February 2023

Hello all! It’s nearly spring, still very cold here though. So cold, that the aurora borealis has been seen all over the British Isles. Quite a rarity. As usual with things like this, we missed it! Anyway, the allotment has been slowly coming back to life. The daffs and crocus have begun to appear, much needed colour after a long winter. Repairs are getting done – the shed roof and the fruit bed have had some work, but more of that later. For now … ONIONS!

Every year we show the obligatory picture of the onion sets in their modules, allowing roots to form so we can plant them out in a few weeks. Its the circle of allotment life that the onions have their day to shine. We don’t bother now with starting them from seed, we’ve tried quite a few times over the years and got nowt! So it’s Sets for us.

Red or Salad?

Brown or White?

The broad beans were planted up. Maybe we should have waited a bit longer? The cold night air got to them and they look a bit ‘sad’. Hopefully they will survive! They are Aquadulce Claudia and Giant Exhibition Long pod. They were sown in autumn and have done OK. Just a shame to lose them now. The string looks a bit er … awful, but if they do survive, we’ve learned not to just stake them to a cane because they snap in the forthcoming winds. Better that they have something to move with while they send their roots down into the soil. If they survive the cold that is!

Perky!

After one night! *note the squirel proofing

Right! Brace yourself! As part of making the allotment easier to manoeuvre due to bad knees and dodgy ankles and after the success of making the brassica tent higher to walk around last year and therefore easier to tend to, we decided to do something similar to the fruit bed.

Over the years we had amassed quite a good collection of redcurrants, whitecurrants, gooseberries and blueberries. A plot neighbour had given us a couple of tayberries in the autumn, so we decided to have a re-jig of the bed. The problem wasn’t the space, it was us crawling under the bird proof netting! After a good think and a nosy on instagram, we decided against a raised bed and dug down instead! We took a few (loads) of pics of our very home made fruit tunnel. We apologise in advance!

OK, it doesn’t look too aesthetically pleasing. We raised the side poles and in technical terms, ‘gaffer taped them to higher ones‘. We then used pieces of repurposed ( dumped ) bookcases around the edge to give it a bit of stability.

The old book cases have been added, and the path dug into the middle, and wood chipped. ( We know, we know, it still looks a bit rough, but stay with us. It gets better. Honest.

The old book cases have been painted with creosote just to make it look a bit more pleasing and to give it a bit of protection from the elements. The step is added. It was an old flag stone that had been on the plot for years. We’d kept falling over it wherever it was placed, seems like it was just waiting for a home. Then we added a doorway, made from various old bits and pieces. And there’s more…

And there you go! One easy access fruit bed! OK, it’s not the prettiest of things, but we like it. With the netting on, a door and a lick (a lot ) of paint it’s become a place where we can enjoy tending to the fruit and hopefully get more out of the crops. We’re planning on adding some more strawberries and some summer flowering bulbs or annuals to attract more pollinators.

Normal service should resume next month.

Stay safe everyone. Spring is coming. Happy Plotting!

Twitter @PlotDaze @view_shed

Instagram @plot_daze @view_from_a_shed @view_of_a_shed

Advertisement

January 2023

Another year! Another growing season has begun! Plotdaze has returned from a small hiatus! Hold on to your ( probably woolly ) hats. The Plotdaze allotment is undergoing a few changes.

Got my eye on the poly …

The fruit cage is being changed and is currently under construction. It’s being turned into more of a poly-tunnel / net-tunnel, which you can walk into, rather than crawl around on creaky knees. The huge green netted brassica tent, nicknamed the ‘bio-dome’, has been de-netted for winter. The structure is going to be made more stable with some repurposed (second hand/dumped) metal posts. It was so useful last season – none of the brassica got even a whiff of a cabbage white butterfly – that it’s become a permanent fixture on the plot. More of these developments in another post …

We bagged up some rotted wood-chip that had been sat on the allotment site for a long while. Our resident tree surgeon – he who drops off the fresh wood-chip every few weeks – told us it was the best compost, or would be in about a year. So we bagged it up in readiness, seeing as no one else on the site wanted it. It doesn’t look too pretty, but with the price of shop bought compost on the rise, everything helps. Shame about the plastic bags.

