Sunday 18th April 2010 - weather: STUNNING!!!

Who would have thought...a suntan in April?!? Yes, after spending most of the day on the allotment in glorious April sunshine, I have sunburnt shoulders. Am I complaining? Not on your nelly. It was so lovely to be out and feel the sun on my skin, although I wouldn't complain if we had a drop of rain as the allotments are bone dry and my seeds are struggling to germinate.

So, up with the lark and on the plot by 9am. A fabulous time to get there on a Sunday as all I could hear was bird song. My main aim of the day was to weed and sort out the fruit cage. I didn't really do much in there last year and the grass and nettles had really crept in and infiltrated the currant bushes, so now was my chance to have a good weed through and put down some weed supressing membrane that I had left over from a previous job.

Labour of love, that is all I can say. Fiddly, plenty of nettles and brambles, but on the upside, loads of flowers on my purple and green goosegogs, red and black currants and the jostaberry. Also, the raspberries have put up lots of canes, so should be a good year for fruit. And a bonus spotted whilst weeding around the green goosegog - 2 layered cuttings, 2 two nice young plants for free.

Putting the membrane down was a palava, and I only did the back half of the cage as I didn't want to supress the raspberries, but what a lovely job. Hopefully the fruit bushes will benefit as there should be no competition from weeds, it will be easier for me and the kids to get in and pick the fruit, and it is a weeding job I can cross of my list giving me more time to concentrate on other jobs.

Now, the family arrived for a couple of hours. Mark strengthened the fruit cage as it had sagged and a couple of cross beams had broken after the heavy snow, he cut the grass on all of my paths, and he sorted out and tidied the shed. I weeded under the apple trees, sowed a row of beetroot, planted my broadbean plants and a row of little gem lettuce plants and iceberg lettuce plants.

After lunch, I was all alone, so I carried on weeding around the strawberries. They have put on an amazing amount of growth in the last few weeks. I am going to have to think about netting them once the flowers are open and young fruit start to develop otherwise the pesky deer will be enjoying the strawbs before we do. I then sorted out my runner bean canes and tied them all in place. I think I am going to have to put up some more somewhere as I have sown a lot of bean seeds this year in an attempt to use some of them up. Can a girl ever have too many beans?? Last job of the day, watering. Never easy on our site as we don't have taps, so no hoses, and the only water we have is the water we save. Already one of my waterbutts is empty! Honestly, some nighttime rain would be lovely please mother nature.

No photos...camera had no charge, but I will be back on the lottie on Wednesday afternoon for a couple of hours, so will endevour to take the camera then.