One thing we’re a little concerned about is the number of runners… they are everywhere, but we’re not sure whether to keep them (we have plenty of space) or cut them back – help?!

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.

We had breakfast – lots of raspberries, straight from the canes – delicious! Shop-bought berries really pale in comparison.

Potatoes are looking healthy, plenty of time to go before we dig them up though.

And we planted a row of beans (Cobra) – the seed packet was very scruffy and out of date, but you never know!

Then it started to rain, so we legged it!

Lots of weeding to be done, the dreaded dandelions are in full irritation mode.

Raspberries are looking great, buds on all of them and the herbs are going mad – woohoo!!

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

Garlic is fab – the entire row has sprouted So glad we properly weeded that section as the leaves look a lot like grass! It’s not grass, honest!

Raspberries are doing well too – leaves are looking really healthy so far – one of the six canes doesn’t seem to be doing much, but we can see a little bud near the base, so hopefully that’ll be fine. We do need to create some sort of supporting structure for them, but so far we’ve left them alone… need to think about the best option.

Nearly had a disaster with potatoes before they were even planted… we’d left them chitting away in their bag, but Lisa’s husband thought they’d gone bad so binned them! Luckily the bin men hadn’t been so he redeemed himself by rummaging in the bin! We’ve not yet planted them, but want to get them in very soon.

All of a sudden the chives have sprung into action and are looking really good too… and no, that’s not grass either, we tasted some!

Our mint isn’t looking great, but it’s running everywhere. I think we’ll have to dig it out properly and replant a small bit of it – in a pot this time!!

Wildlife is up and about too… a robin, blackbird and a few sparrows were fighting over some worms while we were digging (yes, still digging, but doing it properly is really going to help us in the long run).

We will need to stake them – originally we thought they were autumn-fruiting, which don’t need staking, but they’re not… Glen Ample are summer-fruiting, so need a little something to lean on!

We have ‘Glen Ample’ which *should* produce a heavy crop – roughly 11kg (24lb) with our six canes – fingers crossed!