The squirrel has returned. Maybe its’ always there, in the trees hiding like a sniper and we just don’t see it. Maybe it camouflages itself for the rest of the year and just waits until Spring is on the horizon, and then appears with the bulbs. Anyway, we’ve resorted to placing bits of old greenhouse staging over the pots. We’ve even left nuts out for it! Grrrrrr ….

SOON TO BE COMPOST

SQUIRREL PROOFING

The over wintering leeks have been RUBBISH! They’ve barely done anything. We didn’t even bother netting them from the pigeons, and to add insult, the pigeons didn’t even bother trying to nick them! Maybe Spring will perk them up a bit?

The sweet peas sown in Autumn are doing well. They haven’t been potted on yet, but will be in the next few days. The regular pinching out has made them bushier. It’s the first time in a few years that we’ve started them so early. Looking forward to that heady summer scent.

PATHETIC!!!

DOING OK.

The garlic – bought from Wilko – and planted in Autumn are doing really well, even the spares that were stuck in a small planter as an after thought, have taken off and were potted. The saved garlic from last years crop are not doing too good. Only a couple of cloves seem to have struck, and poked their green heads above ground.

The broad beans have already been potted on and are hardening off, about to be sent to their ‘forever home’ in the soil. This is the most success we’ve had for a while with the early planting. Usually we’ve had them in the ground and cloched by now, but the soil has been frozen, so we wait.

THESE WERE THE SPARES, NOW POTTED UP.

BROAD BEAN LOVLIES

Carrots! We’ve started some seeds – chantonay red – in some poly-styrene (hate) packaging, that we decided to put to some good use. Some saved old compost was refreshed – had osmocote added – the seeds scattered, and covered with vermiculite. It looks awful but at least the poly is being put to some good use rather than landfill.

IT AIN’T PRETTY

GROW CARROTS, GROW!

It’s great to be back. We hope that you have all been well, and are looking forward to the new season.

HAPPY PLOTTING EVERYONE!

Twitter – @plotdaze

@view_shed

Instagram – @plot_daze

@view_from_a_shed

@view _ of_a_shed

September 2022

Hello, we hope you’re doing well. September is usually one of our favourite months. The harvest festival season, where everything on the plot slowly begins to decay, the colours change and spent plants are lifted exposing the soil.

Before we cut and lift the dahlias tubers we always make lots of bouquets, and we’ve begun drying some of them off after seeing a fellow gardener do this on Gardener’s World. She uses the dried flowers in wreaths and arrangements, hopefully we can do the same.

The poly- tunnel was also cleared out over the last few days. The Green Envy tomato was a success this year and even though we did a bit of a chop on Barbara ( Vine ) in the middle of the growing season, she still produced a lot of tasty grapes. Cheers Barb!

The peppers have all been harvested in the greenhouse. The Sweety Drops were very easy to grow and pickle after ward. We just wish there had been more of them! We’re going to try and save the plants for next year. They suffered briefly from greenfly, but it did not affect the fruit or leaf drop. A garlic spray helped. We would definitely grow them again.

The sweetcorn has been dug up, the soil is lovely btw, most of the brassica has been lifted and stored except for the red cabbage -which are huge – and the beans have all been picked and the canes dismantled. Autumn is truly here. We’ve saved a lot of the beans – Greek Gigantes and Borlotti – to dry out for the winter store cupboard. Not a bad haul this year.

Some very sad news this month. My brother and a best friend to Plotdaze passed away this month. We’re devastated. Anyway I searched for some pictures of him in the garden, but could only find some really old ones from waaaaay back. It was winter – obviously – and this is our mam’s garden. It was huge! With the flats at the back, when it snowed she would joke we were in Switzerland! Remember when we used to have snow like this in England? Anyway, he would help her clear it, and make a snowman for me at the same time.

