All the conditions aligned last week to enable us to get back to some semblance of normality.

The weather was fine and Martyn’s aches had improved. Not only did Ruby enjoy a longer walk during our visit to Nostell but, we spent an afternoon at the allotment doing some actual work.

Martyn, was still gently easing himself back into the swing of things so, instead of going all out and strimming all the grass paths, he concentrated on the paths around the beds that will be the first to be planted up. Fortunately, all of these had been dug over last autumn and so should be ready to go after a spot of hoeing

Whilst, Martyn strimmed, I trimmed back the shrubs roses, which are now starting to shoot. I’m a little late in doing this but the roses should be fine. After completing his strimming, Martyn joined me and cut back the black elders. These grow at a phenomenal rate and if left too tall shade the adjacent vegetable beds thus impeding plant growth. There is a buddleia in the same bed which I also but back.

Our Timperley Early rhubarb is growing really quickly now and there will soon be stalks ready to harvest. Rhubarb always tends to provide the first harvest of our new season.

In the garden greenhouse both the red onion and broad bean seeds have germinated.

Martyn has sowed some leeks which just shows how long a growing season leeks have as we still have some leeks to harvest. He also sowed some sweet peas.

Rather than growing our own from seed, we buy ready grown early brassica plants. These arrived last week and were potted up to grow before we plant them out on the allotment, There are two varieties of cabbage, Regency and  Mozart, cauliflower – Seoul and calabrese – Aquiles.

We planted some Casablanca early potatoes in pots which will live just outside of the garden greenhouse. We usually plant some in crates which stay in the greenhouse but in greenhouse conditions the tops grow really tall and flop around taking up a lot of valuable space and spoiling anything planted close by. This year we are trying a different approach. We’ve planted one seed potato in each of three large pots. If frost is threatened, which is more than likely at this time of year, the pots will be given some protection.

We had an afternoon in the garden which was mainly some tidying up the greenhouse and cutting back more plants. 

A pot of forget-me-nots was moved out of the greenhouse onto the patio where it has joined the pots planted with spring bulbs.

The hippeastrum/amaryllis, on our living room window ledge, has been growing before our eyes. Once these bulbs start to grow, they become the Formula One champions of the plant world. I have to keep turning the pot in an attempt to keep the stems straight as they quickly lean towards the brightest source of light. The first bud is now beginning to open.

The shrub that you can see just outside of the window is a chaenomeles which we grew, more years ago than I care to remember, from a seed taken from a plant growing in Martyn’s parents’ garden.

Finally, onto last week’s dishes that used some of our stored vegetables.

I made a spicy bean and vegetable dish which used our onion and potatoes along with a mixture of our frozen vegetables.  It was described in the recipe as a curry but I wouldn’t really call it a curry.

I also made a chicken and vegetable orzo dish based on this recipe but I used a different method of cooking by adding the liquid and orzo to the vegetables and chicken and cooking everything together. Into this went a mixture of our frozen vegetables, onion and garlic. I used some of our frozen cauliflower as we haven’t any broccoli as called for in the recipe. If I was to make this again I would cut down on the amount of liquid.

I then made a turkey and vegetable casserole that also used a mixture of our frozen vegetables and an onion. As our stored potatoes will need using fairly quickly, as they are starting to shoot, I also added some potato.

Here’s hoping we can keep up the momentum next week although if the weather isn’t gardening friendly we have plenty to keep us busy indoors with two upstairs rooms waiting to be decorated.

As always keep safe and well.