It's not much, but its mine.

I haven't spent much time on the plot lately, and the time I have spent there, or dealing with seedlings has mostly been categorised by fail. French beans not germinated, my tomato plants do not seem to have grown at all since I potted them on last time and are certainly not developing trusses, my leeks, parsnip and savoy cabbage seedlings have just flopped over. Sweetcorn look terminal. Lettuce, spring onions, chives: eaten by slugs. Courgette, oh my god. In fact, if these were the only things I were growing I would pack up. Because frankly, given the amount of seeds I have sown, that is not a good average. But not all is lost. Carrots and beetroot appear to be ok. Potatoes, 4 out of 5 seeds so far. Peas, excellent, runner beans, ok (I think). And today, I brought my first veg home from the plot. Not more than a paper bag full of spinach leaves, true, but still. For all that sweating, they're going to taste pretty sweet.

The plot is still a mess. I've been hacking back couch grass all the time, and pulling up bindweed and marestail. But, no matter what I do, while the beds are still covered with black weed suppressant, held down with planks, its going to look terrible. I try not to think about it, but its a bit discouraging when I see so many plots looking so up together. I know I've achieved a lot so far, but I guess I want it to just look nice. In an effort to tidy up a bit thats been troubling me for ages, where a hose pipe was hidden by (I didn't know) a bit of carpet covered by a thick layer of couchgrass, I thought I'd pull it out. Oh, my god. Ugh, I spent the twenty minutes it took to pull this mess out with the fear that rats were going to jump out on me. They didn't. But still. And now I have to get rid of it.

A free pile of crap with your plot!

Whilst doing this, one of the West Indian men who allotments a few plots down came over for a chat, no doubt attracted by my swearing at the pieces of hose I was hacking out of the ground. He is fairly deaf, I realise, and his strong accent is a bit much for me, so we often don't talk for long. At ten minutes, today was our longest talk. Long enough, to realise that the age and gender divide is alive and well on our corner of the allotments. 

He couldn't believe how much I had done 'all by myself'. Don't you have a husband? He wanted to know. I didn't think he wanted to hear my domestic dramas, and how could I really explain, but I just said, well, I want to do it myself. Digging is a man's job, he explained (huzzah for no-dig gardening), you should get a man to help you. I smile at this. No, really, I say, I'm capable. Its not right, he said. I am a big strong girl, I tell him, its fine. I think about how I made all my raised beds and a bloody bench alone, out of scrap and completely clueless, Dug into rock hard clay, shovelled almost two tonnes of topsoil and schlepped the contents of two unrotted compost bins. I nearly told him all of this. But then I realised that, there was no point. I'm not going to inflict a discussion on gender politics to a pleasant, friendly octogenarian and so what if his ideas are not the same as mine, really? He's just trying to help me. And frankly, would he have heard me. Still, had to smile at his parting shot. 'No, you're doing a good job, for a lady.' I didn't even think, until now, about saying, slowly and at the top of my voice, 'and you're doing a bang up job for a pensioner!'. Maybe I'm growing up.

My day on the plot

bindweed
bindweed
bindweed
bindweed

bindweed
bindweed

couch grass

bindweed
bindweed

couch grass

bramble

bramble

bindweed
bindweed

couch grass

bramble

bindweed
bindweed

bindweed
bindweed

bramble

couch grass

couch grass

Get arfff moy lannnd!

Finally I have met someone on my site that I do not like. I lurk on a few facebook groups and I've read some sorry tales of allotment neighbours; rudeness, theft and vandalism, snitchy jobsworthiness and honestly, mine isn't that bad. Those stories make my plot neighbour seem fine, actually. But he isn't fine. He's a...boor.
Imagine the scene if you will. On return trip 4 of 13 to the water tap because you haven't sorted out your water butt and hose, and there is a man standing on your plot. He makes you jump actually, because you do not expect, I think, a man to be standing on your plot when one was not there two minutes ago. He introduces himself as one of the previous tenants (3 years ago) and explains that he had to give the plot up due to having another child, but that he still keeps the plot opposite. You nod politely and explain you've only come to water your plants very quickly because you are busy. 
He takes a phone call on your only direct path off the plot to the water tap. You have to say 'excuse me' to get past on YOUR OWN PLOT.
A few more trips to the tap and he's still talking on the phone whilst standing on your plot. Eventually he finishes. This is how the conversation goes;
'So this used to be our plot,'
'Yes, I think you might have said...'
'I left a bit of stuff on your plot.'
I do not say, 'You left it three years,'
'Oh?' I say, 'Well...'
'Yeah, two tonnes of topsoil,'
'Yes, it came in very handy, thank you,'
'And loads of really good compost,'
'Um?'
'You know, in the bins,'
I begin to water my runner beans at the back of my plot. He follows me.
'There wasn't really, I mean...'
'I was hoping to get some of my stuff back before someone took on the plot,'
Three years!
'I was hoping to have the bins back, but I guess you're using them,'
I do not say 'You also left a lot of shit for me to clear up and dispose of, but I don't expect you want that back, do you?'
Idiotically, I point to one of the bins at the end.. 'well, I'm not using...'
'Do you see that bed at the end, I triple dug that,'
I do not say 'triple dug, what the fuck are you talking about?'
'Oh yes,' I say, 'great. Thank you,' (Thank you!)
'Yeah, the soil is really good, I triple dug it...'
'Right, well, it was covered with couch grass, but yeah..'
'I was planning to plant sweetcorn in it.'
'Ok, well, I'm putting sweetcorn in a different bed, I thought I'd try tomatoes there,'
AND HE SAYS *chuckle* 'Good luck with that!'
He strides then, uninvited, to the back of my plot, picks up the compost bin and leaves. I search 'electric fencing' on my phone.

I can't decide if he was being ignorant of my personal space, or passive aggressive. It doesn't matter, the effect was the same. The only trouble is that if he does it again, uninvited, I will have to tell him I don't want him to come onto my plot. Which puts me in the role of being pissy, unfriendly tenant (I am, granted) and him in the role of being friendly neighbour, victim of shrew. Hm.

 

Potting on Again

I'm not at the plot today because a) it is pouring with rain and b) I have this non-specific, nausea, headache, tummy pain thing again. I'm tired, the neighbours kept me awake again and nothing seems better than staying in with the radio on.
But, whilst walking the dog this morning (some jobs always need doing, no matter how poorly), I noticed that someone had planted out their tomatoes outside. I realised that not only were mine miles behind, some of my seedlings were knocking their leggy heads on the ceiling of the incubator. So, I resolved to get it done. I should have been a bit more forgiving with myself and tried to do it in two stages,because suddenly I realised I had a lot of tomatoes. After the slug massacre I sowed some more seeds, and when they didn't come up I sowed another batch. When I didn't see these come up, I panicked and acquired more seeds. What's bullet proof, I asked, thumbing through the seed catalogue. I bought some Moneymaker and sowed them too. Within four or five days I had more seedlings than I knew what to do with from all of the seeds that I had tried. Cultivation rewards patience.

