The alllotment is awfie bonnie the day – however the ground is so hard that there’s not much to do except harvest some artichokes and be off. The local wildlife is obviously having a tough time of it, however – I was followed about the site all morning by a robin and one of the site foxes.

There’s something really great about the plot at this time of year. I kind of like it when the site is deserted and the winter showers blow over from the west, forcing you into the shed for 5 minutes, before it’s safe to venture out.

Anyway, the berry bushes I ordered from Garden Organic arrived in the post this week. I’ve got a Jostaberry, a white currant, a red gooseberry, and another black currant to plant tomorrow. They arrive bare rooted, which is sort of strange, and I’m always nervous about getting them to take.

I’ve got another 10 rasberry canes due to arrive at some stage, which will hopefully bring a fruit bonanza in a couple of seasons time. I’ve tried to get as much diversity as possible, when it comes to species, and also tried to grow fruit which is not available in the supermarkets. In this way I hope I’ll get an interesting and varied crop throughout the summer – and I’m assuming that by planting a range of varieties I’ll reduce the risks of getting the whole crop wiped out by disease.

Pleased also to see the Brussel Sprouts are doing OK, and that the Jersey Walking Stick Cale is largely doing alright too.

As we left the plot, a big yellow moon started rising over the site. The photo is of it rising over someone elses shed. You can never quite capture these things on camera eh?

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Today we planted the second batch of winter peas, (pilot) 2 weeks after the last lot which were just starting to peep up out of the ground. We also planted some winter broad beans – which I’ve not tried before so it should be interesting what results we get from those.

Last year, I planted a different variety of winter pea and got excellent results, despite the sceptical old timers telling me I shouldnae be planting them in October.

Also came to the conclusion that one of our 5 types of tattie that we planted this year keeps really badly. However, we’ve no way of working out which one it is as they’re all mixed in together. Nevermind.

However, I’ve ordered more Desiree and Pentland Javelin for next year via FEDEGA. The Desiree definitely store Ok – they’re the only pink skinned tatties so they’re easy enough to sort out. However, Pentland Javelin is more of an unkown quantity. For some reason, I have this gut feeling that they’re good uns. Maybe it’s just the name which suggests some sort of locally adapted sturdiness. Anyway, we’ll only find out this time next year.

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