Sunday, 2nd March, 2003

A friend from my gardening course has given me some raspberry canes, so we got them into the new front bed this afternoon.   I forgot to prune them back though!

I've also planted the bay tree Tamanna gave me for Christmas.   So of course we had a really hard frost on Sunday night - I doubt whether the tree will take the shock!

We spent the rest of the day gently pottering - it was almost warm enough to think of sowing, but it's not worth the risk yet, for all that it has been so much warmer and drier so far this spring.   We've seen nearly everybody now to wish them a Happy New Year!

We'd a visit from a couple of neighbours' kids.   They want to take on an allotment plot too; they knew of our troubles with last year's bunch of kids, and made a real effort to go around and get to know the other plot-holders.   Good to see.

Sunday, 9th March, 2003

Pruned my raspberry canes back!   And was pleased to see see they seem to be thriving - lots of budding coming through!

What a pleasure to be getting seeds into the ground - a couple of short rows of Monnopa spinach, a row of Tried and True parsnip (usually do well, but I had a lot of canker this last year), with a row of Avonresister.   Got all the shallots in too.   But you can tell how out of practice I am; I forgot to bring all sorts of useful bits today - including the string or black thread to weave over the shallots and stop the birds pulling out the sets.

Graham came by with several bags of pigeon manure, so I took the chance to start a new compost heap at the back; it should work pretty fast, I expect!

It was a pity the weather's turned windy and cold again - feels like a wintry spell coming back again.   Even the flask of tomato soup we'd brought up wasn't enough to keep us more than a couple of hours.   We left as some of the local kids were gathering - sitting like vultures up the trees on the other side of the football field.   It felt like they were just waiting for us to disappear so they could come back in and do more damage; or am I getting paranoid?

We'll see tomorrow.

Who wants to end on a bad note - we'd the last of the Romanesco tonight, lightly steamed with some of the purple broccoli, and good cheddar melted over it; I even tried to take a photo - it was a small head, but one of the most perfectly whorled we've ever grown.

Sunday, 16th March, 2003

Just pottering today - and chasing kids off.   Leslie's new cold frames smashed up, and a dozen kids just running wild over people's plots - so bad that a neighbour called the police.   So again I find myself staying until after sunset, until the vultures in the trees across the football field get hungry and go home for their teas.

It was such a lovely day it was very tempting to get lots of seeds and even some potatoes in - but we've had a few hard frosts in the last week, so I resisted!   Still, I saw my first bumble bee queen, buzzing slowly and heavily around!   Not finding many slug eggs this year - I wonder if that's a good sign?   Or am I missing something?

Wednesday, 19th March, 2003

Still getting hard frosts - but the raspberry canes I've ordered arrived yesterday; and it was such a lovely evening after school, that I've gone up and planted them in.   And cleaned out a few of the herb beds - cutting back and removing the couch grass tentacles.

Then I sat for a couple of hours.   The blackbirds' lusty singing, no murmurs of starlings - the winter roosting flocks have broken up; watching Jupiter and the stars switch on; it was almost quiet enough to hear horse chestnut bud-burst.

And contemplating the war-crazy media frenzy - what happens at one o'clock this the morning?

Monday/Tuesday, 24-25th March, 2003

Got my early potatoes in - Juniors.   I do like to see those neat furrows.   But it is terribly dry - we need a good couple of days rain; it's forecast for Friday and Saturday.

Cleaned up the over-wintering onions - they look very small, and I wander if they're going to do anything.   Really quite insignificant beside the garlic romping away.

Sowed a few peas, my broad beans, some salad stuff - oh, and got our onion sets in.   The spinach I sowed a couple of weeks ago is just peeping through.

A bit of very sad news - old Karl has given up his plot after a heart attack just before Christmas.   It feels like a real break with the past; we'll miss him - he was the best gardener on the plot.   And every site needs its elderly Polish gentleman!   But the good news, his plot has been taken by People in Action, a Leeds charity working with adults with learning disabilities - so that should be fascinating.