Anyway, I ran out of room to pot them all on, with all the other plants that needed to be moved on, in my incubator and my mini-g. I haven't thrown them out yet. When I get my sweetcorn, my purple sprouting broccoli and my cabbage on the way out the door, and start my second sowings of sweetcorn, I might see if they want to be potted on. Either way, the ones I've done today need to catch up! (...cultivation rewards patience..om...cultivation rewards patience...om...)

So in total today I potted:

• 5 sweetcorn (please be ready to go out this week)
• 6 savoy cabbage (2 too many)
• 8 leeks 
• 4 parsnip
• 4 celeriac
• 4 oregano
• 3 chillies
• 2 alpine strawberries
• and a zillion tomatoes, OK, 20

That's enough. I'm going back to bed.

Famous last words: 'How hard can it be?'

I spent little time on the plot this week. I went down daily, to hoe up the eternal bindweed and couch grass and to top up the slug pellets that hoeing displaced. But that, for reasons I don't fully get, was that. I think that my enthusiasm was dampened somewhat by the result of sprinkling those pellets about - the gross, fly ridden, slimy mat of dead slugs that surrounded every green crop. To be clear, I don't want to use pellets at all, they make me feel awful, but after chatting to fellow allotmenteers that can't tell me of anything else, not beer traps, not wool pellets nor nematodes, that seem to protect their plants, and looking at the sheer number of slugs on the plot, I feel like its all I can do for now. I will put some beer traps down, when I remember, but the other night I put out the only comfrey plant I've managed to grow from seed, in what I perceived as 'out of reach', only to find the leaves munched fully away after one night in the wild, my slugs apparently not completely distracted by courgettes, spinach, runner beans and strawberry plants (got a bite out of all those too).

So today, I thought I would make my day count - and I spent about 5 hours on the plot, but god only knows where the time went, because I cannot see that I did 5 hours worth of work - maybe I did, maybe the hoeing and watering really does take that long. I planted out my purple sprouting broccoli in my brassicas bed, Had to fix the netting/plastic frame combo. Took ages. Planted some French bean seeds and pea sticks- could have been a quick job, but tripped and spilt the bean seeds everywhere. Nice work. I sawed a load of planks for my outdoor storage box, but still have eight to go *snore*, tried to move the wheelie bin/water butt but the previous resident had weighted it down with a flagstone and with the water in it, I couldn't even tip it. I did shift a load of heavy stones I couldn't quite work out the function of (these are two things that make me wish I wasn't quite so alone in this) and then I put my  newly fixed azada to work, cutting back a load of couch grass. It would have been quicker with a strimmer, but the azada is fine. In fact, faced with the ludicrous noise the site was filled with by just two people and their strimmers this afternoon, I'm glad I never got one. I'd hate myself. (Ponders if this is true. Yes. It is.)

So, I may not feel like I've achieved too much today but I have laid the groundwork for tomorrow. I can finish sawing the wood for the lid of my box and then I can attach the sides together. I can lay down some cardboard/weed suppressant fabric on the bed I uncovered today, and I can maybe put out my sweetcorn in cloches tomorrow (although, it doesn't look very healthy, it won't get any better languishing in my mini-g). Another hoe, another water and I can be done for the day. That's only about three hours, right?

Theft from the Plot and 'Things to Do' List : results

So I did roughly the amount of time on the plot that I thought I might today, although I started very much later due to the hangover, and the rain. I was sad to find that my storage box, which is not locked. or even secure, had been raided for my saw, wrecking bar and some wool slug pellets. None of these items were very expensive, and it sort of reminds me that I suspect all property to be theft but I'm sad all the same. I don't want to carry all the stuff I want to keep up the hill every time. I hope they go to good use anyway, these tools, gardening rather than petty criminality. Those slug pellets in the wrong hands...
On the upside, it totally did mean that I didn't have to make any planters or finish my peacage (stupid peas don't seem to be coming anyway).  This made the rest of my tasks really straightforward.

Must do:

• plant runner bean seedlings
• plant spinach seedlings
• water beds
• thin out beet seedlings
• weed beds
• prepare courgette bed
• plant potatoes

Would also like to:

• finish pea cage (abhorrent nightmare job that has turned into)
• hacksaw blue bin into two strawberry pots
• plant courgette
• make a strawberry planter (this has to wait until last, it could take me days)
• turn wood mountain into discreet wood pile Wood mountain is now more like wood munro
• hack back a bit of couch grass
• plant parsnip/more carrot seeds
• dig out hose from under pile of matting and couch grass
• move waterbutt
• grab couple bagfuls of leaves from leaf bay for covered beds 

Hoeing the weeds back seems to take me longer and longer every time I go down to the plot now. Bindweed has reared its monstrous head, couch grass is like something that drinks turbo cider and amphetamine every day before charging into work, like, " I am UNSTOPPABLE, hit me and SEE, I will just COME BACK TOMORROW!" But I will win, couch grass. If you came up my way, you'd know I have infinite patience for bullshit like this.

Bees or serious crime?

Otherwise, its been fine. Some of my neighbours are bee keepers and this was the first time I saw them dealing with their hive. I was keen to see what they were up to, but you know, given they were all garbed up in that beekeeping/soco/spacewalk stuff, I reckon I might have been somewhat under protected for just sauntering up, I could see they had honey anyway, so maybe if my flowers grow, they might give me some one day,
Thinning out my beet seedlings was a bit nervewracking, but I think they're alright. The trenches I had dug out for my spuds had hardened over into moon rock again, with hard clods that you could build houses with. I've had to give up the dream of a fine tilth for that bed (treated with soil softener, too) but I think potatoes should cope, just.

As well as parsnip and more carrot seeds, I planted scorzonera seeds and chive seeds, a couple more sweet peas to go with my runner bean seedlings. I put more spinach and a courgette plant in the ground and I cut up the blue bin. It will make great strawberry planters. Had I given it any more thought, I could have got three out of it. Just got to work out how to plant my strawbs now.
I've decided that I had better build a secure, lockable box. I've looked online, but even the plastic ones are expensive, and I do need to do something with this wood. Feels like it will be a bit of a stretch for me but my bench has given me confidence, and apart from hinges and a hasp(?) it'll cost me nothing but time, and no doubt fury. Yes, it could be broken into, yes, its probably harder than I think, but I have to do something with this bloody wood.
Guess I'm going back tomorrow for the rest of my jobs, but I'll be slipping back tonight to scatter some slug repellent about on my new plants, since the wool pellets are gone. Sluglife.

'Things to do' list, an experiment. And a sulk about buying compost.

Alright, so, a minor experiment.