No coat!

A snowman for his baby sis

The allotment has been an absolute saviour. Plants don’t care if you cry on them. Sorry to end on such a sad note. Take care everyone.

August 2022

Well, wasn’t that a month? We had some very warm weather here in the UK! We we’re visiting the allotment at 5.am to water as much as we could before we began the working day – and to be honest – it was just to get some watering done. There are 24 plots on our allotment site, and just two taps. There would have been a long queue later on and we just couldn’t wait. Our plot has the most water butts on the site – we’re the furthest away from the taps and rely a lot on rain water – but when there’s no rain, what can you do but get there early and use your hosepipe! Thankfully, no one was stupid enough to have any bbq’s, the ground was bone dry. Can’t say the same about the surrounding houses though …

Have a look at these aubergines! Black Betty has done us proud. From rather sad looking plants in the poly-tunnel to these beauties. The heat did them some good. We’re just letting them bulk up a bit more before we pick them. We’re always going to grow them outside now.

Black Betty Aubergines

Sweety Drop peppers

Ripened Sweety Drops

The Sweety Drop peppers have been so easy to grow, although they do seem to suffer from the intense heat, than the other peppers we grew. The Cayenne have already been harvested, and are hanging out to dry. We’re keeping the plants this year to see if we can save them for a crop next year. A lot of chilli growers seem to do this. We also grew some 4 Colour peppers. They’ve been easy to grow, but up to now we only have green and orange! No red or yellow.

Drying out!

Where’s the other colours?

The last Bank Holiday of the year before Christmas was great. The last weekend in August can be fraught. Everyone is determined to enjoy themselves before summer ends! At the plot, we got the pan onto boil and cooked some very fresh sweetcorn which was GORGEOUS! The poor old sweet corn grows at the very end, but sunniest part of the plot, next to the boat. Its a forgotten little area sometimes, but there’s always lots of colour from the Helenium, Rudbekia, Verbena, Sedum and Dahlias. A giant Lavatera blocks the pathway, but the bees LOVE IT, so we limbo past it rather than cut it.

Best part of having an allotment!

Bit wild, but lovely!

It’s prime apple picking time now, so after being hit on the head – it hurts! – with one from the upper branches, we decided to save a bit of cash and make our own ‘Plotdaze Apple Picker’ (Thank you YouTube!). It’s an empty milk carton, washed of course and with the side cut away then taped to a long cane. As you can see from our detailed and instructive (!!!) pictures, it looks a bit scrappy but IT WORKS. No more being hit on the head or dicing with death up a wobbly ladder trying to get to those delicious apples. We have a lot this year. We’re going to save some and give the rest to a food bank if they’ll have them.

Rosy Reds

View A

View B !

It’s been a strange week at the plot. Over the last year we have endured a fair bit of, lets say ‘hassle’ from certain members on the site. Sometimes it’s been difficult to keep calm and carry on, but we did it. There are always going to be people who test you. We don’t mean to be cryptic, but this time last year, we were about to give up our allotment, our ‘happy place’, mainly because of the actions of a few. We decided not to, to stick it out, and this week we’ve been proven right. Those people have been ‘asked to leave’. During this time we found out who really were our friends. Number one was the actual plot. Our allotment garden was and is our ‘best friend’. We wouldn’t give it up for anyone or anything! Happy plotting.

July 2022

This month’s blog is a little late. Apologies. Blame the heat, which has been fierce here in the north of England, well for a few days anyway. We’re sure normal service will resume, although the rain has been sparse and we’re being told to ‘be careful’ with what we’re doing with water. Try telling that to some of our fellow plot holders who think nothing of leaving a hose running so their dog can play in the water … Back to business.

