At long last a day of good soaking rain.  Both of us rejoicing like farmers at the sight of London very grey and very wet.  I hope this will go some way to breaking down those huge clumps of soil on the site. And perhaps filling those brand new wheelie bins we bought yesterday.  For an investment of just £6 we are the proud owners of two ex-Barnet Council grey wheelie bins – no lids, but very clean and hopefully perfect for collecting water if it ever deigns to rain again.  We also bought three heavy bags of compost and three of manure for the beds.  It was a cosy little shop – but quite an Aladdin’s cave of treasures And cheap. I couldn’t resist the packet of Greyhound cabbage seeds for 85p, about half the price of ones in the real world.  David admired the beds that I have put down and expressed concern about my sweet pea and runner bean obelisk. So no change there.  But we have agreed that the covered bed at the top end of the site will be on overflow potato bed. Once I have done something about the weeds. So I know what I will be doing next week then.   And perhaps trying to avoid Oswaldo. He gave me a blooming pink hyacinth yesterday. He was behind me in the queue in the little shop.  I get the feeling I may be the recipient of his munificence each and every time we meet. Pink hyacinths are not madly me.  The smell is exactly that of Arabella, ex Prime Minister John Major’s private secretary and mistress who worked with us at The Carlyle Group. The overpowering odour used to make us gag.

Today I have had to do something about the broad beans which are busting out of their root trainers.  I have potted them on into tall plastic water bottles in an attempt to contain their roots.  Messy business as I don’t have a potting shed but have to perform the tasks inside black bin liners and in the bath so I can mop up the mess easily.  The Sutton broad beans have also come up, but in less exuberant style.  And the peas are just poking out. I love germination.  We also have baby tomatoes, and I think two celeriacs, and two dwarf runner beans that will be destined for the roof terrace.  And the onion sets are also doing their thing – little roots showing through the fabric of the jiffy pots. I wonder which plants will go in first?

Last night, as I climbed into bed, I found an onion set in the sheets. The garden is taking over.

I wanted to plant the onions in some warmth and found that the sunniest place in the house yesterday was in our front bedroom. So I did that fun thing of soaking of the peat pellets there and planted 12 onion sets. I know, not much of a succession planting scheme (where I promise only to sow a few each week rather than a whole lot in one day) but I figure they may just store well if they grow properly and are lifted in the correct manner and dried in the sun.

Yesterday I went out first thing to do the weeding on the plot. I am giving myself until the end of this week to finish all four plots and made good progress.  Today I have just half a bed to go. There’s not much else to do.  I could try and pull up a few weeds on the covered area, or try and get the messy end neater, but after crouching down on a piece of carpet to save the knees and balancing on a rickety plank to save compacting the soil and pulling out bits of unwanted root matter for about four hours, one loses the will to live.  The robins are as hungry and grateful as ever for my work.  One yesterday even took a small worm from my hand. Cheeky critter.  They are quite demanding – chirping noisily if you don’t pull up a worm every few minutes and making them available in a spot away from the flashing fork.

The drive is getting easier, but the lock on the gates at the front of the site is so fiddly in cold weather. I can open it, but spend ages cursing and wrenching it to get it shut again.  Never a zen start to the calming process of tending the veg.

Back from my weeding and very pleased with the work.  But on my hour’s run around Primrose Hill park later today I found myself looking at the grass as one big weed bed, rather than a vista of green.  How on earth do they do theirs?  Janet and a friend came by to inspect the plot today, and I did boast a lot about the good weeding work. What a dull person I am turning into.  A bindweed bore.  Next week I shall go back to the grunt work of trying to clear the top part of the plot, and maybe having another go at the apple trees.  Now it’s time for a beer and a relax and a peruse of this month’s crop of garden magazines. Bliss.

Vegetable: Red Baron Onion Sets
How many?: 12
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: In a warm heated room

Vegetable: Tom Thumb Lettuce
How many?: 12
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: In a warm heated room

First sunny day in ages. Time to do some planting. Shame it is of the indoor variety.