I think, if I'm not hungover (could be hungover), I can manage five hours on the plot tomorrow before I have to do family things. Five hours is actually quite a long time for the little jobs I need to do, I reckon, so I'm going to set myself some fairly aggressive targets. I've got to take some plants over, to dig them into the ground, which could take two trips. But that's ok, give me an excuse to refill my thermos. Anyway, here's what I could achieve if I try:

Must do:

• plant runner bean seedlings
• plant spinach seedlings
• water beds
• thin out beet seedlings
• weed beds
• prepare courgette bed
• plant potatoes

Would also like to:

• finish pea cage (abhorrent nightmare job that has turned into)
• hacksaw blue bin into two strawberry pots
• plant courgette
• make a strawberry planter (this has to wait until last, it could take me days)
• turn wood mountain into discreet wood pile
• hack back a bit of couch grass
• plant parsnip/more carrot seeds
• dig out hose from under pile of matting and couch grass
• move waterbutt
• grab couple bagfuls of leaves from leaf bay for covered beds 

When I write it down like that it sounds a bit easy (apart from the strawberry planter), and I think if I just worked hard I could do it. I just spend too much time fucking about. Fucking about is fine. Enjoyable, bit after only having one day down there in about a week, I've got to get some stuff done. Then I've got to cajole Mr G into helping me get some (yet more, always more) compost. This whole no dig bed notion is very attractive, but fuck me, it's organic material thirsty. I was bought some strawberry plants, which will definitely need compost (I didn't want these plants, explaining I was growing some alpine strawberries, albeit slowly) and I still have a bed of rock hard heavy clay that could do with a couple of hundred litres of compost before I can forget about it. Then in October, I can cover it with lots more expensive compost and manure, and then in the spring I can do that again and then I can plant stuff in it. This sounds easy in comparison to digging soil that one's spade bounces off, but until I have a substantial amount of homemade compost from my own bins, its a lot of cash. I hear rumours about getting municipal from the council delivered to the allotment site, but its mythical as far as I can tell. I've also become sceptical about the no-dig method's ability to really change the structure of very hard clay soils. How does it do it? Just worms? These worms would have to be superheroes.
I'm feeling negative about it because of the cost, and because of the difficulties, I know. If I drove, if I wasn't trying to do everything on a shoestring, I wouldn't be so nervy about it. 

But I've set my course, and I need to stick to it. All I can do now is what I can do. So lets hope I can do what's on the list.

Rats.

I can't be (surely) the only person who anthropomorphizes the natural world when at their allotment. I hoed up a sleeping slow worm this week and I actually found myself apologising out loud as I patted the warm soil back around it, genuinely sorry to disturb its sleep. I spotted a spider with what looked like a white sack of eggs on her back (a wolf spider? I'm not going to post a pic. I understand not everyone is as happy with spiders as I am) whilst forking over the bed I am using for runner beans and I stamped about for a bit to show her I meant business as she hung around, not looking overjoyed to be shaken from her bed, before I returned to fork the soil again (more carefully). I look upon worms, ladybirds -  all birds (even the ones I think will eat my peas) as allotment friends, animals with good intent. The robin that hangs around expectantly since I dug up my compost bins is my new best friend. The invisible mammals that leave paw marks in my raised beds overnight sometimes; fellow travellers. And yet, some things, posing potentially less harm than the site badgers or wood pigeons are definite enemies. Couch grass, bindweed and brambles have no consciousness, less than even than worms, seem to appear to spite me in the places they grow, and regrow and regrow. Slugs, snails, can hardly be described as malicious but I would have no hesitation in mashing one immediately against the back of my spade or fork, eyes narrowing and nostrils flaring as I dispose of it. I know, I don't expect anyone to share my madness. It just is what it is.
But rats, probably no stranger to any allotment, everyone hates don't they? 'Have you seen any rats?' my field rep asked me casually the other day, 'there's a problem, apparently,'
Had I seen any rats? If I'd seen a rat on my plot you'd have heard me scream across the valley. I'd be walking around with a gun. Or maybe not a gun, but my dog at any rate. I do not want to see a rat, I am not scared of them exactly, but despite their blameless life of doing no more or less what rats do, I do not want to see one. They make me feel sick.And I imagine they'd try and kill my dog (again, I don't expect this feeling to be shared).
So today, while I babysit my poorly dog, the council ratmen are at the allotment. I have many things I should be doing down there today, but I am not sorry I am at home. I may be behind with getting my spuds in, and the runner bean and spinach seedlings will not dig themselves in. But there seems less risk of running into a rat here, and I am happy enough about that.

Lamb Samosas

A decent allotment snack or a superior appetiser for a curry.

This is probably an Anglican version of the samosa, made with filo, and herbed up with mint instead of coriander (I do not like coriander. If you like it, feel free to replace or join up with the mint in this recipe). I would have liked to have made proper samosa pastry, but the day I made them I was running late, and flipping through my recipe books in rather a panic, I could not find any samosa recipes at the time that did not stipulate filo. Well, fine. They were still quite delicious. They taste rather less Anglo-Indian if you only use one layer of filo, rather than two (although, harder to make without breaking) and use ghee to oil the sheets rather than melted butter. Makes loads. But they freeze well.

Ingredients:

• 500g packet of lamb mince
• 1 onion, roughly chopped 
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 green chillies, finely chopped (reserve half a chilli for adding near the end)
• oil for frying
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 2 tsp of amchoor powder or juice of one lemon
• Mug of water
• 1 carrot, cut into medium dice
• Frozen peas, I used three small handfuls. Wish I could be more specific.
• Small handful of mint (and/or coriander)
• Ghee
• Packet of filo

At least a couple of hours before you wish to eat, In a large frying pan, over a medium heat, add a small splash of cooking oil and cook the cumin seeds for a few minutes, until they smell aromatic. Add the onion, garlic and most of the chilli and cook down until softened and the onion is beginning to turn golden. Turn up the heat and add the mince, and cook until browned all over. Add the salt and pepper and the dried spices and cook for two or three minutes over a moderate heat, stirring to combine. If adding lemon, do so at this point and then stir through, before adding a mug of water. Turn the heat down and let this all simmer away for ten minutes before adding your vegetables. Now, turn the heat right down as far as you can and continue to let the lamb and veg cook down for at least another twenty minutes until it is a very dry mixture. Add your mint, and the remainder of the chopped chilli and leave to cool.

Turn the oven on to preheat to gas 6 or 200c. Coat two baking sheets in oil. Clear a wide space on your worktop. Take the filo out of the pack and cover with a damp tea towel and then, one or two sheets at a time (depending on your attitude to risk), take out and coat the top layer with ghee. Cut the layers of filo into four equal lengths; I found any smaller than this made for cute but irritatingly fiddly samosas. Put a tablespoon of lamb onto the end of the filo strip and then fold up, triangularly, until the end of the strip (plenty of vids and diagrams on the interwebs demonstrate this far better than I could. Seal the end up. Paint with ghee. Rinse and repeat until mixture is finished. Bake 25-35 minutes. Serve with dip, or in a packed lunch.

