Allotment 19/1/11
January 19, 2011I come before you today with some good news. Yesterday I wrote about my one visit to the allotment so far this year and the destruction that the weather had caused. Well, that exciting adventure out was about 10 days ago and writing about it got me excited about growing stuff again so, with the sun shining and an afternoon off, I wandered on down there again.
Is spring in the air? If you judge these things by the actions of ducks (is there is any other way? I think not) who are rapidly pairing up (and ignore the frost that had lingered in some shady places) then yes, it seems it is. The buds on my apple trees are fattening up and the rhubarb crowns are starting to do their thing.
What surprised me today were the things that had survived the snow. I had a little poke around in the salad bed and there was some growth. Little leaves are starting to reappear on what are supposed to be summer leaves, a little odd but I’m going with it. Also found some radishes. Perhaps if I kept the beds a little more tidily then I would have noticed earlier but hey, it’s not a competition (if it was I would win).
I dug up a monster parsnip as well today which went into this
evening’s dinner and was lovely.
Now, I know the thing that you are most concerned about is my garlic; in fact I have had several supportive comments both on Twitter and on here for which I am grateful. So what do you think? Will it be ok following its long, long winter or will it be about as dead as LibDem support? (Where else can you go for allotment talk and political satire?)
It seems I needn’t have worried.
Posted by Martyn Norris.
