Sunday, May 11th, 2003

Beautiful day - warm and sunny.

This week's weather has been perfect for the weeds, and we now have several types I've not seen before.   I'm wondering if they've come in with the mushroom compost - but that seems very odd.   Apart from a couple of annuals I just do not recognise, I've now got little bits of bindweed just starting up all over the place.   Just a little worrying, and I've been rigourous in finding it, and removing every scrap of root.

Rebuilt Tamanna's bed - after some local loonie had danced his dog up an down it a couple of weeks ago.   Our friendly prat has done the same to my FOURTH sowing of peas!

Everything else looks pretty healthy - the fruit (but not the gooseberries, which have loads of fresh green growth, but not a flower or a fruit), the roots, the new potatoes, broad beans, Halla's flowers.

I wonder if we've missed the asparagus?   We have a few huge shoots (should have got them last week, when they were small), but no fresh ones coming; possibly the weather has just been too dry.   I'll give them a real good soaking and see what that does for them.

Again chased off by a heavy rain-shower - lots of planned jobs undone; we're falling behind quite a bit this year, with having to do so many jobs several times over.

Later - on that cheery note, I've just been up again at the plot - repairing our visitors' damage.   Every water butt couped over, every tap turned on, the older guys' sweet pea frame destroyed.   So I stayed a lot longer than I needed to - until well after sunset, gardening in the moonlight, with nothing but Jupiter strong enough to be visible in the city's lights.

• I have magical memories of "sleeping" on the roof of our house in Senegal, me and the children, awake far into the early hours - counting the shooting stars, spotting the satellites, and gazing in awe at the Milky Way.   There are few things more beautiful than the utter darkness of an African night - have a look at the Campaign for Dark Skies and see what me miss in this country.

Monday, May 12th, 2003

Instead of transplanting my brassicas, spent most of the evening trying to vandal-proof my water barrels, by sinking them two feet into the ground, and re-earthing one of the potato beds.   More "unnecessary" work.

And more weeding - I had used "half-cooked" compost on what is to be the brassica bed.   So I've let a first flush of weeds come through, and am being very careful to remove any perennials.

I've been thinning the beetroot, brassicas, and parsnips - and a little pottering took me past sunset again.   I could get to really enjoy moonlight gardening, with just our vixen for occasional fleeting company.