Our allotment site is surrounded on three sides by houses, and on the forth by a park. Very nice. One of the houses was being gutted and everything from the garden was dumped in the alley way between the allotments and the house … including a bench! Being good allotmenteers who believe in recycling and reusing, we jumped on it immediately, and after Ok-ing it with one of the fellas doing the clearing, we carried it to our plot! All it needed was a good brush down and a coat of paint. We’ve placed it along the shadier side of the plot. It’s very peaceful there and more importantly you can’t be hassled by anyone!!Looks good doesn’t it?

before …after

Fruit wise, the peaches were amazing. They fell off the tree. Not being used to growing peaches (we really shouldn’t be growing peaches in the north of England, but that’s global warming for you! ) we dithered a bit about when the best time was to pick them. They told us by falling off the branch. Even though there were only five, they tasted amazing. Sweet and ‘peachy’. Gorgeous!

The pear tree has some great fruit on it. For the first time in years we’re actually getting some pears. All of our trees – three of them – died of a type of fire blight. The leaves just turned black. Many of the plot holders lost trees to this. We bought a couple of new ones and planted them away from the orchard. One has fruited the other hasn’t but it is still alive and very healthy looking, so there is hopes for next year.

Peachy peaches!

Nice Pears …

The brassicas have been AMAZING! Yes, at last our lovely cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower have not been gorged on by the cabbage butterfly caterpillars! The giant green netting tent has worked and it’s been a lot easier to navigate inside it to pick our produce. We’ve never had such good luck with brassicas before. The freezer is nearly full already with our goodies – not wanting to brag or anything but …have a look at these!

Trug full of ‘All the Year Round’ cauli & Broccoli stems.

Primo cabbage just before getting the chop!

The sweetcorn is coming on. We love the look of it on the plot. It really says ‘summer’. The plastic is still up around the base of it. It seems to help in deterring the squirrel ( our nemesis!!!) from helping itself to the cobs. We’ve had a good crop of spuds this year despite the droughty conditions. These had just been picked and washed. The variety is Charlotte. A few minutes after this photo was taken the majority of them were in a pan, boiled, buttered and eaten. Apologies but we couldn’t help it!

Can Not Wait!

Charlottes

We hope you are all doing OK. especially with the heat. Wear a hat, sun cream and drink lots of water.

Happy plotting!

June 2022

Hello! We’re halfway through the year … already! The weather here has been glorious although up until about two days ago we had not had nearly enough rain. That has since been remedied. A bit of rain and everything begins to BLOOM. Let’s begin with a couple of pics of some flowers shall we? These are Nemesia – I think the variety is called Mango. It was bought in the Sarah raven summer sale. The Schizanthus or ‘poor man’s orchid’, were free seeds from a magazine.

From something pretty to something that well, isn’t but it is doing its job very well indeed. The brassica tent is protecting the copious amounts we planted – cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage red and heart – from every pest, especially those dreaded white cabbage butterfly that have just decimated our brassica crops before. As you can see they’re doing very well, and for a shorter person ( me! ) I can just about walk around in it with only a small stoop. It’s quite peaceful in there and a good place to hide if you don’t want to talk to people!!!!!

The sweetcorn has come along really well, and is sharing its space with some broad beans – a lot were ruined by black fly, even the ladybirds gave up defending them, and some bush tomatoes. I love this bed. Not only is companion planting a great use of limited space but it looks good.

What’s happening in the green house? Well the cucumbers are doing OK, not fantastic, they seem to have slowed down, but they’re still producing. The sweet peppers ‘Amy’ are flowering, and it looks like we’re going to have a bumper crop. We usually grow the Citrine variety but none of them took this year, but we’re more than happy with ‘Amy’.

To the salad bed. There’s not much going on there actually. We’re that shaded now by the surrounding trees on other plots, everything takes ages to get growing. A couple of our lettuce have been munched by something, so we’ll probably begin a new batch, grow them in pots and put them in a sunnier place. The same with the baby beetroot. The spinach and chard have bolted, but they’ve lasted such a long time.