April Review (A little late)

I have had a bit of a tummy thing the past couple of days, so unable to get down to the plot until now. It is a real mess at the moment, but I'm feeling a bit tender to do much about it. I bumped into my plot neighbour and he volunteered that I was doing a great job. I almost burst into tears, but I put that down to the stomach ache, rather than the praise. 

So here is the rather conservative list of things I gave myself to do at the start of April:

• propagate spring seeds. Will need to be done on a weekly basis for at least this month, maybe longer
• construct mini greenhouse in the garden for growing on vulnerable seedlings
• acquire manure and extra compost for beds
• build beds
• dig up informal areas on the plot to plant out the comfrey and wild flower seeds
• reduce planks and soil bags on plot to minimal.

I managed all of those pretty well except reducing planks and soil bags to minimal. They are still relatively maximal.

So, pics for comparison:

End of March

End of April

So, because I'm not very good at taking pics, there are some things you can't see. Actually this month I've:

• Constructed and filled three raised beds
• Dug over 10 beds and cleared of bramble and couch grass. Covered most until October
• Terraced 2 beds,
• Made a bench
• Made a bay for and moved two compost bins (and their not entirely rotted down contents. Not my best day ever tbh.)
• Planted beetroot, carrot, spring onion, pea and sweet pea seeds. Planted spinach seedlings.
• Made tunnels of fleece and insect netting.Made windbreak for spinach that made no difference.
• Germinated seeds indoors for: Purple sprouting broccoli, runner beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes, tomatillos, courgettes, savoy cabbage, leeks, celeriac, parsnips and basil (but not mint yet. Stubborn.)

Insect netted, waiting for brassicas.

Poor spinach, windbreak never helped much

Bench and bins 

Beetroot seedlings. Thinning out required.

Last month this was all black plastic.

So, May. Here's my todo list:

• Keep potting on my seedlings until I can get them out. Having seen some people's seedlings on social media, mine seem very behind. My current mantra is 'gardening rewards patience' repeated x 1000.
• Put up runner bean stalks and pea sticks
• Get on top of tidying up
• Plant potatoes
• Continue to mulch my no dig beds and get the cardboard to cover them until autumn.
• Thin seedlings and plant more root seeds
• Kill wood mountain

Pallet Garden Bench Finished

Tah dah!

 Despite all of my whining this week, my bench was pretty easy to make in the end. I can't say it would have been so great if I hadn't have had a great big fence to cut up and use as the back, but with all the timber left on my plot, you can't deny me a bit of luck.

So, I had two long pallets, and I cut each one in 'half' lengthways (I cut past the blocks in the half way point meaning one was longer than the other), piling the two wider halves on top of one another. I used bits of the other two halves to make the base and spare slats to fill in the gaps.

I took the piece of fencing and had to cut a fair amount off the sides as it was *much* wider than the base. I removed the bottom slat, and then, after staring at it for some time, removed another slat. I cut a few inches off the legs so it would sink comfortably to the base of the slats. I then nailed on some batons behind where the legs should fit, to help them stay at the right angle.

I had to think of how I would fix them all the pieces of the base together. If I were making something more serious than a bench to sit and drink my thermos of  tea on my plot, I would take apart each pallet, and drill through to the next one, securing them properly, but frankly, who has got time for that? So, I used wood glue (gorilla glue! Works!) which I left overnight. I was advised to simply 'clamp' for 20-30 mins, but I didn't have a clamp and will probably never be that organised, so I just piled on what I had directly to hand to weigh it down and kept my fingers crossed, and then drilled the pallets at an angle with long, thick screws when I came back the next day. It was difficult. But I think for outside jobs, having two approaches is right.

Then I had to nail in slats for all the gaps on the seat. Very frustrating that gaps in a pallet should be different thickness. Sanded them all down. Slotted in the back.

I then got a very stylish tester to come and see whether it was comfortable. Luckily, got full approval.

Garden Pallet Bench Almost Done; Seedling Improvement.

Well, its not 'Yes We Can!' shouted out of a megaphone but I no longer feel like 'I can't, I can't,' sobbed into a tissue. The garden bench out of pallets and a bit of fence is actually coming along all right, although it's a bit of a botch job honestly. I can't work out how I'm supposed to completely fix the back into its angled position, well, without some highly complicated woodwork and carpentry to do it (I am reluctant). It slots in pretty well, and I think its probably going to be ok. I'll find out soon enough, anyway. So, I need to fix slats into the gaps of the slats. (The gaps are not the same width apart all the way along. On a pallet! What?) and when I've done that I need to wash it down and sand it and I'll have a bench. I would have done all of this today had the rain not been so bloody wet. I'm happy to do a lot in the bad weather, but I can't feel any urgency for jobs like that, so best to get in with indoor jobs on days like today.
The seedlings are doing a lot better sense they've gone into the incubator again. Still no news on the runner beans, or lavender but I'm starting to see secondary leaves on almost everything now. After reading an article in a magazine today, I think I'm going to put some runner beans out as plants and some as seeds. Not only will it not matter if I don't have all the seedlings up, but I can use it as succession sowing and try and stretch out the season a bit.

Lavender Plug Plants

 Also, I decided to buy some Lavender plug plants, simply because, well to be honest, I really want some lavender on my plot. At £9 for 10 plug plants, it feels like a real extravagance, especially compared to the price of seeds, but these seeds don't seem to be working out very well for me, and I think I need to get them established in the summertime. Anyway, I was pretty delighted when they arrived in the post. All I need to do now is build some planters for them. Plenty of wood left for that.

So I'm fairly certain its going to rain this weekend, naturally, but until the seedlings grow on a bit, there is not a great deal I can do at the plot apart from the bench. I also need to move my compost bins which is going to be so, so awful I've been blocking it out. In one bin, (the naughty bin) I have a load of perennial weeds that don't seem to have broken down at all, and is very heavy and scratchy and full of slugs and ants, (and appears to be sprouting bindweed, which I'm ignoring) and in the other (the good bin) is loads of imperfectly rotted household waste. It smells. I hope there aren't any rats living in it. But the bins have to be moved sometime because they are messing with the flow of the plot and are going to inhibit me from utilising perfectly good space or beds and access in the end. Time to suck it up. Figuratively.

Seedlings: ICU

I wonder if the title of this post shouldn't be: Maybe I just can't do this.