Sunday, 30th March, 2003

A glorious day - spring has really started (touch wood!).   It's not just the clocks going forward, but there's been a real warmth in the sun all day.   Reading my friend, Mr Newsham, spring actually started on 21st March, and will last 92 days and 21 hours!

The kids have had a great day.   Halla's got her most of flower bed sown, mainly with hardy annuals (that should make it easier next year!), and Tamanna's got her pickling onions and spring onions sown.

Started the brassica seed bed, though I've managed to lose the seed packets I really needed to sow today!    Tamanna has started our "potato trials" - we planted 4 Duke of Yorks, and 4 Yukon Golds.

The fruit bushes seem to be doing really well, and our new rhubarb crowns have all taken; the raspberries are throwing green shoots.   So we pottered - cleaned, tidied, and planned!   Saw our first tortoiseshell butterfly of the year!

(Back at the house, I've been wakened the last few mornings by a long-tailed tit tapping at the window.   Drives the cat mad, because the bird has got its act off to a fine art.   Bird taps at window; cat leaps, bangs head on glass, and falls off window-sill - very flustered and undignified.   Tit flutters away, and back to the next window pane, and taps again; stupid cat leaps - yes you've guessed it.   This morning's performance went on for 15 minutes.   What they both see in it is beyond me.)

Actually, I didn't potter that long - we spent a long time talking about the war.   Sid served in Korea, and still doesn't know why he was there - and he was savage about the weaponry (which can't hit the right country, let alone the right building); the officer spokesmen with their chests full of boy scout badges; and he was savage about the politicians and their weasel words.

We spent a long time on the subject of "our" vandals - they have done so much damage over the last month; once we get together, and start adding up all the isolated bits of damage we've suffered individually, it get's very depressing.   It seems however (touch wood) the little b......s have got bored this week, and gone on to wind up other people.

And everybody seems to be upset by Karl giving up his plot - he'd been on his plot for 24 years, so it feels a bit like the end of an era.

But wey-hey!   My brain has just made a connection - when John was in the other day for the People in Action plot, he had a map of the site from the allotments officer.   On the map, our second plot extends perhaps 15 feet further than we'd realised!   So come autumn, we do have a new patch of land to "bring in".   Best of all, that was Tamanna's reaction; it was a very special pleasure to hear that she's missing the thrill of "taming" a piece of wild and overgrown land and bringing it under culitivation.

But still no rain - and the ground is getting drier and drier.   Are gardeners ever happy?

Monday, 31st March, 2003

An open letter to the community charge payers of W Yorkshire

I was up on the plot this afternoon, sowing the rest of my brassica; I'd just watered them, and was putting my enviromesh tunnel over them.

And the police helicopter roared over the horizon, and hovered - for a good ten minutes.   Watching?   What?   I carried on, with half an eye on the cops, wondering what the h..l this was all about.

I know we've had 50-60 incidents of vandalism and hooliganism over the last six weeks, and that police have been called 3-4 times --- but isn't this just a little bit of overkill?   And not very effective at that.

"Ah well," thinks I, "grab the chance of their presence - nip up to Netto's and get a couple of cans of beer and a sandwich."   Off I go, out of the site, round the corner and up the road, into the supermarket.   Come out again - and find the copter has swung round and followed me!

Walk back to the plot, feeling just a little bit nervous, in a Kafaka-esque kind of way; and yes, the copter follows me.

"Act normal," I tell myself, "Don't look at them!"   Open a can, eat my sandwich.   Still the cops hovering over the trees.   "Act normal!" I shout to myself.   "Ignore them, they'll go away!"

And still this blasted helicopter, roaring and hovering; they're playing games now - going backwards, and sideways.

Enough - this has gone on for at least half an hour, and I'm not getting any work done!   So I go and get the watering can, and water the the seed beds I planted yesterday ---- and as soon as I start being "just" another allotment gardener, the helicopter turns and roars away!

I have to be imagining things - don't I?