Cold Start to March

I took this photo in the garden at noon today. The bushes were covered in frost and the thermometer reckoned it was minus 2.  I think there was some condensation of the lens but you can see it was cold.

Plans for the plot are waiting for better weather!

After the Snow, came the Rain

After March started so cold with freezing temperatures and some snow here, it warmed a little and started to rain.

As the photo shows, the ideal crop to grow would be rice. The allotment site looks more like a paddy field than anything else!

Another pond on the plot

This plot has been dug over but even so the rain has not soaked away.

Planting while it is like this would only result in drowned seeds.

Garlic in the coldframe

The remaining garlic plants are doing OK in pots in the coldframe but really need to be planted now, the roots are coming through the bottom of the pots.

Everything's late this year, but I expect they'll catch up. If you look at last months gallery photo, you can see how far they've come on.

Cloche blown off

The recent winds have been quite strong and the cloche had come off the shallots. Luckily the pigeons haven't eaten them yet so I had time to reset the cloche with no harm done.

I suppose our pigeons are better than the ones at Euston station. Ours fly off, London pigeons mug you! I was eating a sandwich at Euston (outdoors) when one arrived at the table. Gave him a few crumbs for his cheek and then a few hundred of his pals arrived.

I thought it would be embarrassing to run but it was a little like the Hitchcock film.

Supposed to be Purple Sprouting

These sad specimens are my purple sprouting broccoli. The pigeons have more or less finished them off. Sorry chaps, this year they are going to be netted so you will have to eat someone elses cabbages!

I may as well leave them be until I need the space. I suppose the pigeons must drop some nitrogen rich manure around the plot in return.

Leeks and parsnips

In the foreground you can see the last leeks at the top of the plot. They are Autumn Mammoth - although Autumn Minature might be a better description! Still, they taste well and small leeks do well in stir fries. These were destined for tonight's stew, however.

To the rear, in front of the coldframe, you can see the remaining parsnips that are re-sprouting. So up they come as well.

After

Having harvested the leeks and parsnips, turned over the soil. It may not look too much, but the soil was that wet it was really hard work. I think each spadefull weighed about a ton!

Across the site

It's interesting to have a good mooch and nosy about when it's quiet on the site.

Here you can see how far on some people are. The two plots nearest are ready to go and the third plot is obviously being worked.

Bit concerned about the fourth plot, however, he hasn't done anything I can see for a while. I suspect this one will be vacant after the bills for next year go out. Not that that matters as there are people waiting for plots now. The upsurge in interest in allotments and our site rep working away in the background has resulted in 100% occupancy.

Bob the builder - yes we can

I love the way allotmenteers (is that a word??) don't let anything go to waste. It's almost frowned upon to use new things.

You can see this chap has a coldframe construction, behind is his second hand greenhouse awaiting fixing up and the remains of the scrap wood that has made his deep beds. Wonderful.