Since the spring slug massacre of the mini-g, my early optimism on seedlings has dissolved. I lost the majority of my tomato seedlings that night, and despite planting more, of several varieties, nothing has germinated yet. Since the first sowing seemed to spring out of the soil almost like magic, I have become worried at the lack of movement. It's disappointing, because honestly, if I had to choose only one vegetable (alright, fruit) to eat for the rest of my life, I'd choose tomatoes without any hesitation. They're one of the biggest reasons I applied for a plot actually, because our yard is either full shade or partial shade and no tomatoes are going to grow there. But it's not just the tomatoes that are worrying me.  All the most recent seedlings seem to be in stasis. Celeriac, terrible; runner beans, nothing. Comfrey. 1/8. Repotting some of them has helped a bit, but I'm leery of repotting seedlings for a second time that haven't developed their true leaves or seem to have outgrown the pot. Anyway, I've moved the worst cases back into the incubator in my bedroom until it warms up a bit. And I try not to look at them too much in case my meddling and worrying is giving them performance anxiety.
Also, making my bench and all the sawing and breaking up pallets is tiring me out. Heavy, boring work. To be honest, I'm tempted to sneak down to the plot and have an outlawed bonfire (I won't, I'm too much of a square,) just so I can see the back of the wood and not feel responsible for it, much less feel like I should do constructive projects with it. I know this is just tiredness talking - but it feels so hard. Lugging huge pallets about and great sections of fence is a tough job for one person (me). I was resisting it, but I think it might be time to ask for help. I have a couple of male friends who have offered, a couple of times, to help. I just don't want to be 'rescued'. Maybe a good night's sleep and a successful day tomorrow on the plot will help. Or drive me to arson. Only time will tell.

Woodwork. (There was hail! I mean, hail!)

I feel lucky that the weather gave me a good excuse to come home today.  I had two hours(!) sleep last night and spent a solid hour on the plot first thing sawing up a couple of big pallets (why is there no standard size? It would make all of those 'build a swishy storage couch from a pallet and a bit of blu-tack' you-tubes a lot easier to understand if I wasn't stood there, head cocked to one side, wondering how to apply this to that.) Anyway, I think I have a plan for some seating that I have not learnt from some dude in a baseball cap on the internet. I'm just waiting for a crowbar, and to do more sawing, and then some hammering and gluing and then some sanding.  Could totally have it done by June, I reckon. The mix of wooden type things on the plot has proved to be a blessing rather than a curse in this case I think, because fingers crossed, that fence I was whining about in the pile of pallets could save me a lot of work in making the backrest. Proof will be in the pudding.
I also worked out that I don't have enough timber to build a shed. I am relieved, actually, since I was working out the cost of what I don't have - chipboard sheet for the floor, 2x4's to build a frame, concrete blocks or shed base, corrugated plastic for roof? All the screws, brackets.. a door, the cost of getting it all there - I think I'd be saving money from the most basic shed you could buy from, say, B&Q. But. A load of work to save money for what is essentially a discretionary project. Then, putting it together, sawing, measuring. No, it's better that this decision has been made for me. So, just a bay for my recycling bins and then some planters with the remaining timber and I will have got rid of a lot of it. I also am going to repurpose the ugly blue plastic bin, if I can, by turning it into a couple of big flowerpots. If only it weren't quite so blue. I might spray it, to look like one of those terracotta pots. Which means, if I have judged my skillset correctly, it will probably look like a streaky orange plastic bin. Its an allotment though, not Kew. Maybe I should leave it blue, ugly but perfectly functional.
Still got one large lidless, plastic composter to think of a solution for. The dalek type. Won't fit in a car. Maybe think of containers to attatch to the outsides for vertical planting? Hm. This is turning into stream of consciousness writing now. Time for a nap.
 

Oh god. What a mess.

I intended to clear up the plot a bit today, but I've understood now that its just too hard while I've got all this shit on it. It's as messy as I've ever been. I thought it was great when I first got it that I had inherited all this stuff, but now I'm not certain at all.  Unless I do something with this pile of wood, I must get rid of it. I must rationalize the collection of compost bins. It is a small plot so having all this stuff around makes me feel like someone on one of those hoarding programmes and I didn't even bring it along. Even the pile of pallets, from which I thought I could try and make a bench, appears to have two huge  sections of fencing in it. I mean, what? It turns out I can probably make a simple bench out of the pallets anyway, which will be something so I'm going to try and start on that tomorrow. The first step on climbing scrap wood mountain. The second step will be working out out if I have enough wood to make a small shed, which should use all of it up and if I can't, the third step is to use what I have to make a nice strong bay for my compost bins and get the rest off the plot to make firewood. As for the plastic bins, well... You tell me.

I'm thinking of getting my spuds in the ground soon too, after I saw one of the guys I talk to putting his in. I mean, I say talk to, normally I just nod and smile as one of two or three elderly West Indian men on my field give me unsolicited advice in a combination of English and patois. Today's advice session was basically a lecture on why desiree potatoes (his choice) are better than King Edwards (mine). I didn't understand everything he said, honestly, but his passion for the desiree potato has convinced me. I'm quite grateful to see these  men about , as someone who is on my plot of 99% of the time completely by alone, its nice to see friendly faces and, when I look at their obviously thriving plots, nice to know there are people about who know a bit about growing vegetables. So, desirees. It's too late for this year, but, yeah. Maybe. Anyway, I only have five seed potatoes, so it can't be too onerous a job, can it?
I can already see a difference from my potting on that I did last night, so some of my seedling must
have been very keen to get into new pots. Since the slug attack though, I've been really short of tomato seedlings, so I'm going to try again today. It'll be too late soon. Also, I need to plant more runner bean seeds. I only needed six, but didn't even get that many. I've got three viable seedlings, and nobody plants just three runner bean seedlings, do they, on those bamboo structures. Which reminds me...time to make a bamboo arch thing.
The fun never stops.

First Planting Out.

