Lush

That's the only way to describe the week's growth. When I left for Scotland last Tuesday there were clear signs of spring - blossom and buds, garlic and peas, daffs and tulips springing into life after the winter dormancy.

After a week 'up north' I came back to a plot that was bursting with life. All the trees had leaves and/or blossom, weeds had shot up (including the dreaded bind weed) and my leeks and garlic had doubled in size. The seedlings in the greenhouse had turned into plants and the grass needed mowing. Ornamental alluims in the perennial bed have appeared and my grapevines that I was sure had died have little buds the length of them. How can one week make such a difference? Even the street trees and hedges along my short drive to the allotment had burst into life: pink white and green everywhere. Amazing. I say it every year but it is still unbelievable!

So what did I do? The plan was to sit in the greenhouse, drink tea and pot on my seedlings (I was expecting rain). I managed that but it took an age (Italian Pimenello plum tomatoes anyone? I have 27 plants!). I admired my self-watering system that lasted the whole week (capillary matting, drip watering bag and a soak-up-able reservoir) and extended it to the full length of the staging; I drank tea and ate a penguin biscuit; cut grass and weeded a couple of beds (fresh greenstuff for the compost - hurray!); re-seeded the bit of lawn that I killed when making my deck; harvested veg; oversaw the removal of my original rhubarb (I remain to be convinced that it's gone, I've tried this before!) and removed the protective coverings from the peas, onions and carrots/parsnips. I also planted out some of the herbs I'd overwintered in the greenhouse into the new bed by the deck.

My planned one hour visit turned into four hours as so often happens and I only tore myself away because I had other things to do.

Spring is in the air!

This has been on my mind for the last couple of weeks as the daffodils in the warm south-facing garden at the front of my flat have poked their heads up out of the soil to welcome the sun. The days have been getting longer as well which means I can escape to the allotment for a short while after work!

I've been at the plot this morning and it was glorious. A warm (14 degrees), sunny day with signs of life everywhere... the plums have baby leaves, the buds on the quince have broken open and the buds on the pear tree are just about to burst (see pic). To add to it the primroses and daffodils were shining brightly.

So what did I do today? A bit of a mix really (should learn to focus!). I prepared one of the beds and planted rows of shallots and onions interspersed with rows of parnsip (panache) and carrots (charnterey and scirocco). I started the big dig. For the last two years I've lost my raspberries under an uncontrollable mass of bind weed and couch grass, so today the de-weeding of the raspberry patch began. I dug up about 6 plants (some with first signs of life) and pulled out a bucket load of bind weed and couch grass roots and replanted the raspberries.

I also put in the post supports for the rail around the deck.

Had another feeble attempt at trying to keep the purple sprouting broccoli covered with netting - it's just starting to sprout and I'm sure the hordes of wood pidgeons that live in the surrounding trees will get to it before I can (they've already stripped the leaves).

There was a lot of digging today - don't know about tomorrow but I'm already a bit achey!