Ok, not quite unearthing, but deep in the back of the cupboard we found some old seeds… no idea whether they’re any good, but thought it was worth a bash!

Planted in an old drawer (recycling as well!) we have sowed Sweet Marjoram, Parsley, Sage, Thyme and Basil (Sweet Genovese and Red Bordeaux).

With a bit of luck they’ll be springing into life and we can transplant them into the main plot

Also today we purchased some asparagus crowns and Maris Piper seed potatoes from Wilko – not sure where to put them yet though!

No, not us! Spring is definitely here with green shoots sprouting up all over the place – thankfully they’re not all weeds…

The rhubarb is coming up really well and the raspberry canes are going mad, so we’ll be ok for puddings this year!

Tonight we completed the weeding around all the crops, so it looks so much better now. Just the rest to dig over and a strip of grass that previous owners had as a path to get rid of – we may have to cover that over for a few weeks to help shift it.

Looks like we’ve got ants back in the compost bin… might try the cinnamon technique on them, it worked well in Lisa’s wormery so is worth a try.

A good old digging and weeding session this morning… the rain held off for us and there was a slight glimmer of sunshine for about two seconds!

Siobhan cleared the weeds around the raspberry canes, which we can see new growth on (can’t wait for some fresh raspberry cocktails this summer!), while Lisa rather haphazardly dug out some of the main plot which the grass is working it’s way into

Stopped for a brief cuppa too, from a very girly flask, but got spotted and ribbed by another allotmenteer!

Also coming through is one of the rhubarb plants, there’s some growth on the rose bush and the onions that overwintered may just be ok after all

We haven’t been good allotmenteers this past year, not that we gave up altogether, we just hardly grew a thing and only just kept on top of the weeds and the general state of the plot.

We’re sure many allotment owners have moments like that. What we always remember is how good we feel after a bout of digging or a dinner made with the fabulous food we’ve grown ourselves…

This and the Spring sunshine has brought renewed enthusiasm and we’re getting back on track with our updated website and plans for new planting.

So watch out… allotmentgirls are back!!

Green Lane Allotments have sent us some info about contaminated manure which we felt we should share with you…..

I’m sure you must be aware of the problems experienced by allotment holders last year due to the use of manure contaminated by a persitent herbicide called aminopyralid. Information has been collated about this problem from the links on this page http://www.glallotments.btik.com/p_Contaminated_Manure.ikml
Just to update on the latest re aminopyralid contamination in case you would like to provide updates on your website or to allotment holders in your area.

Alongside the weeds(!), the courgettes and squash are coming along brilliantly too

We knew there would be loads, but we are going to be looking like a squash once we’ve eaten them all!! On the plus side, it’s good to have some veg to harvest rather than a constant run of weeds!

Today we planted nine sweetcorn plants given to us by our allotment neighbour yesterday… they’re best in a square so that they pollinate, so we dug over a weedy patch to fit them in. They’re diddy little things at the moment, but they’ll get big!

The courgettes and squashes we planted last week aren’t looking too great, they’ve wilted a bit in the heat, but we had so many that even if half survive will be eating them til Christmas!!

…about the radishes! Nothing terribly exciting, we just sowed some