So I've got my covers on my plastic frames, and I've sown a row of spring onion seeds in one of the clay beds today, even though the lumps of clay I can't seem to break up smaller than the size of marbles make me wonder how they'll push out. I'll probably have to  plant my leeks out in the same little plot if they ever become viable, but I think they'll be big enough by then to cope with the lack of fine tilth. Let's hope.
I also planted out some spinach today. That is to say, I took the nipper down the plot for him to plant it out for me - this felt  a victory in itself. Little Grow is not keen on the outdoors, soil or fresh air. He wants to help, he tells me, he just doesn't appear to want to do any actual helping usually, or moving out from in front of his computer. But today he cheerfully consented to actually making holes in the soil with a dibber and planting and then firming around the ground beside it with bare hands.  I tried not be too obviously delighted with this, but I was delighted. I'm not going to mention it again to him until the bank holiday, but with weather on my side and a few more plants ready to go, he might begin to think the outside is a nice place to be. Our little concrete yard does not inspire much, even the tiny herb garden I've cultivated doesn't pull me out much, useful though it is as when I'm making dinner. We have the odd barbecue, but it is so concrete and shade bound that we can't do much. I've got to plant some dill seeds soon in the bed, and have a little weed around. Perhaps now a lot of the grunt work is done (mustn't forget to fix the broken raised bed) on the plot, I'll find it more interesting to be in the garden. Or maybe not.
I also had a mass potting on section at home. I noticed that many of my seedlings didn't seem to be getting much bigger, and in fact ones I put out most recently in the mini-g don't appeared to have grown at all. The new tomato seeds I put on the windowsill to replace the ones chomped by slugs haven't germinated at all, apparently. So I'm not sure what to do. The ones that did look like they were outgrowing their homes have gone on to new pots anyway, so maybe they'll have a little spurt. I find it all so confusing. I do not appear to have very green fingers, to say the least.
Anyway, tomorrow a tidy up on the plot and an investigation of the pallets that are piled up in the corner. I've been watching some you-tube vids on how to make furniture from waste pallets, and I have to do something with them, so I better look at what I've got. I don't understand many of these videos, I seem unable to connect what they describe to actual life and they seem to show the complex bits, like fixing the seat backs at an angle or where to cut on the actual pallet, by shooting it from the wrong way. Explain it to me like I'm stupid and I've never held a piece of wood before in my life. Then we'll be fine.

Sometimes it Snows in April

It isn't going to snow. I don't even think it's going to frost here in the mild, mild west but I am dragging my feet getting stuff out. I think I could put my courgette plants out and some spinach seedlings; my purple sprouting broccoli look like they could be ready. I've been hardening off. *taps fingers on edge of the armrest*.  I think I'll try a couple of things; most of the seedlings I have ready to go have back ups or succession seedlings, after all. What's the worst that could happen? My babies could dieeeeeeee, that's all.

Attractive Blue Frames, Motif of the Site

Not much time at the plot this morning as I was really exhausted after a fairly sleepless night. Got there late, did a bit of weeding and scattered round some slug pellets, planted some more sweet peas. I was sad to discover that my little green shoots were actually fairly unlikely to be entirely the careful and diligent planting of seeds in drills of my own hand, because I noticed the whole roots raised bed was covered by little seedlings, more than I ever trickled out of the seed packets. Then I realise they were more than likely to be the wildflower seeds having blown off the bed above, which I scattered them on without raking them in. Well, how delightful they seem to be thriving so well, I thought as I raked my hands through the soil, scuffing them up at their roots. A weed, after all, is just a plant growing where you would rather it did not. I could have waited, I suppose, and transplanted them when they were a bit stronger but I do not feel particularly obliged towards them. So, fuck em. More room for the things we can actually eat.
Anyway, I cut the plastic piping for my cloches (far easier than I thought, especially in comparison with all the grunt work I've done over the past few weeks) and I stuck them in the beds, to be covered tomorrow. I was fairly happy about that, until I broke off the end of the (fairly shoddily made) raised bed. I watched Gardener's World last night, and watched Monty Don knock together some fairly professional looking beds in about 5 minutes. Oh, for the manpower and resources of a gardening show, eh? Anyway, he made me feel like mine are going to last all of about three weeks... but as long as they last a growing season, I won't be heartbroken - theoretically I can just dismantle them and continue to have no-dig beds where they were. Please though, please wait until I've pulled up my parsnips and swedes.

Time to Move Things On

Well, progress has been inching along this week. I have been feeling the dark cloud of depression beginning its slow but sure descent over me for  the past few days, and  coupled with the short hiatus of  'I can't do anything else until I get my compost and plastic pipes', I have spent a fair few hours staring out of the window and not doing much else. So, even though I don't feel like it, much like walking the dog in the rain, it's time to button up and get on with it.
So I've spread almost 400 litres of compost about. The majority has gone on my no-dig beds to be forgotten about until October, although I need about another 250 litres to be honest to finish the last one (I say last one, that's not even true. I have at least three more beds planned, but they'll have to wait, until more money and more goodwill).You need a car, at the very least to move compost. Relations with Mr G are not so good that I can be bothered to ask, and even if my mum did take me, she's not well enough to help me get the stuff down to the plot. I've gone off the idea of buying in bulk for now - it may be getting the faff over in one go rather than death by a thousand cuts, but it does still seem like faff. At least the little by little method is controllable for the most part. I had a lovely friend offer to get me some cardboard so I can cover the compost before finally topping with that weed suppressant fabric and ignoring. Hurray.
A lot of my seedlings seem ready to go from their seed pots and beds, even though I am worried it is too cold. Before I do that, and probably wisely because it feels quite wintry out there, I need to build my cloches. My roots will need fleece still, but my brassicas and legumes will need netting. I will have to build a cage for my sweetcorn as well as my peas, I think, although I'm not sincerely confident that it will be enough to stop the badgers, which are apparently the true pests to sweetcorn on our site. Whenever I go down, there are obvious mammal footprints on my raised beds, which I fondly hope are badgers, because I really like them. Or at least I do until they eat my sweetcorn after which I might because one of the badgercidal maniacs that I hear about in the countryside (my mother-in-law for instance, is a proper farmers daughter and she has no empathy for the countryside pest. I am one of the city folk, so I hold my counsel, obviously, in her presence). Some of my seedlings seem a bit stunted though, so I'm going to have a mass potting on session tomorrow , see whether it helps.
So then, I will just need to give the plot a good tidy. The mess really depresses me, although I can't put my finger on why I find it so bad. It's not like I won't do things with all the planks, and butts and shit, and that I won't move the compost bins into a better position, but while there's so much to do I just can't. And in the meantime, it gets in my eyeline and makes me feel sad. Of all the things to get bothered about, eh?
Rest in peace, Prince.

Come and Melt the Buttons on me Flameproof Nightie

I miss Victoria Wood. You say, what already? but I've been thinking about her for months. I heard Maxine Peake talking about her Dinnerladies days a few weeks ago on the radio and I thought about Victoria Wood. I thought, 'I wonder what she's up to', like you might, I am presumptuous enough to say, about an old friend from whom you have long drifted apart. Well, now I know what she was up to. I liked Victoria Wood because she was funny, but also because she was kind, and because you could tell she loved women from the way she wrote for them. Stealth sisterhood, over tea and custard creams.
But life goes on.
I planted peas today, funny wrinkled little things. Funny how some things are obviously their finished product and some seeds seem entirely unidentifiable by sight. Peas are definitely peas. They reminded me of school dinner peas actually. Anyway, I planted them in one of the raised beds in which I  also plan to put some sweetcorn, or maybe some sweet peas or spinach. I am happy with this raised bed, especially in comparison with the rock hard soil. It is a much nicer thing, to stick your hand in the soil and feel it move around than struggle to shift heavy boulders of clay about. God knows how I am going to get my potatoes in that big lumpy bed. They say that potatoes loosen clay where they grow, but these are King Edwards, not superspuds. While on the plot I also lifted some more couchgrass, laid some paper and cardboard mulch, did a bit of weeding, a bit of tidying up. But it was a pretty lacklustre attempt. It was such a beautiful day, I spent much of the time sitting and drinking tea, with my radio four and my sunshine. That's alright.

