Peering beneath the groundsheets we found the Rhubarb has survived and is looking rather healthy… with a bit of luck we’ll be over-run with it – we love it!  Perhaps we shouldn’t mention that, it’ll be our summer equivalent of the allotment-owners courgette glut!

We had a good old digging and weeding session (as always!), and planted some radishes (Scarlet Globe), lettuce (Tom Thumb), spinach, rocket and salad leaves – from the old seed stash though so whether they come to anything will be a miracle, especially as we forgot the bird scarers again.

Today we almost cleared the area where Marjory used to live, levelling out and digging out the blasted dandelions…

New canes for the raspberries has tidied up that section very well and they’re looking very healthy, so here’s hoping for a good crop

The herbs are coming back strong, they always look a bit pathetic after the winter months, but the sage, thyme and chives are looking fabulous. The lavender isn’t looking quite so good and we have lost one of them – we shall replace it as we found it great for attracting bees.
 

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.

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 got a row of onions in (Sturon) – fingers crossed these will be ok as we have no idea what we’re doing when it comes to onions! The last time we had them they were already planted when we got the plot.

Of course there was more digging, that’ll never end will it?!

And, all the while we planted and dug, a little robin was hopping about the plot nabbing slugs and the odd worm… such a friendly little chap, but unfortunately the camera was always too far away!

We put in another row of King Edwards and we’re already looking forward to the roast potatoes!! So there’s two rows of King Edwards now and we still have some left… in two minds as to whether we add a third row or whether we’ll need the space for other bits.

Still haven’t got the garlic in, but plenty of time… also time to plan properly for next year after this year’s laziness!

I know it’s rather late for lettuce, but thought it was worth a go. The radishes should be fine

We’ve topped with black bags, weighed down with some of the pulled up weeds – with this and our darlek of a compost bin our plot is looking remarkably similar to a remake of Doctor Who starring Marjory from Fraggle Rock.

Anyway, the weeds are gone (for now) and we’ll get something planted next week… we haven’t quite decided what, but we have a tub full of seeds to choose from!