I made a good start on my Lechlade allotment today...

...though it doesn't look it from the photos. I put in a double row of broad beans in front of the runner bean poles. They are longpods which should go in in November, and were saved either last year or the year before, so it will be a big bonus if they come up and I get a good crop off them.

 

Further down, I put in a row of onions (Sturon, I think). The beans and onions were put in ground which had not been dug, just cleared of surface weeds. Broad beans and onions like hard ground, so do sprouts and purple sprouting, so I will save some hard ground for them too.

 

 

 

Down the bottom, I put in my two remaining Jersey Royals, which are to be treasured like golden eggs. On the same line, I put in two very short rows of cut-and-come-again lettuce and radish. Eventually, I shall put my pumpkins and butternut squash or maybe some nasturtiums down that end so that they can scramble all over the pile of rubbish down the end and hide it. There's time for a catch-crop of lettuce and radish meanwhile.

 

The soil is beautiful and black and light and crumbly, but it is full of stones and of bits of pottery and broken clay pipes and glass. Spadey tried parsnips in there last year, but they came to nothing at all. Parsnips don't like even the tiniest stones: even sharp sand added to the soil makes them grow all forked and gnarly. My soil in Swindon is great for parsnips, so I'll grow them there. It is useful to have two types of soil to choose from: this will be good for onions, I should think.

 

 

Tomaso's gifts

Tomaso said as he passed today, "Do you want some broccoli plants?" He gave me some last year, and they were very productive and very good. So although it was raining and I was trying to get a patch dug before my bladder gave out, I followed him to his allotment. On the way, he said, "You're not frightened of me, are you?" (He's about four foot tall and over 90). "Because people will gossip if they see you with me and say you are my girlfriend!"

After showing me round (again), he pulled up some broccoli plants, and then offered me some fennel plants too. I don't really like fennel all that much, but it looks impressive, and I thought if I put it up the top in the bit that I've just cleared, the Italians would praise me as they passed. Besides, it's all food, and food is sacred. So I said yes, and he carefully counted out ten plants. He put them in a sugar bag, saying he'd been making jam from his plums, then handed me another bag and told me to look inside. Inside was this circular twist of bread which I think he said his daughter "who has the shop" had made. It was a bit dried out, but it tasted delicious: it was flavoured with fennel seeds and salt. As I was starving by then, because it was nearly tea-time, it was very welcome.

As I left to go back to my allotment, Tomaso gave me a hug and said, "You are like my wife and my daughter!"

Snow!

I went for a walk down the allotment in the snow this afternoon. I could tell from the footprints that I was only the second person who had been there. It was wonderful walking in the virgin snow. There were lots of tracks of birds and foxes.

Nothing was visible through the snow on the Cat Alloment. I examined the purple-sprouting broccoli on the Salvation Army allotment, and it seems to be being eaten by something - probably the pigeons, but also possibly by some sort of grub. It was badly attacked by both caterpillars and whitefly last summer, so maybe it's the grubs of one of those. Anyway, it's affecting the florets badly - they look as if they'll be useless. You never know, though, they might turn out all right when it gets a bit warmer.