Cleaned the roof terrace and had a jolly good planting session. This was a consequence of learning that my long research project wasn’t going to earn me as much money as I had hoped. Less money, less work, and more time to garden. Hurrah. So I have frittered away the day by first going to the garden centre to get some citrus feed for my growing lemon and orange trees (a gift from Elli which she grew from seeds); potting them into bigger pots; clearing away the mess of old tulips, damaged branches of broad beans (they are monstrous) and then potting up the kale and cabbage. In my effort to avoid slug attacks at the allotment I have decided to grow a lot of kale and cabbage here in pots at home. There were plenty to plant up (I have a knack for growing them it seems) and they look rather good crowded in among the Australian shrubs I have growing up there.
The eucalyptus tree is no more. It didn’t recover its cold winter attack; but the other one which I pollarded is thriving, if a bit bruised on the ends. A hint of buds on the bottle brush, but nothing else. They are crying out for a good pruning – but as they haven’t flowered yet (or at all) I will have to wait another month at least. The roses are over their first manic flush (three vases on the go at once in the house) and I can see plenty of buds. Hopefully my second flush will come in time for the big barbecue we are having here on 9th June.

We are mightily distracted at the moment with the plans to leave London and move to the country. This has been a fairly constant theme of the past few years. Both of us yearn from something a bit more rural, especially as I want a garden. But David’s job at Imperial is so good that it would be mad to give it up. He is offered quite an interesting array of positions every year – from Sheffield in the north of this country, to Paris, to Chicago. But we have never really entertained any ideas of moving.

But then a few weeks ago he received a call from a very prestigious Oxford University department called The Dunn School to become their Professor of Molecular Microbiology. It’s a similar job to what he does now – except that the Dunn School is funded by profits from the scientists who discovered penicillin and antibiotics back in the 1950s and 1960s. And they were smart and made a fortune for the School with the patents (and themselves I hope). As a result it is one of the most well- endowed scientific institutions in the country. It’s what David calls the job of a lifetime, and he is the only candidate for the job – which is a great honour. We both go up mid June for a special dinner of the board of the Institution (plus assorted Wardens and Rectors of Wadham College or whatever their exotic titles are. Becoming an Oxford don is rather daunting) and the next day David has his interview.

I will spend that morning going to the excellent Oxford Botanic Gardens (they have a copper beech hedge of monstrous 50 foot trees which is sublime) or better still, see some properties. Eek. It’s rather frightening. One can daydream about living in the country, but it suddenly may become a reality. No wonder I have trouble knuckling down to work right now. Or thinking about weeding that extra bit at the allotment. Or investing in a strimmer to cut down that massive amount of grass. It would be ironic that after all this waiting and then working, I will have to give up my allotment before I harvest the crops.

Gad I love this climate. It’s still light and you can garden until after 7pm, and you can go away to the Lakes for a week and know that it will rain buckets while you are away.  I was curious to know what it would be like being so away for so long during this precious growing season. And the slugs didn’t disappoint. Goodness they had been busy. Especially in the potato patch.  I walked down the beds and looked for signs of decimation (the basil was safe, the celeriac was particularly tasty to them, and can’t find much left of the parsnips) but it was the fact they managed to almost strip the pink fir potatoes almost bare that was impressive.  I inspected the base of each plant and found at least five of the blighters in the soil below each one.  Yes, the nematode controls worked – every sixth slug was dead. But that left too many to work their way through their very own special vegetable patch.  Who am I feeding here?

Still, at least now I can say that I have tried my best with organic controls and can go and get the heavy chemicals with impunity. That, or porridge oats.

Other things to see- the grass has gone wild, there were slugs under the lettuce (must try and grow such succulent things here at home instead) most of the bindweed was under control, but I found a fantastic plant that had snuck up under a potato plant in the main bed and it was about two feet long.  The couch grass is under control thank goodness.

