Last week the weather was almost spring-like so we managed to make quite a lot of progress on the allotment. At times it was even warm enough to discard a layer of clothing. It was pleasant to work in the sunshine.
We gave the border along one edge of our plot a long over due tidy. The bed is plagued with couch grass and bindweed, both are a nightmare to completely eradicate; we removed as much as we could, but no doubt both will make a comeback. The whole bed was given a thick mulch of well-rotted manure.
Our two strawberry beds are past their best so we have ordered some plants to create a new bed. We decided to keep the old beds for another year in the hope that they will still produce some fruit so I weeded the beds and tidied up the plants.
Martyn weeded the over-wintered onions and the garlic.
Some beds had been covered with weed-control fabric. The covers have been removed from three of these which are now ready for planting.
The fabric was moved onto a couple of newly weeded beds. This will keep the weeds at bay until these beds are planted.
Work on the allotment video here
Back at home, the seed potatoes have been set out in trays in the greenhouse to chit. As we could still have some cold weather, they have been covered with layers of fleece.
Although most of our seeds will not be sown for a week or two, some have been sown and placed under a grow light indoors.
I’ve started tidying the perennials in one of our garden flower beds and also retrained a climbing rose at the back of the bed.
Of course, we still have to fit in walks with Ruby,
In the park, the blackthorn is beginning to produce blossom.
The crocuses are now at their best.
At Nostell, we spotted the first clump of celandines.
In the midst of all this activity, we still need to eat.
I used some of our onion and squash in a vegetable tagine
I also made a turkey and parsnip curry using more onion and parsnip.
That’s all for this week, so as always, stay safe and stay well.
It’s been beautiful over the past few days, we were out without coats on Saturday. I think many people will have been catching up with jobs in the garden while the sun was shining.