And so, I have my seedlings indoors tonight after an attack by some slugs in my mini-g last night. It reminded me that I do not have any strategies when it comes to slugs, either at home or at the plot. I lost a courgette and some tomato seedlings. Interestingly, they decided not to eat the tomatoes I sowed from seeds free on the front cover of a mag, but the ones I picked, after reading about them, and paid for out of a seed catalogue. Were they tastier, I wonder? Anyway, I need to get salt and pellets for the mini-g or I won't sleep at night, thinking about the little slimy fuckers climbing up the plastic. 
Applications currently being considered for pet hedgehogs. No experience necessary.

Not Working From Home

Having bellyached fully yesterday about the state of my plot, I decided to give it a rest today. It's the first day that I haven't fancied going, but I don't know if that's allotment related or a life issue. Truthfully, I only want to lie on the sofa and eat carbs, so that is what I'm going to do about that; get pizza, drink beer and settle in with a film.

In good news, my mother was kind enough to take me up to shop of hell, B&Q, in order to get some cheap compost. I don't know if anyone sells compost as cheap as B&Q's own brand stuff, which may not be the best quality stuff on earth, but bulk is my priority for mulching no-dig beds. And, with the help of a charming young man who pointed out some damaged bags that he had had to mark down in price, we managed to get over 400 litres of compost for just over £18. There is the psychic pain of having to buy from a huge business with the staff relations, shop design and reputation for customer service of the devil is which is something I have chosen to swallow for the sake of bargain basement dirt, but beggars cannot be choosers. Happily their most local branch is so far away from me now, it's just not worth my while getting there until the next time I need quantity over quality and I can manage to close my ears to my conscience.
I did try texting the allotment advertising guy about prices, but he clearly doesn't need the business too much as he hasn't got back to me. Not that I need much as much now, but still. Now all I have to do is hunt out a load of cardboard boxes to get some more complaints about cluttering up the house 'with my allotment junk'.
Off to try and summon up the energy for potting on my parsnips and spinach. Maybe I'll have another cup of tea first.

Plate Bigger then Belly

I had a moment of despair at the plot today. Ridiculous really, because nothing has gone wrong. I just felt very lonely all of a sudden, trying to work out what to do about the bloody couch grass on a patch I'm working on, and the idea that I had about digging it over and burying it on itself, which isn't working. It isn't working because the clay is so compacted that to even get a third of  spade's depth down feels impossible. When I do manage to lift some out, I am rewarded by weedbound soil, thick ropes of bramble root criss-crossing underneath the surface. I hope it's bramble. It could be some sort of alien species. There's also some thick white roots that go on forever, but I am less worried about those, in comparison with the bramble, they're nothing.To compound matters, I had been looking at the bed where I'm going to put my potatoes, and it's gone back to being like the surface of the moon. Even hitting the boulders of clay with a lump hammer had no effect (I'm not suggesting that should be a remedy, I'm just saying).

Bloody couchgrass. Bloody crappy soil.

I am more interested in the concept of no-dig gardening than anything else, partially because of the quality of the soil, partially because lazy. I'd like to fill the plot with raised beds in an ideal world, but the cost of filling with soil/manure is out of my budget, but reading the no-dig technique, I'm still going to have to acquire a lot of organic matter. I know that I can do it a bed at a time, but even if I wanted enough to do one bed, I'd still need more than I could get in the boot of someone's car. I'm going to contact the bloke who advertises on the allotment gate and find out what his prices are, I think, and whether he'll get the stuff onto my plot, which is a big consideration. Lots of topsoil/manure people seem keen to underline that theirs is a kerbside service. No good for me.
Anyway, even if I have to do it inch by tiny inch, I will get there eventually - there isn't a deadline, after all. And I need to keep thinking about how much I have achieved. Three weeks ago, there was nothing at all on the site except for a lot of black plastic, some bags of soil and a lot of planks. There are still a lot of planks, true. But I do have beds now. And, if today's peek
 under the fleece means anything at all, I do apparently have something growing from seed in the roots bed. Which is something.
So I still haven't finished the bloody pea-cage. That's alright though. I can't have guilt about stuff I don't even need yet. The potatoes are in the kitchen waiting to be chitted, ready to go in the crappy clay. I have parsnips and more spinach to pot on, and my chillies are coming up. Good really. Good.

Working from home: Potting On, DIY

Not only did I really ache yesterday after the long stint at the plot on Saturday, but I've been having twinges of guilt with the amount of time I'm spending away from my kid on the weekends. I mean he could tear himself away from in front of his computer monitor and come and join me toiling in the fields for a bit. But he won't, and to insist he join me when he'd rather be elsewhere is not really conducive to the karma of my plot and, more importantly, not the sort of parenting I try to go in for. So we went for brunch, and then I hung around the house, miserably, feeling my aching muscles and groaning every time I got up from my seat like an old woman does. Very sexy. And then, between baking some cake (I am beginning to realise that cake is essential for having an allotment), and flopping out in front of the telly, I did some potting on and started to build a peacage.
I've decided to be a bit braver with potting on and go a bit earlier, relying on the 'big enough to handle' rule, rather than waiting for the seedling to develop its second set of leaves. Mainly because my seedlings were getting very leggy and floppy whilst I awaited this magic stage of development, but also because as soon asI have them potted on, I can more or less stick them out in the mini-g and forget about them for a bit. Checking for soil moisture, problems and awareness of what is going on is much easier when everything is together. Whether there will be problems related to my push out the door parenting technique, I don't know. That's the great thing; I don't know anything.
Cage building is also causing a few wrinkled foreheads. I'm using scrap wooden stakes for the frame, and while I think its long enough, its the size it is because of the length of the stakes, not my needs. But, it's only for a few pea seedlings. I'll be making net cloches for my brassicas, which I'm sure will result in more facepalm moments for me. Fun times ahead.
Today, hopefully, marking out beds with string and a spirit level, somehow breaking up the soil a bit more on my potato bed, finishing the weeding of my bean patch. Finish the peacage, dammit.

Getting Stuff Done

Today was a far better day than I was expecting from the beginning. The beginning was bad. I had a long list of stuff to do, as always, but things got off to a shit start after surfacing from a sad and broken sleep that had the neighbours waking me up at two am and shutting up finally, about four. Then, when I opened the curtains to see rain, I felt pissed off just because I was so keen to get going. Couple that with a broken fridge (again), off milk so no tea and no tea for the flask and I grumped off down to the plot cursing the rain, my broken sleep and my lack of caffeinations.

There are still weeds in this bed. We all know it.

