Sunday 11th March 2007 - Weather: Glorious, sunny with a light breeze.

In memory of my dear friend, Sarah. AKA Supersprout.

What a glorious day, in fact, what a lovely weekend. Are we being lulled into a false sense of security with this blast of sunshine? Well, whatever trick mother nature plans to pull, we made an executive decision today, and dragged the kids to the allotment. Normally, an hour max before they start fighting and moaning, but today was oh so different. We were there until the sun started to set, and they are angels. We managed to achieve so much.

First job of the day for my love was repairing the shed roof. When we acquired the shed we didn't have any roof felt, so as a temporary measure, he used some thin metal sheeting he had in the garage. This has lasted over 2 years, but finally the high winds earlier this year lifted them and the rain has been getting into the shed, so he nipped up onto the roof and refelted it for me. The children stood on the compost heap shouting moral support and feeding him bisciuts!

Meanwhile I managed to plant, with some help from the children, 4 rows of Kestrel spuds. I still have enough for one more row, but at the moment the path is blocked by 6 purple sprouting brocoli plants, which I don't want to pull up yet as they are just starting to crop. Only a couple of weeks and they will be gone and the rest of the spuds can go in. Number one son was very good at digging the holes for the spuds, and together they planted the seed potatos being very careful not to knock of any of the sprouts.

Next we planted a row of Gladioli which I brought for 99p in Aldi. Forty bulbs - a bargain! They are mums favourite flower, so I am growing them for her.

By now lunch time was fast approaching so we popped home for a bite to eat, then my love dropped me and our son back at the plot, whilst he and our daughter shot to Wicks to get some wood and metposts as the next major allotment job is building a new, sturdier, higher fruit cage. Number one son and I had a ball. His little girlie friend arrived so they sat and chatted for a while, then he did some raking whilst I did some weeding. Then we went around and did some picking. Filled a bag with purple sprouting, brussel sprouts, leeks, beetroot, mooli, the last parsnip and chard. Not a bad collection for this time of year. We also chewed the fat with several allotment holders who were out taking advantage of the lovely weather. Amazingly enough for our quiet site, I reakon at least three quarters of plot holders came over during the course of the day.

Once the rest of the family were back on the plot, construction began, but after about an hour, the children were begining to get irritable. Whilst my love did some building and packed up, the sprogs and I went for a wander around the site. Everyone else had gone home so it is a good time to see what everybody has planted already, and the admire some of the neater plots. We had a good look in the nature pond but we couldn't see any frogspawn. now the fruit cage is well under way, I need to order a roll of netting to cover it.

Back at home....here are the tomatos I currently have sown:

Maygous , Litche, Metschalubitela, Gardeners delight, Roma, Lidl, Ghianti, Green zebra, Golden queen, Brazillian paste, Missouri love apple, White beauty, Golden green, Orange berry, Costolouto fiorontino, Extreme north, Triple ‘n crop, Federele, peacevine, Red pear, Galina, Picardy, Jersey sunrise, Teton de venus.