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| A Murmuring of Starlings |
I'm sure I heard a distinct sigh of relief from my garden fork at 2-30 p.m. last Friday, as I turned the last fork full of soil on the central bed of N2 Plot, thus completing the Dandelion clearing, hopefully for the foreseeable future. I first started clearing this bed last October and I can honestly say it will be the last time I attempt to clear such a badly weed infested allotment area by digging it over. Some unforeseen delays and of course delays caused by our Winter weather didn't help the cause but now I have a full bed of main crop Potatoes planted where there was once only Dandelions and a few other perennial weeds. One advantage of the cold Winter and so far Spring, has been the lack of germination of weeds on the rest of my plots, whilst I have been working on N2 Plot. Although it looks as though Spring has finally arrived here in Somerset I decided to erect a poly tunnel at the weekend. If future Winters and Springs are to be as cold as this years, then a poly tunnel seems to be an essential piece of kit to have. I erected the tunnel at the top end of the last bed on N2 Plot to be cleared of weeds, so I can clear some of the ground under cover, if the weather is wet or cold. My earlier published allotment growing plans have now gone out of the window for N2 Plot.
"You fight dandelions all weekend, and late Monday afternoon there they are, pert as all get out, in full and gorgeous bloom, pretty as can be, thriving as only dandelions can in the face of adversity."
( Hal Borland )
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| Central Bed N2 Plot Finally Cleared and Spuds Planted |
The only outside sowing that has been done so far, due to the cold weather, is Peas, a month ago, which after being kept under cloches, finally germinated this week. I planted about 100 Onion sets last month, which were a mix of Snowball and Sturion. They are currently showing slight signs of development. Parsnips seeds were sown on Plot N1 yesterday and today I added some Iris's and Gladioli to the L-shaped bed on N1 Plot.
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| Erecting the Poly Tunnel |
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| Poly Tunnel Seen from Allotment Road |
In the past week it has been nice to see more wild birds in attendance rather than the usual Wood Pigeons. Robins, Blackbirds, Goldfinches, Sparrows and Magpies have all been out in force. 2 Blackbirds in particular have been following me around the areas being dug, foraging for food. One of the Blackbirds even followed me inside the poly tunnel and inspected the soil which had been disturbed in there.
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| Blackbird Inspecting the Poly Tunnel |
With no rain for the past few weeks the soil has dried out well and with heavy overnight frosts, almost every night up until last weekend, it is in good condition ready for sowing and planting now. Dare I say it, just a little rain is needed to make it perfect.
There's Always Tomorrow??
