11th May

11^th May

It was my birthday on Saturday and we were all out celebrating, so no gardening. Sunday was an extended birthday so it all started again today. At lunchtime I potted on the cineraria seedlings into yoghurt pots – 77 seedlings in all, and I also potted on the 10 sweet corn plants from the 1 pot I bought them in into 10 recycled plastic drinks cups.

After work I went to the allotment and forked over sections 5 and 9. The end of section 5 was the rest of that really hard, compacted and deep weeded patch and so when I moved on to the end section which had been covered with the membrane, the work became suddenly far more enjoyable and faster. Whilst doing that, a chap came by and gave me a hearty well done for being at work. From a distance he thought I was working on the plot behind me and he came over as he was on the committee and they had done an inspection yesterday and wanted to speak to plot holders of some unruly plots. He said mine was alright. That was a relief as I do need to do a bit of tidying, however, you can see that I am active and there are no tall weeds or areas that are completely out of control. The people behind me took over their plot last year and have done a good job of the first half, but the back half has a large cherry tree which is underplanted with raspberries. I guess the plot holders don’t think they can cultivate under the tree or round the raspberries, so they don’t do anything and end up with a small jungle of tall weeds. The chap said that a few plot holders were going to lose their plots as they have had warning letters in the past and no improvement has been made, and with a waiting list of 34 it is not fair that existing allotmenteers leave their plots go to rack and ruin. This time last year there were vacant plots and nowthere's a hefty waiting list. Two plots either side of the gate have recently been taken on and have been transformed. Both were a mass of weeds and grass and now are a great example to us all as we come in – an obvious amount of hard work has been done. One of them has sprouted raised beds and enormous compost bins all made out of pallets and plenty of manure thrown around.

Back home I mowed the lawn for only the second time this year and it needed it. I read recently that if you think your lawn needs cutting you should have done it yesterday. Well, 2 weeks ago for me! I was, of course, ably assisted by my 2 assistant gardeners. After that it was a case of battening down the hatches and securing all movable items as it has been very windy today and reports predict gales of 50mph over the next couple of days and rain for the rest of the week. As I came in through the conservatory I saw that the first squash has germinated, one of the cucumbers.