Fancy some fruit? Righto. Have a look at these peaches!! The tree – kept small – has loved the hot weather we’ve had over the last couple of weeks. I don’t know whether they’ll ripen enough, but it’s been a joy to watch them grow. The grapes are just as abundant, looking forward to picking those. Barbara (vine) seems to have thrived from the severe chop we gave her a few weeks ago. As for the blueberries … they were ripening very nicely … then the birds found them and it was goodbye blueberry. (Sorry June.) Next year they will be going in the fruit cage for protection.

Lastly, here’s just a couple of pleasing pics. A nice tidy row of tomatoes in the poly tunnel – variety is Green Envy, one of the tastiest toms you’ll ever eat – and a beautiful new dahlia we bought this year called ‘Penny Lane.’

We really hope you are doing well. It’s a very stressful time. Sometimes you need to get your hands dirty in a bit of soil, and switch off from ‘thinking’. Stay safe.

Happy plotting.

Twitter: @plotdaze @view_from_a_shed

Instagram: plot_daze @view_from_a_shed @ _view_of_a_shed

May 2022

Have a look at these little beauties! These little pickler cucumbers have just sprouted over the last couple of days. We’ve never grown them before and bought the seeds just to have a go. Hopefully they’ll be prolific and after the lovely warm weather we’ve had in May – glorious May! – then we better start saving more jars to store them in! We hope you’ve had some good weather where ever you are.

Lets get started …

Small but mighty!

We’ve gone mad with the brassicas this year. Planted lots of broccoli spears, red cabbage, heart shaped cabbage and All The Year Round cauliflower. Instead of covering them with netting and those bendy blue pipes, we’ve gone crazy and ‘built’ a huge brassica tent. Each year the brassica suffer from the dreaded white cabbage butterfly. It seems that a leaf only has to touch the netting for a few seconds and one lays its eggs on the leaves, resulting in millions of whitefly infesting your greens! This year – we hope – will be different.

Left.Broccoli just been planted. Right. The new brassica tent!

A lot of beans have gone in the soil this month. The Greek (butter) beans and the French (violette) were bursting out of the poly tunnel. We set up the cane frames and pidgeon proofed them. We’ve also put in some climbing borlotti, runner bean and dwarf yin yang beans.

Greek & French beans!

We always feel better when the sweetcorn has gone in the ground. It’s an absolute favourite here and very rarely makes it home. We boil and butter it as soon as it’s picked! It’s wedged in behind the broad beans. The plastic around it, is to stop our neighbourhood squirrel who like to scoff it. The plastic stays up, and up to now has done its job well.

Before – in it’s paper pots

After – in the ground

On to something more fruity!

We bought a cherry bush to try and block a gap that’s opened up in the orchard when the pear tree died. We didn’t want a cherry tree – we had one on the old plot and very rarly seen a cherry on it, don’t know whether that was due to the birds or some light fingered cherry loving allotmenteers! – they grow too big and the last thing we want to do, is shade any neighbours. So we were recommended a cherry bush. It’s only little at the moment. hopefully it might provide some fruit this year.

The peaches are still with us! We had expected them to wither with the colder weather but no, they are still growing and even though there are only a few, it still proves that the weather is warming up. We should NOT be able to grow these soft fruits outside in northern England, but there you go. Global warming for you.

We also have some blueberries, maybe not enough for a pie but still, when you consider that these little bushes were just ‘sticks’ when we bought them, its progress. Next year I’ll be making pies! ( You’re first on the list June! x )

Tutti Frutti

Lets finish with some flowers. The bronze iris has bloomed and as you can see is reverting back to its purple/ blue heritage. It’s still beautiful though. The white rambler rose, ‘Mystery Wonder’ has begun to flower. It covers the front of the shed now. The blooms don’t last long enough. The geums have just exploded with colour and look even better from a distance, like a painting ( without getting to arty!)

We hope you are doing well, staying healthy and well.

Happy Plotting!

April 2022

Spring has sprung! The weather here at the moment is glorious – sunny and not to windy, could do with a little more rain though, but we don’t want to tempt fate and have a huge storm hit us! The seedlings need potting on or getting in the soil. It’s the busiest time on the plot.

