Saturday/Sunday, 11-12th March, 2005
Itching, itching, itching to get going - but whatever the spring air this weekend, the soil is still cold and wet. No, I wouldn't dare drop my trousers and sit bare-a...d on the soil; so it is still too cold to sow.
I did however plant some shallots, and turn in a lot of manure I'd laid (I'm not at all sure this will work, with my soil being so wet). At least I know where everything is going to go. We spent today (Sunday) using a collection of pallets - me, to build a double unit compost bin; the kids, to build benches and furniture for a den.
One last task - we moved the carpet I'd laid to prepare a spot for potatoes this spring; and there were hundreds of slugs sheltering under it. I can only hope that the frost (expected tonight?) and the birds make a good job of cleaning up the ones that survived my wellington boot.
Saturday to Wednesday, 19-23rd March, 2005
Well now - spring is really here. Bumble bees (the really big furry queens that have overwintered), tortoiseshell butterflies, ladybirds (not the Harlequins - at least not yet). Robins, wrens, blue tits and long-tailed tits, blackbirds - all desperately busy; and hungry - I'd turned over the carpet on a patch, and not one of the squashed slugs is left. The honey bee colonies have all survived the cold spell - they weren't fooled by the mild January! Currants bud-bursting, willow catkins. Fox (and cubs) frolicking.
Enough to raise the sap! I've been on the plot almost all the time - doing quite a bit in between watching the wild life. And learning - there's no way that my clay soil can be hurried.
There hasn't been enough frost through the winter, and the manure mulch hasn't been down long enough. I can see where the soil has started to break down - but far too many solid, claggy clods still. It will be interesting to see how the Red Duke of Yorks do in among the "bricks"; I planted them Saturday - the untidiest and roughest potato rows I have ever made.
So spent a day with the site's rotovator - it only goes about 4 inches deep, but that suits me fine; I just need that top bit broken up into tilth.
And cleared 8 barrow-loads of brambles, rasps, and the long grass I'd scythed in autumn; lifted the excess manure mulches - it is now piled in the new compost bin; strimmed the paths and borders. Best of all, I cut the grass in the still wild bit - it is an achievement to be able to do that.
As ever, I've bought too many seed potatoes, so I've started a lazy bed for the Kestrels. I have to say that I am not convinced; sounds brilliant when I read the articles - and it looks impressive. But it can't work --- can it?
Sunday, 27th March, 2005
Happy Easter, everybody! Hmph - feels like spring has been and gone already! Cold, wet and very claggy soil. Getting over for 8 o'clock in the morning wasn't a complete waste of time - I've got a couple of barrowloads of soil mixed with sharp sand, and beds ready to sow parsnips and carrots; but no sowing today!
Lots of little "plot-doodling" done though - cutting back invading brambles and the like; wandering round planning!
Wonderful to see - and hear - a song-thrush belting it out from the top of a willow-tree.
I'm not the only one to have picked up the buzz around using "miracle" rock dust and compost - in the papers, on the radio, all over the place; Colin Shaw's Organic UK pages on soil Remineralisations seem to be an excellent place to start finding out more.
Monday, 28th March, 2005
Yet another lazy bed built - these had better work! This time, it's for Halla's sunflowers and other flowers - hopefully ready to take raspberry canes and fruit bushes in the autumn. More clearing excess manure from some of the beds. And still waiting for the soil to dry out enough to work over with the rotovator. Feels more like November!
Glen (a couple of plots down) gave us 15 strawberry plants - runners from his plants last year. Lovely looking plants, so they're in - nothing like a bit of planning - that's my broad bean patch gone! I wonder if I can get one of the lazy beds acceptable for sowing the beans?
Ah, but I sowed the [b]very first[/b] of my seeds on this plot. Hammering a piece of pipe 15 inches into the soil, removing the "core", filling with hole with the sand/soil mix from yesterday, sowing the seed (4-5 each core), covering them --- it took nearly 2 hours to sow enough for a couple of dozen parsnips! By golly, they'd better respond to all that effort.
Wednesday, 2nd March, 2005
A message from Kirstin, of Woodhouse Moor Allotments "a Seed Swapping event, 2nd March, from 10.30am - 12.30pm in the ORG, the organic food shop on Great George Street. Turn up with any organic seed or heirloom varieties you have and trade them with the other people there. It would be great for allotmenteers from all over Leeds to meet up, so we all have a better idea of what's going on across the city." (The full message is on the Guest Page - good luck, Kirstin!