Wednesday 3rd February 2010 - weather: dull, damp and chilly.

I am sick to death of this dull, damp weather. I know, I know, it is still late winter, but come on already, I want to see some blue sky! So, to try and cheer myself up, I stole a couple of hours on the allotment. Not a lot to do, and it was sooooooo muddy and slippery that I really was taking my life into my own hands. However, I did disassemble to brassica cage and get that whole bed tidy, straightened up the smaller cage over the later purple sprouting....no idea if it will sprout, and picked up all of the odds and sods that lazy old me had left here, there and everywhere. Once both plots were tidy, I did a manure run and carted 5 wheelbarrow loads of hot, wet stable manure from one end of the allotment site, to the other and into my compost heap. It could do with turning and the bottom stuff coming out, which I will do, but the manure goes so quickly that I thought I would get some whilst the going was good.

By now, I was wet and cold and ready to go home for a cuppa, which I did. I am hoping the family will pop to the plot on Sunday, if it is dry, and see about having a bit of a bonfire as I have quite a stack of rotten pallets, stems from sunflowers, jerusalem and globe artichokes and old broken bamboos. I also want to get a couple of good scarecrows rigged up as the deer are back, as are the birdies.

To recap what I have still growing away, onions, shallots, carrots, a couple of parsnips, spring onions, a few beetroot, jeruslam artichokes, leeks and the purple sprouting broc. I also noticed I have clumps of daffs up and I guess the gladioli will start to poke their noses through as the spring marches on. I am going to sow lots of flower seeds amongst those bulbs this year as I have lots of old seed which I could do with just using, and if they grow....bonus.