Sunday, 6th April, 2003

Ooops - may be I was being a bit silly over the helicopter incident; apparently there were about 60 "kids" on the site last Sunday evening, and a neighbouring householder called the police.   Pity the police car took two hours to arrive, and the helicopter took 24 hours to get there - to watch me, a bona fide plot-holder!!!!!!

It's been a bit chilly today, but we've got a lot done.   The Kestrel potatoes are in, as well as the Pink Fir Apple, the Belle de Fontenay, and the Franceline potatoes we got from the potato day.

Tamanna's got her leeks sown, and her Greenshaft peas.   And our Franklim asparagus crowns have arrived, so we've planted them as well.

We've also got a lot of beetroot sown - the Forono I liked last year, and some golden beetroot, and Choggia (a "striped" beetroot); pickled beetroot will not be the same!   The first radishes are coming through.   So are the very first brassica under the enviromesh tunnel - despite some pillock who has let his/her dog trample the tunnel and have a a bit of dig around!

But no sign of the leeks I've sown - not yet!

Apart from that, we've been watering (in April?) the seed beds, the spring cabbages, and even the onion and shallot beds.   The weed seeds are all coming through - a bit faster than the vegetables, it has to be said; soon be time for my first major weed of the season.

Another plot-holder given up, because of the vandalism - with Karl, that's three this spring.

Sunday, 20th April, to Tuesday, 22nd April, 2003

This week's good resolution - I will not p..s myself off nor bore others with the ongoing saga of the local kids and their vandalism.   Apart from one little story - one of the gang of kids had her £300 mobile phone stolen, so her father came down and trashed the allotment hut, looking for it.   And I used to wonder where the kids got it from!!!!!!

Anyway, on the brighter side, we had our now traditional wander up to the plot on Easter Sunday.   It takes the kids hours, with liberal sustaining "snacks" of chocolate, to decorate their hard-boiled eggs, and we roll them on the plot.

But the slopes on the site are too gentle, and the kids coat their eggs eggs with so much paper decoration (armour-plating?), that we get just a little bit more manic - seeing just what we can do to a hard-boiled egg without cracking it; rolling, throwing - anything goes!   Next year, should I hide a couple of raw eggs among the hard-boiled?

Then home again, to our first rhubarb crumble of the year; I like Easter!   We also discovered something about chard - rather than waiting for fresh new growth for greens, cutting off the head in early March encourages a flush of very tender and sweet new growth - superb as a spinach alternative.

We hadn't got to the plot at all last week - too exhausted on Sunday, after a trip to London for the Peace March.   So we've had a lot of catching up to do.   It's a pity we've missed so much of the astonishingly fine weather, but we could still get a couple of of hard frosts - that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Over Monday and Tuesday, we've got the Nicola and Sante potatoes in; and we've sown Alderman and Hurst Greenshaft peas, more broad beans/spinach/beetroot/leeks/salad stuff, our carrot bed, salsify and scorzonera.   We've tried to repair the damage to the onions (Tamanna's pickling onions, and our onion sets), the parsnip and first pea beds, and the new potatoes.

Earthed up the new potatoes - they're popping through; the asparagus is looking promising; the brassica seed-bed is looking very strong, despite the fact that our enviromesh tunnel has been destroyed by some p.....k taking their dog for a dance up and down the bed!

The kids' decorative garden is also looking good - with the Russian vine just starting to climb a cheap archway, sunflowers coming through, self-seeded hardy annuals popping up all over the place.   It promises to be a great little den in summer.

And we've been doing some serious watering.

The kids are just finishing their dinner as I type this - and then we're off back up the hill, not to do anything on the plot, but just to watch we have no marauding invaders in the last hour before sunset.   C'est la vie, malheureusement!

Persistent vandalism?   It has its compensations - watching how my kids react.   Rather than let it get them down, they have been re-invigorated, re-enthused - their passion for protecting their efforts and our plot is astonishing and humbling.   And they go further - they put the same passion into everybody's plots.

Saturday, 26th April, 2003

Well, well, well - Tuesday's good resolution pays off.   No more visits!

And what a glorious difference a day's rain makes - the chestnut "candles" are out, the trees are fresh green, the grass is growing fast - and what a difference on the plot.   Lots more sown, brassica seedlings thinned, and starting to weed.

I'd always read that peas did NOT like to have their roots disturbed, but our neighbours across the back sow theirs in seed trays, close together, and plant them out.   It's always worked for them - so they've given us the rest of their tray, and Halla now has her pea bed.   We'll see if it works!

We were chased off by a heavy rain-shower - but a gloriously soft, seeping, warm rain.   No complaints.