Planting and poetry

Crouching down low to use a trowel to make drills made me smile. Maybe because it felt like planting hope. My daughter helped me sow beetroot seeds or 'tiny stones' as she called them. I took my daughter home then went back to the allotment and dug a trench for Charlotte potatoes. Then I sowed kale, brussel sprouts, broccoli parthenon, iceberg lettuce, parsley and rocket. A guy who has an immaculate plot stopped by to give me a yellow courgette he'd grown from seed and told me how good my plot was looking and said to keep up the good work. It made me see how much I'd done instead of worrying about all the stuff I haven't done yet. My broad beans have germinated - so exciting! I usually plant them in November but planted them late so I was very glad to see they had germinated. Our local mayor staged an exhibition of portraits of poets by Peter Edwards in the council chamber and invited a few poets to read including me. I felt quite intimidated by the chamber as it looked like a court room but I loved performing. Got such an amazing buzz. We read surrounded by paintings of Carol Ann Duffy, Penelope Shuttle, Peter Redgrove, Wendy Cope to name a few. Happy planting everyone!

Allotment and garden

Hubby was available for digging so I took full advantage. He dug three trenches like this one. We covered the potatoes with a generous helping of well rotted stable manure and then backfilled the trench with soil.

The following day I dug two more so now we have five rows of potatoes. I'm growing Desiree (maincrop) and Charlotte (second earlies). They are both waxy potatoes as I love that kind.

The forsythia in our garden seems brighter this year or it is just all the sunshine it is reflecting. I didn't bother trimming off the shoots from the trunk and it looks much better messier. Quivering stems shooting up and down.









Ribes has a scent of currants. These flowers will be over soon but I have some delicate tulips underneath to take over the show.











Chinodoxa I believe.

The hellebores are still flowering quietly, heads down like they do.

Finally I've managed to get fritillaria to grow in my garden- pictures soon hopefully. I have the delicate snake skin ones that have a checked pattern on them as well as the Fritillaria Imperialis which has regally raised its grand crowned head but the orange flowers have not quite opened yet.