And then I spent about two hours weeding. I am not really sure about weeding. I mean, I recognise that it must be done - but hand weeding, and especially my slowass hand weeding, seems like a particularly inefficient way to go about it. I have a hoe, but I don't know, I'm trying to get up the roots of the couchgrass and it doesn't seem like there's any other way to do that. The soil does not help - the mud seems to stick in heavy balls around the roots, and I suppose I could just hoof it all away, mud and all, but if I did that for every couch grass fragment, I'd be left with very little soil. I will be doing lots more digging over the next few weeks and I wonder, with the couch grass, whether it will be dealt with by a simple process of turning the earth over and burying the grass on its head? Hmm. I don't know. If I hadn't killed my azada, getting the grass up would have been much easier. But anyway, today's weeding was done on beds I had already cleared. That's the beauty of couch grass though; 'cleared' is not an entirely meaningful definition.

Potato bed. Not perfect but better.

I then dug over and covered the second bed at the top of the slope, which was easier than I imagined. I finished the chicken manure on that bit (oh sweet lord, is there a more heinous smell than chicken manure on an allotment?) and then, having received an alert that my maincrop spuds were on their way, thought I had better have another dig over the bed I'll be using for them. They soil is still very clay, but since I did the treatment on it last week, it didn't seem as sticky or heavy. I think it will need more work before I can cultivate it, but I'm quite excited, all the same.
I then uncovered a bit of my weed suppressant fabric at the other end,months and months earlier than I had planned because I thought it would be a perfect spot to try and grow on my runner beans. I had intended to cover this bed until next year, so I hadn't bothered to do anything. I learnt that, just covering a weedy area for a couple of weeks does not help. In fact, it makes things worse probably. So I'll never do that again.
I dragged some planks about for a bit in order to plan some more beds. Again, I don't expect to use these until next year, so I can go slowly in digging them up. I think I have room comfortably for five more beds, three larger ones in the main area, one at the back in the bit currently covered by planks, and one on a currently wildly grassy area. This lot, combined with the beds I have already  is as much as any small family could possibly need, frankly. I think there will also be room for some fruit canes and bushes, but probably only if I don't try and build a shed. I don't need a shed, I would just merely really like and prefer one. But I think I'd like soft fruit more. I've also identified a few areas in which I can grow aromatic herbs. God, this is going to be such hard work.

Horticultural fleece or weird shroud?

I also dug the courgette compost holes, covered my beetroot and carrot seeds better with the fleece (oh, making cloches soon - it just goes on),failed to make the pea teepee because the little disc I was gifted to help me do it is not with me (I don't think I need the disc, I could do it with pea sticks and string, but if someone is kind enough, etc). I cleaned up and pulled up a load of roots and did some fairly aimless digging. That's when it's time to come home. Digging and don't know why. There  must be something I've forgotten to do.
I think my alpine strawberries might be germinating, which is exciting (if maybe too late? Have to look into that), I have lots more parsnip seedlings today and one (count em!) celeriac seedling. I am happy. My roots situation is coming on. I just don't know where I'm going to end up putting the strawbs.
Next jobs on the horizon: Dig over spud bed again, add potato fertilizer (?) make  pea cage, plot new beds with string and pegs (use spirit level), make cloches, pot on new seedlings, take rubbish to skip, start digging new beds, buy more compost, dig and compost runner bean trenches, plant pea and sweet peas, make a runner bean cane thingy. Collapse?

Proof of Life & a Couple of Days Off the Plot.

You know that thing where the weather forecast is bad news and then you plan a load of inside chores and you look out the window and it's a perfectly bright and lovely afternoon but you can't go out? Well, that. And then a day in Bath with my mother and sister. I've missed my allotment, but a couple of days off now when there isn't too much going on is probably a blessing in disguise. I'm going back tomorrow, come rain or shine; where I will prepare a bed for courgettes (dig football-sized holes, fill with compost, water in), mark out some beds with planks, weed, make a frame for my fleece, attempt to prepare a couple of trenches for runner beans, make a pea teepee.
At home, things are generally going well with the seedlings. It is busy - seedlings get repotted, new pots sun themselves on my bedroom window for a day or so, get put into the mini greenhouse, go out for a few hours every day and then go back into the greenhouse. They're mostly looking fairly well; the marigolds still look a bit peaky but they don't look dead ...yet. Still nothing on the chilli, celeriac or strawberry front but tonight I noticed a tiny green shoot in the parsnips. So there is hope.

Aubergine and Tomato 'Curry'

Aubergine and tomato curry

I suppose that this is only a curry in the loosest sense of the word, in that what is providing the aromatic (rather than the heat) is the curry leaf, which adds a warm curry tone to this dish, and does not hit you over the head with it's flavour. The advantage to this is twofold - you don't have to worry about the time it takes to cook out the spices in the dish, meaning that if you plan ahead, you can cook it in ten minutes, and it goes with a lot of stuff: Add a bit of cumin spice and finish by chopping through some fresh mint at the end for a slightly middle eastern flavour or do away with the curry leaves and coriander all together, add basil and it's fine to go as a side dish for lots of dishes. It is also delicious cold, so, good for lunchboxes too. The only downside is fresh curry leaves. easy for me living near an Indian supermarket. Not so convenient for you if you don't. You can buy them in bigger supermarkets, fresh and frozen online, or dried in many more places. I tend to buy a bunch and stick them in the freezer, which seems alright - they seem to hold onto their flavour and texture quite well. I did think about trying to grow a curry leaf plant but I guess there's a reason you don't get a lot of curry leaf in this country. It's a tropical plant, a special snowflake. About as far from 'stick it in a sheltered spot and let it do it's thing' as sticking a Bollywood superstar in your allotment and asking it to be happy rolling in the mud. Worth a try maybe with a greenhouse, but not for me.
Unless it is the height of summer, you want canned tomatoes for this dish. If you want to use fresh, get 450-500g, and peel and chop
before adding to the dish.

3 medium or two large aubergine
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
oil (use spray oil if you want)
10-15 fresh curry leaves, left whole
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1-3 green chilles, fnely chopped and deseeded (as hot as you like, one is enough for me)
1 tsp salt
Handful of fresh coriander, chopped

So, up to about a day before you want to cook the dish, preheat the oven to gas 8/240c and prick your aubergines all over with a sharp knife before putting in the hot oven and cooking for 60-80 mins, depending on the size, turning every 15 minutes. You will probably be able to work out when they're done as they will be soft and deflated. Set aside, and when either cool enough to handle, or just before cooking if you have made them in advance, chop roughly.
Heat your oil in the pan, add the curry leaves and then the chopped garlic. Soften this over a medium heat before adding your tomatoes, and cook these down for two to three minutes. Add the aubergine, chilles and salt, cover and cook for five or so minutes until cooked through. Stir through coriander and serve.