Vegetable: Parsnip F1 Gladiator
How many?: 2
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: In a warm heated room

Vegetable: Broccoli Summer Purple Sprouting
How many?: 2
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: In a warm heated room

Vegetable: Pepper Gypsy F1
How many?: 2
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: In a warm heated room

Vegetable: Okra
How many?: 2
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: In a warm heated room

Vegetable: Beetroot Boltardy
How many?: 2
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: In a warm heated room

I think that a few people on the plot are taking a nostalgia tour by visiting my couch grass and bindweed site. They are remembering back to that glorious day 30 or 40 years ago when they, too, had to get down on their hands and knees and dig the weeds out, inch by inch. The nice Irish gentleman (plot just in front of the car park and exceptionally neat) came by today to watch my laboured progress. Two beds down, two to go. He rather helpfully told me that in a few weeks time, after we get some rain and more frost, I can start from bed one and go over the whole thing again. Apparently the weeds will be easier to grab with the soil is less frozen into clay clumps. Well yippee. Can’t wait.

Mind you there is something therapeutic in working your way over your garden with a trowel and a gloved hand and hunting the roots as deep as you can go. Aching progress, but I know it’s the right thing. But it does put back all my plans to have the first potatoes in the ground at the end of the month. We have yet to get the compost and manure – I can’t countenance another trip to Homebase just now – which will only happen on a Saturday when the shop is open.

I have got out the shoebox of seeds and have drawn up a planting chart for the next two months. (I’m so forgetful that I won’t remember what to plant when if I don’t write it down). This is to assuage my aches and pains from today and remind myself that one day this year I’m actually going to be bringing home bags of produce… a far cry from the two heavy plastic bags of bindweed and couch grass that I hauled home today and dumped in the industrial waste bin at the bottom of the street.
To plant in Feb indoors: Onion Sets, Peppers, Beetroot, Celeriac, Cabbage, Dwarf French Beans, Calabrese / Broccoli & Okra (all Jiffy 7s) Peas & Sweet Peas (Root Trainers)

To plant in March indoors: Lettuce & Tomatoes (Jiffy 7s)

To plant in March outdoors: Potatoes (First Early), Parsnip, Leeks, Radish, Garlic, Carrots (end month), Land Cress (all directly into soil)

It has been a day of paths and bark chips – lugging and hugging for dear life the heavy 70 litre packs from the car park to the plot. All three of them in staggering loads. And halfway through the lovely process of smoothing the chips over the weed proof membrane I have realised I’m going to need at least four more bags to cover the paths.  It will look fine mind you. Or rather, normal. The bark looks to blend in with the soil so it’s not such a shock.

I wanted to keep on the heavy duty plastic that I bought rather then the weaker cloth ones, but naturally I hadn’t quite calculated the quantities. So I lifted up some of the membrane at the top end (near the apple trees) to see if I could cannibalise a portion.. And underneath I was pleased to see that the weeds have died back somewhat. I naturally couldn’t resist pulling some of it out. But it looks to me like it will need another bout of the dread glyphosate, or just cover the whole damn thing for a few months more. But secretly I want to have that area for either flowers or fruit. So it would be wonderful to get that sorted.

The social whirl continues. It’s great that they only come singularly, as I would never remember all the allotmenteers names. First up was a visit from Raymondo (one plot up and over towards the back). He was heading to the shop in search of the skip. Generally it is delivered around now, but he stopped to congratulate me on my heavy digging work. I asked him what he thought of me adding a lot of compost and a bit of manure to the soil and he breathed in sharply and pointed ominously at my plot. Couch grass he warned. You have to sort it out first. And he is absolutely right. All I have done is fork over the largest bits. I’ve never crouched low and attacked the couch.

And as a consequence of his wise warning, I spent most of my five hour visit today on hand and knees, pulling out couch grass weeds and digging out bindweed. I have filled a large plastic bags worth. And that was only less than a quarter of the plot. Sigh. But I think the worst is where the onions and roots will go. Surely there can’t be this volume of weeds all over the place?

I also had a visit from a nice shy young man who gardens near the front. He came up and offered me a large football sized clump of rhubarb. He had divided his and didn’t need the extra. But as I have three already I had to politely decline. I hope he stays friendly, he did look a bit crestfallen.

