It's a beautiful day

My often cynical son ( yes it is possible at seven years of age) woke up marvelling at the world- at the things that weren't here a hundred years ago. He smiled the most beautiful smile and talked about how amazing electricity is and the way it comes into being. The garden makes me feel that way.
Here are some photos of the Fritillaria imperialis I mentioned in my last entry. ..














..and the Fritillaria meleagris. The heads of these flowers start to appear when the plants has hardly pushed it's way out of the ground. The petals are an anaemic version to begin with, gradually darkening to the colour here. The checked pattern is so unexpected on a flower.



The plum tree blossomed really well this year. The petals are now fading. This picture was taken last week. Frost killed most of the blossoms last year and there were hardly any plums. Hopefully the bees have done their work already and we'll have more fruit.

Following an Alan Titmarsh tip, I put forget- me-nots (free from the allotment) with tulips. I think the idea is that they hide the dying foliage of the tulip. They also look good together. I've run out of space in the garden so my tulips are mainly in pots which I think works well.




I put a line of parsnips in at the allotment. I made holes with a big dibber and filled it with multipurpose compost and sowed three seeds into each hole. I dented the top of the compost to mark the position of the hole as I went along so that I would know where to sow. I lifted and separated the strawberries as they had made lots of babies that were huddled too close together. Think I should have done it earlier but I am hoping better late than never. At the allotment we get free deliveries of the compost made from the green waste that is collected from each household. It's ok apart from it sometimes has bits of glass and plastic bags in it. Still lots more to do but I am concentrating on one particular job each time I visit.

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.

Gardening in the rain

It was a glorious day yesterday but I didn't make it to the allotment. Today threatened rain any time we tried to make a move to take the kids out. In the end I shook my fist at the weather and set off to the allotment. To start with there was a whipping wind but no rain. My right arm has felt a bit weird so I decided not to do anything heavy. I've planted rows of onions and am putting rows of carrots amongst them as I believe the smell of onions confuses the carrot flies and keeps them away. Well it worked last year! (Not that I did an exhaustive trial but the carrots were unaffected until the onions were harvested.)
I made holes in the ground with a giant dipper, filled them with multipurpose compost and added a couple of carrot seeds to each filled hole. We have clay soil at the allotment and carrots love loose soil hence the multipurpose compost to give them a head start. Half way through, the rain started falling and a fellow allotmenteer stopped over on his way out and said, 'It takes a certain kind of person to have an allotment.' I am that person -come rain or sun.
Back at home- one lot of leek seeds haven't made it. I kept the plastic cover on too long after they had germinated. They ended up getting too damp and died. The other tray is doing fine thank goodness.

Sprouting seeds

Parsley can be sown all the year round if it is going to be grown indoors. I sowed curly parsley seeds in an old icecream carton on 2nd March. I watered them leaving the soil just moist and put the carton inside a plastic bag. I made sure the soil stayed moist not waterlogged especially as I hadn't put in any drainage holes.
I wasn't particularly hopeful as parsely is notoriously slow to germinate so it was a lovely surprise to see these seedlings.
In the coming weeks I will be pricking them out and transplanting them into pots of their own.

Here are my darling leek seeds. They look so slight it still amazes me that treated right they will grow into delicious stout leeks. I'll be charting their journey to/ and on the allotment over the coming months.





Beans can be sown indoors now as can tomato seeds. As it has been so cold. I am not in a hurry.
In the next week or so I will prepare the ground for my beans. I will dig a trench a spades depth both sides of my frame and fill it with leaves and any other organic matter that doesn't contain perenial weeds or seeds. The idea is to provide ground that is a water retentive as possible as beans are so thirsty. Then I will erect a structure for the beans. I usually build a tunnel rather than a tipee as then I can harvest from the inside and outside.
I have slowed down somewhat as I've got a nasty cold which was preceeded by a sore throat and a cough producing green stuff. I had a fab day yesterday ignoring my cold. I went to see the Wallace Collection and had lunch with a dear friend in its beautiful conservatory. Only ten minutes walk from Oxford Street it was incredibly peaceful.
Today I'm finding it hard just to rest. It's like since I turned 40 I have been overly aware that time is precious but ignorant of the dangers of pushing my body when it needs to rest. On that note I will curl up on the sofa with a blanket and watch rubbish tv.

Apologies normal service will be resumed shortly.

Short cuts

Today I went to the second day of the Middlesex University Literature Festival. It was wonderful to see a panel of three very different poets (Laura Dockrill, Lizzy Dijeh and Clive Bush), but disappointing that so few students or members of the public attended. Perhaps that says a lot about poetry's reputation. Poetry seems to be a dirty word. By now I should have a good retort for the statement 'it went right over my head'. But how can I when I often felt the same way and used it as an excuse not to reread or think about what I'd read.

All three poets drew on emotional reactions to produce their work. Poetry is intense and emotional and perhaps we are scared of that. The times we can't avoid emotions are when we are dealing with love or death. Perhaps that's why weddings, courtships and funerals are times when poetry is allowed to rear its head.

What's fabulous about Laura Dockrill is that she is a great performer and really engages with her audience. She visits schools and takes poetry to children- I'm sure they are captivated by her.

Clive Bush spoke about what a difference one person can make in many lives by sharing their passion for poetry or music. Doing this can open a door to different world. His anger at how poetry is taught at schools was unmistakeable. I think he felt the door was firmly shut.

Lizzy, born in Britain with Nigerian parents told us how she takes the reader to another very different country but holds on to them by dealing with universal subjects such as family.

I felt alive talking about poetry but also aware that I have a long way to go. I have finally accepted that there are no short cuts, that poetry is a craft and I must put the hours in to get the poems I know are waiting.

Allotment

Friday I had the loveliest day with my eldest. On Thursday he'd gotten into trouble for chatting and laughing. He'd said he'd been distracted and that he'd found it impossible not to laugh. Friday morning he had a stomach ache and was really wound up about what he saw as the injustice of being told off the day before. So I took him to the allotment instead of school. He wasn't well enough for school.

At the allotment we dug up potatoes. We had a fork each and I told him to feel around them to check the potatoes hadn't gone mushy and to put the good ones in the bag.

We planted raspberries then I got him to cut them down above a bud. He asked what a bud was. I told him to look up the stem and see if there were any places from which there might be signs of life emerging and he spotted the buds straight away. He pruned the raspberry canes.

He dug and found centipedes.

I've started chitting potatoes - charlotte and desiree.

Mothers Day I went back to put some manure around the newly planted raspberries and got led astray by fellow allotmenteers barbequeing chicken which they served with beautiful turkish bread and salads. I sampled various drinks- homemade cherry brandy, plum wine, whiskey and a german spirit. They seemed a bit surpeised when I went back to my digging. I was glad I hadn't cycled as I hink I was over the limit. It was so lovely standing in the sun drinking and eating.

I planted some onions but still have more to put in. One of my fellow allotmenteers has started off carrots in toilet rolls in the greenhouse which he will plant straight in the ground once the frost passes.

I feel so much better when Ive been to the allotment. Happy growing, happy spring!