After the rain

Well it at last stopped raining for a while yesterday and I snatched an hour to go up to the allotment. The first potatoes I planted have come through, and I have earthed them up well - at the same time dealing with the abundance of tiny weed seedlings that covered the potato plot. This is one reason why potatoes are such a good crop to clean any weedy land. All the earthing up doesn't give  weeds a chance - and any that do survive are soon finished off by the shade of the maturing potato foliage.
The dandelions have had a field day - hundreds of flowers all across the allotments. I take the flowers off as I walk around, to make sure they are not given any chance to seed - one year's seeding = ten years of weeding. Oh how true.
The ground is really boggy on the plot after all this rain. I planted out some lettuce seedlings and sowed some spring onions, but had to give up because walking on such wet ground is not doing it any good.

  Not to do with the allotment at all - but just look at the progress on the banana plant indoors- wonder how many months before they'll be edible!?!

What a week!

What a week it's been.After the false summer we had in March, enjoying temperatures up to 25 degrees, this week has seen sunshine and showers, wind and rain, hail and thunder, and temperatures little above 8 degrees during the day with slight ground frosts at night.
But I just had to plant my potatoes today. Legend says we should plant them on Good Friday, which seems a bit daft given that Easter dates vary significantly year on year.
So up to the plot I went, and whilst there picked some vegetables for the weekend; spinach, swiss chard, leeks and sprouts - plenty to eat for several days. And I looked across at other plots which are just bare soil, (below right - just a few leeks planted recently) compared with my "cottage garden" plot still full of produce. I still have parsnips to dig, and cabbages hearting up nicely, especially now I've covered them to keep the butterflies and pigeons off them!
And I did get the potatoes in! I first dug a trench and lined it all along the bottom with compost from one of my bins at home which I have just emptied. Last time I did this, I had a bumper crop of spuds. Let's hope history repeats. And I also wanted to use this strip of land which has been a strawberry row since the allotments opened, so the soil is not well worked, still full of stones and very heavy with clay. The potato row should do the trick in improving the soil here with all the earthing up that will be required - and the thick potato foliage will keep any weeds at bay.
All we need now is some warmer weather - no sign of the broad bean seedlings yet - I hope the field mouse hasn't dug them all up!