Then as I was leaving there was no resisting the bright smiling and bustling Italian man who has a plot near the car park. This is the famous Oswaldo, The Florist, and owner of what must be the most complicated plot. Rooms and sheds and glass houses. And even an intimate little hut where he proudly showed me his comfy chair and bouncy bed. Hmmm. The Allotment Lothario methinks.. It reminds me of Italian gardens where all the area is either bare earth bursting with growth or paved courtyard and higgledy piggeldy buildings. All with a purpose, and all very interesting. He even has about 20 hanging baskets full of bright primulas. (This was before I found out he was the florist Susie has told me about). He grows his artichokes very closely together which is interesting. I guess he harvests them small. That is something I’d like to do. But there’s a lot more weeding to do before I can dream of artichokes.  Oswaldo gave me a parting gift from his van. A pot of grape hyacinths and a rather garish post of flowering cactus plant.  I think I will give the cactus to Elli, and have promised him I will plant the grape hyacinth somewhere in my patch.

Woke this morning with the issue of the garlic sorted. I need to get them in while this cold weather lasts, but I haven’t got the soil entirely sorted. So I’m going to do them in jiffys on the rooftop balcony. I got the idea from a picture in Monty Don’s book The Complete Gardener (complete that is, if you own five acres of land and have endless resources). He does his onion sets in them. So why can’t I do the garlic that way too. That way they also won’t be eaten by birds before they get their roots down. Naturally I have left the little package of sets in the shed at the allotment and must remember to get them back home. Much on the list today. David and I are going out this morning to look at progress and trying to get as much compost onto the soil as we can.

Well all good plans have to change. We were thwarted on the compost front. The little shop on site doesn’t open until 2:30pm on Saturdays, unlike Sundays when it opens at 10:30am. So we looked forlornly through the gate at the sacks and sacks of compost and manure and dreamed of breaking in. Instead it will have to be more trips to Homebase and lugging the stuff from the car. We did make progress on the paths mind you. David did the bottom one, I puttered about with the minor ones; marked out the little paths that I will need to put down at three metre intervals, and generally felt rather pleased with it all. We put the weed proof membrane down and it did look rather ghastly. The sooner I get the bark chips down the better. To cheer David up from our neat and rather uniform site I took him on a tour of the rest of the allotment. And my goodness people do have odd things in little pieces of land. Fences, cages, shopping trolleys, mountains of brambles, corrugated iron, weeds and muck. I hope he sees that ours is going to be neat for a reason. It’s more productive not to have to endlessly weed the paths. And the bark chips on other people’s plots don’t look that garish. We finished up with a visit from the resident Allotment Cat. She came leaping over the fields to get a cuddle and a hug and then trotted off.

And so did we – to Homebase. Three hulking packs of bark chips, three small bags of compost for our Primrose Hill garden and more metal pegs for £30. One of my cheapest visits yet. Surely this endless shopping will have to end soon and I can just get on with gardening.

Vegetable: Printanor Garlic Set
How many?: 20
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: Outside upstairs

All doom and gloom in the news about the lack of winter rainfall and potential drought and dry summer to come. Just my luck to finally get a garden and then find out that we will have a hose pipe ban.

I am utterly confused about when to plant all the seeds. Should I go with the Gardening Which? Magazine’s guide, the Sarah Raven books, Monty Don’s book or the Grow Your Own and Kitchen Garden magazine guides. They all vary. My father in law warns me not to start too early and I suspect he is right. Luckily I will be going to Australia for the first two weeks of March, so that ought to keep me out of the dirt.

I’m still waiting for the delivery of my seed potatoes from Thompson and Morgan and sweet peas plus packets of goodies from Sarah Raven’s company. That will teach me. Next year, (already planning ahead, what a gardener!) I will buy the potatoes from the allotment where they take just a few metres to carry to the plot. Not sure I will chit them all. There is Debate about its efficacy. I think it will be a miracle no matter what, so don’t really care.

Vegetable: Red Baron Red Onion Set
How many?: 4
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: In warm heated room

Vegetable: Feltham First Pea
How many?: 4
How planted?: Root Trainer
Notes: Top floor (unheated)