And after I had done a quick weed it was to the broad bean patch where the black fly patch was particularly interesting.  Lots and lots of pests feeding on the juicy tips. So off came the tops of each plant and I happily spent fifteen minutes squishing the rest of the black fly to death. So gooey, but oddly satisfying.  There are some ladybirds doing their valuable work, but the quantity of blackfly are just overwhelming.  A lot of the pods have formed and will produce good beans in a few weeks; but I think the dwarf Sutton variety are less successful than the overwintering Aquadulce.

The runner beans are running which is good. And one of the white lady beans has come up. But the other seed failed to germinate. What a finicky variety of bean. I must try and plant another seed next visit. It does mean I am going to succession plant the beans, without planning it.

No sign of any soya beans. I wonder how long they are supposed to take to germinate. And definitely no carrots. I think just one has germinated out of the fifty or so that I sowed. So I’ll have to try again. Perhaps with a different packet of seeds.  At least the cabbage are thriving. Getting under the netting to weed is a bit of a trial, but I will plant some more next week and hope that it will be crowded enough in there to deter the biggest weed. I don’t want to wait until they become huge before harvesting, so they can be planted quite closely together.

There are flowers on the peas. And they are growing well, except that I understand why people put up such elaborate pea supports. They do tend to drag on the ground. Which, as you know is Slug Territory.  But they haven’t been mauled about like other plants.

Charlotte arrived later in the afternoon to plant up her tomatoes. She is doing great work – planting and weeding at the same time. She paid me for her nematodes, but hasn’t watered them in just yet.  She commiserated over my slug damage, and we spent a happy early evening working away at our separate plots.

Must bring more seeds next time – I need to try these soya beans again, plus do more broad beans and peas.

What a gusty day. My run round the park was so full of blowing blossom it was quite a treat. Not so good for my little seedlings on the balcony – they have taken a battering. We have had a full day of rain yesterday; perfect for those little nematodes burrowing down into the allotment soil, and for the plants in their pots.  I am growing about 20 little plants upstairs right now. A mix of flowers and vegetables, and they seem to be thriving albeit bent at rather rakish angles from the wind. I do have one tomato plant that blew over in the night, it’s a bit battered, but I think it is hardy.

My roses in containers on the roof terrace wall are thriving. I even picked a whole vase full for the living room which is busily wafting its lovely aroma about.  The purple sprouting broccoli has lived up to its name and is sprouting again – which is a bit of a shame as they are in the same pot as the lilies.

The rosemary in the window boxes are blooming crazily, but there is no sign of the bottle brush flowers. Must look up my garden notes from last year to see when they started blooming last spring.  Pause there. Can’t find the notes. Everything in this office is buried under the Big Project: the climate change film. I have four large files full of information already, and I’m only 100 hours of research into the film. Post it notes plaster one wall, and my lovely chart of the flowers I want to grow at the allotment has been relegated to the notice board.

Record-breaking trip. I only went up today for less than an hour to water in the nematodes. Next trip I’ll have to refill the bins with water.

Worm work: went up for a short session to get the nematodes onto the beds and check the plot.  All things are fine and growing well. I earthed up the potato beds a bit more. Some people have positive hills for their potatoes; my heaps seem paltry in comparison.  I propped up the peas a bit, tisked at the sight of my nibbled beans, drenched  them, watered the rest of the plot with many a watering can’s worth of precious liquid, and planted another dwarf French bean and my largest tomato plant.  It should stand the ravages of slugdom.

A lovely sunny day; I made the mistake of opening an email from John Collee just before heading out. Ugh, months of work to do in just one email. I was celebrating sending him a huge swag of climate change work (new documentary film) by coming up to the garden for a good long session. But now I had just a shortened session as I knew what the next batch of work would entail. Hurricane Katrina, macroeconomic consequences of reinsurance industry’s woes, the American car culture, evangelical Christians’ attitudes to climate change, deforestation, coal remarketing, biospheres, air travel pollution. The list looked endless. Sometimes you can just yearn for a simple life – tending crops, sowing seeds, killing slugs. Sigh.

