The months are ticking by and we still haven’t started any planting at the allotment. We’ve managed the occasional trip to the plot but our activities have been confined to tidying, pruning and a little harvesting.
We have harvested a few batches of leeks. As they will soon start to grow, the leeks that we didn’t need to use have been frozen for use out of season.
I have also frozen some onions as they too will soon start to shoot. I did this last year which meant that our onion harvest saw us right through the year. The frozen ones will bridge the gap until the autumn planted onions are ready to harvest.
The ground was still far too soggy and cold to risk planting any potatoes. It’s also been too wet or drizzly to make a trip to the allotment a tempting prospect. Even Ruby’s walks have had to be fitted in between showers or actual downpours.
Any gardening activity has been confined to seed sowing or transplanting seedlings at home in the greenhouse. A list of seeds sown or seedlings planted is shown here where the list is updated weekly. 
The black elders, which are planted in a mixed border along one edge of the plot, have been cut back hard. I also trimmed the shrub roses. The border needs some serious weeding but this isn’t really viable when everything is sitting in mud!
A couple of hazels have also been cut back.
Primroses are popping up in various places, most of which were never planted but have seeded themselves.
Many are growing in grass that is regularly strimmed but that doesn’t seem to deter them.
During our walks there are plenty of reminders that time is ticking by as trees are clothed in early blossom
There is a general green haze as the first leaves are starting to clothe bare branches but the earth at the allotment remains bare.
We managed a muddy afternoon’s walk at Nostell. It was just as well that Ruby was due a shower. She’s quite good at avoiding muddy puddles but there was no chance of either her or indeed us, avoiding the mud.
Paths through wooded areas were relatively dry but that wasn’t the case through the meadows.
Celandines are beginning to flower. This clump was sensibly huddled in the shelter of some large rocks.
The woodland floor is greening and the bluebell leaves offer the promise of a carpet of blue in a few weeks time. Something to look forward to.
The pair of swans are taking turns incubating the eggs leaving its partner to forage for food and enjoy some down time. I wonder how many cygnets there will be this year?
Finally a sample of some of the meals we have enjoyed over the last couple of weeks,
I made a curry using some of our cauliflower and green beans from the freezer along with some of our onions. The recipe had disappeared from the internet but was more or less this recipe minus the addition of spinach.
I made a vegetable cottage pie that used our onion, parsnip and potato. The mash should have been sweet potato but I hadn’t enough so I mixed in some ordinary potatoes.
I made two tagines, the first was a vegetable tagine that used our onion, pepper, and squash.
The second was a chicken tagine that used more squash, onion and garlic. I used ras el hanout instead of the spices in the recipe.
Some of our leeks went into a turkey pasta bake.
That’s all for this week, let’s hope next week sees some planting done.
Until then stay safe, stay well and stay warm and dry.
This week courtesy of my batches of leeks I am joining Harvest Monday on Dave’s Our Happy Acres blog.
We love our home grown leeks and every year I am determined to grow more of them 🌿
We grow lots Debbie
Just harvested the last of my leeks too. Love the celandine bursting onto the scene.
We still have a few more – they did well this year as the mesh kept the allium leaf miner at bay
The weather has been dreadfully wet here too. Lovely looking leeks, mine are still pretty thin. It’s great seeing the seedlings come up in the greenhouse. Tasty looking meals, you have me hankering for that cauliflower curry.xxx
Leeks have such a long growing season, Dina. Our next lot of seeds are in now!
Oh to have primroses seed themselves around. So cheery. The lovely lime green haze of early spring is a familiar memory from our years in Massachusetts.
Do your trees lose their leaves, Sue?
Like you I am anxious to get some outside gardening work done. More rain and storms are forecast this week, so it will have to wait. The greenhouse is full of plants waiting to go somewhere.
Rain is forecast for this week, Dave but at the moment it is sunny.
The inclement weather certainly makes gardening tricksy at the moment. Let’s hope Spring arrives soon and we can get out there. Hello, my gardening is going to be seriously limited this year, due to my mobility issues. A friend of mine used to pickle her cooking onions. I wish I’d got the recipe off her. She used to thinly slice them, then put them in a sweet pickling vinegar. They were ready to eat within a few weeks, utterly delicious, served as a side, or on top of burgers and hot dogs instead of fried onions.
*although, not Hello. predictive text strikes again.
Predictive text is a pain, Debbie. Makes us look fools.
Spring keeps arriving and leaving again, Debbie. I’ve been thinking of pickling some onion. I usually mix in some thin slices of cucumber