11th - 18th March

11^th March

Today I finally got round to re-felting the roof on the shed. The old felt has been in ribbons all winter but thankfully I had under laid it with a plastic material so the shed was still waterproof. It was hardly a horticultural job, but a garden task completed that was well overdue.

13^th March

A major landmark in my gardening year has been reached – the first outside planted crop has gone in at the allotment. 15 garlic plants are now replanted from their tray and are securely underground at the left hand side end of section 1 where I have been able to fill up with topsoil. To commemorate this, the flag of St George now flutters above the plot. Last year I put up the flag which is attached to a plastic flag pole by duck tapping it to a hefty iron pole that was part of the blackberry support system. There it flew proudly for a few months until one day when I was clearing wooden poles and chucking them like spears to the area of ground between sections 8 and 9 and thinking to myself ‘I bet I couldn’t hit that flag if I tried’. Although I never tried, the end of the next wooden stake hit the flag pretty much centrally and the force was enough to not tear the flag but snap off the flag pole cleanly from the support. I had meant, all summer, to find a replacement pole and re-strap the flag on again, but like the royal standard only flying where the Queen is in residence, I thought I would fly my flag when I had vegetables growing, so today was the unfurling and now the red cross on a now off-white background can be seen from the gate as one enters the allotment property.

17^th March

Yesterday and today I collected about 8-10 bags (each day) from my brother-in-law’s house and emptied them into section 1. The amount of soil in the car boot is enough to draw comments from people about how my rear suspension (the car's – not mine) looks somewhat flat (if that is the right word to use) yet when the soil goes in the ground it seems to disappear promptly. I have finished digging over section 1 now as well.

Of my 100 pots/modules of sweet pea I have 13 that have germinated. The maths is simple – a 13% success rate at present but still early days.

18th March

I am in the middle of 3 rather busy and hectic days so I am appearing at the allotment for a few minutes, saying a quick hello to Alfie and going off again. I emptied another boot load of soil, gave section 3 a quick rake, then went home.