seems the problem is solved! Hoorai! Now I can concentrate on the other troublesome species – the rat!

I have started tackling the leftover manure to make a raised bed: I was planning it for potatoes but I had an idea and – since the manure is not full of stones and the bed will be raised from soil level – I could add some sand and use it for carrots, which do not grow well in heavy soils with stones.

By the way, I would suggest you never leave a load of manure uncovered: it is taking ages to clean it up from all the weeds that have grown over one year – nettles first in the list, wit vast, branching roots and green, fresh leaves!

In the greenhouse, the sunflowers have germinated, and I was surprised to see fleshy leaves emerging from the bed where I planted salad. I thought it might be mint, but then I realised it’s the potatoes, the chitted leftovers I found in the shed last winter. How unexpected, I had forgotten about them!

Outside, the spinach is out: I had to put my face at the level of the ground to notice, it’s so small!

It’s so good to be able to relax at the allotment after work!

Crop updates, wildlife developments, competition on the allotments

Did I tell you my boss was a pretty incredible woman? Well, last week she came in the office with something else for me, and that seems to have solved my duck problem: green netting, with small holes, the perfect size! I put it on the pond and, after a little bit of incentive to leave yesterday, they did not seem to have been back 😀

That and the fact that British Summer Time is back and I can go to the allotment in the evening after work is cause for rejoicing: EVVIVA!

Tonight I planted a chilli that does not seem to be recorded in my database: I was disappointed to find so very few seeds in the packet, but hopefully they will work out. However, the chilli pyramid I planted a while ago has not come out yet. It might be that so far I have only watered the trays once a week, in the weekend, which is very little indeed: if seeds germinated and then dried out, all the peppers, tomatoes and aubergines planted so far may be lost.

That sounds like a pretty appalling failure rate: “would I mind more if I had bought fewer seeds?” I asked myself while coming home, after noticing that my neighbour is seriously and frightfully ‘professional’… Over the winter he has digged all his half plot, sifted the soil of stones to grow carrot, laid out perfect looking beds and built some impressive polytunnels… luckily I do not feel inclined to get competitive, but I have heard that that things can get really tough with some passionate gardeners!!!

More than anything else I enjoy pottering about and mucking in – which by now you should know I mean quite literally! Tonight I found myself singing aloud: isn’t that great? That happens very rarely to me… So any edible results are a bonus, I guess.

Crop-wise, I still have to plant my extraterrestrial potatoes, or in fact any other potatoes. I counted 16 plants of broad beans Aquadulce (overwintering) which is few, especially after the rain of last week, but the Express ones I planted this spring seem to be more successful. I will wait a little bit more then have to consider topping up.

In the greenhose, chamomile, having already put out its cotyledons, is now producing tiny leaves, and the minuscule celery seems to have survived so far. Oenothera also looks as if it is coming out.

I am still picking leeks from last year: a full bed to go – leeks is most definitely worth to overwinter, easy to grow from seed and reliable.

This year I will try cauliflower again: given that last year it was a disaster, with no apparent germination, I will try planting seeds in trays rather than in the ground and – as a backup – I have bought some plants of the following, exotic-sounding:

• Cheddar (orange)
• Emeraude (green)
• Nessie (white)
• Graffiti (purple)
• Gitano (Romanesco)

The opium poppies seed I scattered at the back of the shed have come out, while daffodils around the pond and shed look battered (unlike the ones in front of the greenhouse – in the picture above, with guardian sheep in the background).

There is sign of rat activity… however, my trap is still there, empty.

Some crop thoughts.

This week it has been raining and next week it’s BST: the perfect situation, it would seem.

I am so keen to go and see whether the spinach is out, and more broadbeans.

Last year’s potatoes, the ones I did not eat – I must say out of laziness because cleaning them was such a hassle: they were so muddy and eaten through by slugs -have all chitted, and chitted beautifully (they look very much like fascinating extraterrestrial creatures!), so I would like to plant them again… unfortunately you may recollect I did not record whether they were earlies, maincrop etc so I will have to try my luck. Experimental gardening ;p

Did I say that I also experimented with old onions, the ones that put out leaves: I have tried to plant them to see if they make new onions or do just flower, which would not be bad either.

I am at home now and the sun is coming out: I should probably go and water the seedlings in the greenhouse sometimes this afternoon – feel sleepy and have a lot to study, though.

Crop updates, wildlife and manure.

All week I have been thinking that – although I do not mind the ducks and did not see any damage done last year – they might annoy someone else on the site. Punctual as death the question came today: did you see the ducks on your plot? They occasionally nibble on young growth…

There were three in fact, and they start to be a few too many all considered. And although surely any nibbling from the ducks is nothing compared to the devastation made by pigeons, rats and slugs, I have spent all my time at the allotment fencing off the pond and covering it with netting so that ducks cannot access it but frogs can. I would not want to receive a letter asking me to earth up the pond after all the work that went into it.

As the ducks came back, the fencing seemed to work: they looked questioningly around and then at each other without attempting any breaking in, before I shooshed them away again – btw, they flew to the other end of the site, where they used to stand in the puddles of water that collected on plastic sheeting. As the neighbour remarked: not very smart animals, you would think the canal and streams in town would make them more than happy. I agree.

On the subject of living creatures, I have put a rat trap in the greenhouse (with butter and blue cheese rind as bait) as planned. Perfect timing as I had the unfortunate experience of seeing rats running around behind the shed in broad daylight today, and I am pretty sure I heard a neighbour also scream at a “6 inches” rat. It must be spring. If I catch anything, then the trick will be how to kill without blood. Could drown it in the pond :/

Speaking of vegetables, seedlings are starting to appear:

• celery (what shall I do with it? they are tiny and I am afraid they will die down in a while)
• sweet pea
• rapa bianca
• salad

I uncovered the herbs patch, and all of them were ok except one. Very few broadbeans were out though: I will have to see if they come out next week, given that it should rain, otherwise I need to top up with new seeds. Onions are starting to put leaves out but no sight of asparagus yet. Two artichokes seem to have survived but I am afraid the vines are really dead. Daffodils are out and lovely green leaves are starting to appear on gooseberries, including the cuttings. Rhubarb has mad enormous buds and two leaves.

I have started the major task of spreading the remaining manure at the bottom of the allotment to level the ground which is now sunken. Someone had dumped rubbish underneath it…

Not my best day at the allotment, especially for a birthday.