2nd April

2^nd April

I finished the wire mesh around the allotment which gives a great sense of an important task accomplished and of some achievement as well. Not achievement like climbing Everest, training a child or managing to get your address removed from some unwanted insurance company’s mailing list, but achievement in the sense that now the plot should be rabbit proof and I can plant things out with carefree abandon. I can remove the scrawny little strip of mesh that has just been placed gently over the garlics; I can plant out all those onions that are fast outgrowing their nursery trays in the conservatory and greenhouse and when the time comes I can plant out the leeks too without worrying that this year they won't be nibbled. I have overcome the false economy saving of last year when I didn’t use such sure means of rabbit barrier because I thought it would be too expensive and thought I could manage without. That foolish thinking led to the failure of a whole section of onions and one of leeks, not to mention the equally foolish false economy of having no anti butterfly netting over the brassicas leaving a complete decimation of 2 sections of sprouts and cauliflower and 1 of sprouting broccoli. The achievement is one of learning from past mistakes which is what this year is going to be about.

Already I have started off onions at home to give them a head start, and sowed leeks in trays to get them going ahead of the time the ground would be suitable for them. I’ve fenced out the rabbits and I will cover the brassicas with netting and I will wait awhile before I sow carrots. I will use weed suppressing membrane instead of relying on all too infrequent hoeing and weeding. I did sometimes wonder if last year I attempted too much for a first attempt given the failures I had. I don’t think so because if everything had worked I would have never have looked back. The more things you attempt, fail at and learn from in one year, the more things you learn to do right the next, or at least learn not to make exactly the same mistake again, and by a process of elimination this should lead to success on all fronts.