At the beginning of April we planted up some beans – by ‘some’ we mean A LOT! We have a lot of luck growing them, and they’re easy to store for over the autumn and winter. Think we may have gone a little over board though!

The potatoes, which we’re growing in tubs and smaller bags this year – the old blue Ikea bags take too much compost – have begun to poke their heads up above the soil. Seems a bit slow, but at least we can see them.

Beanz n’ Spudz

We had bought two new pear trees a couple of years ago, planted them at the back of the poly-tunnel and crossed our fingers that they did not succumb to the disease that wiped out most of the pear trees on the whole allotment sight. One of them has bloomed! The blossom is lovely and all being well we should get some tasty fruit this season. Unfortunately, the other is much slower to blossom. They’re the same variety and have been fed the same, so it looks like it may be suffering from the same as the other pear trees. Our only plum tree is also suffering from some sort of canker. It was infested with greenfly last summer. We got very little fruit from it. We have given it a drench three times over the months with some magic fruit tree drench we bought from the garden centre, but it hasn’t even blossomed. Poor plum.

Pear and poorly Plum

The few peas that sprouted have gone into the soil. For the first time we planted some peas from ‘seed’ in with them to try and boost the harvest. They’re wedged in between the garlic rows and the pea sticks have been stuck in for support. The variety is Alderman. Maybe we should have stuck to Boogie, but we couldn’t find them this year.

The mange – tout and sugar-snaps have also gone in the soil and have a nice old bed stead to climb up! We saw it being thrown away in a skip and quickly purloined it! Some spare mange-tout were planted at the end of the garlic bed with some pea sticks. Much pigeon protection was needed!

The strawberry beds were looking a little lacklustre, so in a fit of ‘ let’s do it now, panic!’ we began to sort it out. We removed ALL OF THEM! It seemed to take ages, but we had to. Some had become really woody and needed replacing with some new plants. We added some fertiliser – chicken manure pellets and rotted sea weed – to the fresh compost, and returned the best ones, leaving a little space in the middle for the return of our dahlia. A huge luminous yellow specimen called ‘Trooper Dan’! (He’s still wearing a plastic hat in case of any late frosts …aww)

We hope you are all doing well, and enjoying the peace and relief gardening can bring. If this is your busy time, enjoy it, if not then enjoy the break! Hopefully next month there will be more posts!

Stay safe.

Happy plotting!

March 2022

Spring is here! Hooray! It’s still cold though, we had frost this morning but the sun is out and ‘the big coat’ is going up in the attic until autumn. We hope you’re doing well. There’s some gruesome events going on in the world, as if a pandemic wasn’t enough, so spending sometime with your hands in the soil can take your mind off things, even for a few minutes. Which is good, right?

So, there have been two lovely happenings which have cheered me this month. The first is, the blossom on the peach tree!! Beautiful, pink blossom just seemed to evolve from nowhere and surprise us about ten days ago. Last year a little baby peach was produced, hopefully we might get more this year. I’ve tried the fertilisation with a small brush thing again, so fingers crossed. I’m a nervous parent, I’m keeping her in the poly-tunnel until the weather warms up a bit more.

Speaking of poly-tunnels … how much of a pain in the back side can they be? They arn’t cheap, they blow away, the cover rips or billows like a lung, they can get too warm, too damp BUT they do provide that bit of extra space and are a lot cheaper than a greenhouse. After the storms of last month, we were happy that we got through, sort of in on piece – and then one of the zips broke on the entrance door … not exactly something to tear your hair out over, but it would mean that we would have to find another way to secure the doorway, mainly from other nosy allotmenteers, thieves, the cold weather etc etc. And a new cover would have cost approx £60 … not happening. So we MADE A DOOR! A real one! One you do not have to roll up and secure and worry about bursting open in the next storm that will come along. It’s not the prettiest of things, but it is a thing of beauty to us – and cheaper than £60! We made it from old scavenged pieces of wood and some leftover plastic. Hardware came to £10.00. Behold!

