Still no rain

Well that is a lie actually. We did have a small amount of rain this week - but it didn't even register in the water butt.

Got up the allotment this morning to some disarray. Some little buggers had been skulking around at some point last week for slow worms and had disturbed various pots and paving slabs - damaging one of my blackcurrant bushes in the process. Little sods.

I spent several hours up the allotment today - but it is depressing. The ground is rock hard. I really need to dig the area where the brassicas were - but the fork wont even go into the soil. I did hand weed an area that was dug in the autumn and sowed some spinach and lettuce leaves. I am still picking purple sprouting and picked a good supply of the forced rhubarb, which had turned a lovely shade of ruby red in last week's sun.


So being unable to do very much, I painted the shed. Considering it is about 7 years old and only cost me £160, it has served me well. But it needed the roof re-felting over Christmas and I decided to treat it to a fresh coat of wood stain. It is no longer orange, but now blue and looks very smart

Well tomorrow we are off to the Norfolk Broads with some of the TVR car club mates, so no further allotment stuff this weekend. Yesterday was my last day at my old job - I start a new one on Monday. Still in landscaping - so hopefully I can still get a good supply of pots and stuff.

Cracking ground

Well, several weeks without any rainfall at all is having a toll on the soil. My clay soil is almost rock solid - especially around the areas that didn't get dug - eg around the brassicas. The photo shows the extent of some of the cracking to the soil.

However, today I achieved a whole 5 hours of hard graft up the allotment - excluding the time spent chatting with Phil my neighbour and drinking coffee. I have taken a major gamble and planted out my runner bean seedlings. I only sowed them 2 weeks ago, but they were already over 6" tall. I have covered them with some clear plastic and mulched them with some grass cuttings, so hopefully they will survive.

Unfortunately the mouse's nest in the compost bin has gone. In it's place are several slow worms. I would imagine that the mouse has found a new house as the bin becomes a sauna in the afternoon when in full sun.


I also planted out the sunflowers and dahlias. I also got the final row of potatoes in - Charlotte. I struggled to dig up the brussels and the early sprouting broccoli, although I have left a couple of the broccoli plants as they are still producing spears. Not exhibition standard, but very edible. I also picked the first of the rhubarb. This is the first year I have tried forcing it and I removed the covers today and picked the biggest shoots. The thinner ones should red up nicely over the next few days.

Spuds in!

Today being Good Friday, is the traditional day for planting first earlies. I am using Foremost and have Charlotte which will be planted in a week or two.

The weather has been very dry and the clay soil has hardened up, making digging not fun. But the spuds are in.

Also had a mini- surprise in one of my green plastic compost bins. Removed the lid to see a little mouse scuttling into the depths. And the beginnings of a nice little nest as photo. I decided to leave it in situ and try and resist taking a peek for a few weeks.