THE DOOR!

Peach blossom. Spring is here.

Back to some gardening. We began sowing some peas and mange-tout this week. We love these and if they make it home when they’re picked, its always a bonus! This is the first year we will be growing sugar snaps also. I know a lot of people have already got their peas in the ground, but that doesn’t work for us. We’ll sow another lot in about four or five weeks.

The winter veg will be coming up soon. The cabbage haven’t really bulked up, but it’s still tasty. The leeks are doing well, as are the onions. We will definitely be growing more veg over the winter again!

The salad bed is looking a bit of a mess. The chard and spinach looked a bit straggly and the garlic from our own saved bulb, is beginning to pick up, but the weather has been more wet and cold than freezing, which is what is needed to get the bulbs to really swell.

Pea plantin’.

The brassica ( and weeds!)

Bit messy…

The window ledges at home are crammed full of newly planted seed trays. Lots of tomatoes, chillies and aubergines are all vying for space in the sun. However,the winner of this weeks seedling competition goes to … the cucumbers! They are little thugs! A couple of years ago, we didn’t get one viable seedling, this year, including little pickling cucumbers there are about ten. We’ll be over run with them ( hopefully, touch wood etc).

Ready for her close up …

Look at them!

We had a bit of a rubbish time, last year at the allotments, but this year is already feeling a bit different. The only agenda we are interested in, is one that involves growing and having a laugh while doing it. There is so much worse going on in the world isn’t there?

Take care. Stay safe. Happy plotting!

Twitter @plotdaze @view_from_a_shed

Instagram @plot_daze @view_from_a_shed @view_of_a_shed

February 2022

Well, that was a blustery,stormy destructive month wasn’t it? We had to secure the polytunnel down using bricks, metal pegs, planks of wood – even an old beach windbreaker ! – just to protect it from Storm Eunice, Storm Freddie etc etc. Some of the glass greenhouses on the allotment site did not fair so well, and there were quite a few missing panes of glass scattered around the plots. Maybe our usual frosty snowy weather has been replaced by strong winds and storms? It seemed never ending at one point.

Anyway, Spring is coming. While clearing up some debris ( leaves!) from the rear of the plot we were very happy to see the rhubarb we had transplanted there in the late autumn, had begun to make an appearance. Not that we’re big fans , but it’s always nice to give away to those who do like it, and it looks good on the plot!

The bed that contains the fruit bushes was looking a little bleak … but the red current bushes are beginning to bud up, as are the gooseberries. It’ll soon be time to net it from the birds. We’re growing some Tagetes in with them this year. We were told they can help stop some of the pests. If not, it’ll be colourful !

It’s Spud time! We’re ‘chitting’ some Charlottes in the green house, next to the (second ) sowing of broad beans. Sounds fun, but in reality it means we’re just waiting for the pots to sprout a bit before planting. As for the ‘second’ sowing, well the first rotted away … and there doesn’t look like there’s going to be much coming from this lot either! Ah well …

Spuds, Spinach and Chard … oh my!

We moved the spinach and chard that we had growing in pots. They weren’t doing much and there was very little growth. We have resettled it in the salad bed, next to the heavily protected garlic ( that squirrel is NOT getting them bulbs !). It looks a bit bedraggled, but hopefully, with Spring around the corner, new growth should be coming.

The spring bulbs – daffs,iris,crocus – are popping up,there’s lots of colour scattered around the plot. It’s always lovely to see something returning that you thought had died. This Dicentra, also known as Bleeding Heart, made a surprise come back.

It’s the little things that bring joy, especially at this rotten time. This month, Plotdaze is actually being written from the plot! It’s COLD! and my fingers and other places, are numb, but it’s good to be outside getting some sunlight and breathing (very ) fresh air. Where ever you are, we hope you are doing OK and keeping well and safe. Happy Plotting!

twitter @plotdaze @view_from_a-shed

instagram @plot_daze @view_from_a_shed @view_of _a_shed