Anyway; this time I was prepared to see all my plants blighted. But the slugs seemed to be only working their way down the basil seedling row. Planted 11, only three and a half left. I’ll have to sow more and keep on persisting. I had a good look in the carrot patch – can’t see if there are any seedlings coming up as there are a few weeds that may be carrot-like. So I just watered it and hoped for the best. Some of the other seedlings needed a bit of watering as well: the celeriac is thriving. Only one is looking a bit chewed, but the other little plants are growing determinedly. Pepper plants still alive, and the beans and peas are putting on growth.

I planted a row of coriander seeds, a row of soya beans, half a row of more peas to make the row complete, and half a row of beetroot. I did wonder if I’m just putting out the equivalent of slug pet food by sowing more seeds, but I can’t give up now – I’ve waited too many years for this.

The cabbages now have a very nifty looking cage. The enviromesh fits together nicely (with about a hundred safety pins rather than being sewn together I’m ashamed to say) and everything around the sides are tucked up with long planks of wood. I can’t make it slug-proof as they sleep in the soil during the day and are probably going to enjoy a life safe from the threat of overhead birds picking them off whilst munching on brassicas leaves. But the kale are growing well.

Next I made a widely optimistic attempt at building up the bean supports. They are all being nibbled by something, so it’s a race to see how fast they can grow before succumbing to whatever is eating the leaves. I tied five little rows of string up along all four sides of the bamboo supports – making good horizontal supports for them when they reach the dizzy heights of about three feet. The sweet peas are all growing, and hopefully will start to take off. They get plenty of water from my watering can, and the soil is nicely moist.

I next did my sowing of the red clover in a patch of spare soil, casting the seed rather deftly over the not so perfectly raked soil. Hopefully they will cope with the imperfect growing conditions. The soil is so rock hard that as much as I water it, then bash it with the back of the fork, I just can’t get it to a fine tilth. But hey, I didn’t even know the word tilth existed until a few months back.

To finish – four trips to the trough to fill up my bins with water. Rain is forecast this weekend, but I find if I do the watering trips each time, then I’m topped up and ready for any contingency.

Back at home I’m delighted to say that I have my first rose on the roof terrace (with the promise of plenty more, and my herbs have all survived and thrived after a long cold winter outdoors.

Vegetable: Coriander
How many?: 1 row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 3

Vegetable: Beetroot Bolthardy
How many?: half a row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 2

Vegetable: Soya Beans
How many?: 1 row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 4

Vegetable: Red Clover (green manure)
How many?: 2m sq patch
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Above potato bed

Vegetable: Peas Kelvedon Wonder
How many?: half a row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 4

Vegetable: Basil
How many?: 8
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: Unheated windowsill

Took delivery (at 7:30am of all times) of another enviromesh cover for the cabbages, and two packets of red clover which I’m going to use as a green manure. Charming name, but it means that I can plant areas that don’t need to be used for a few months – such as the spare potato bed – and add nitrogen to the soil and keep down weeds. And if I’m really lucky, the slugs will stay away as well.

Up to the plot after a long session’s climbing and a quick lunch. We had so much lovely warm weather, I was looking forward to seeing a bit more growth. And not just the weeds. Actually, so far the weeds are minor; just a few interesting bindweeds and some couch grass creeping in from the far side of the plot, which hasn’t any wooden barrier stopping the march into the broad bean patch.

I greeted Charlotte who had roped in two friends to help her do the first of the digging. I put down my bags and spade and fork and looked happily over my burgeoning garden. Wait a minute, I thought. Something is missing up beyond the rhubarb. Where is my cucumber plant? Villainy – I have had my first casualty. The cucumber has been entirely devoured by one fat slug. I stifled a cry (there are neighbours now digging nearby and don’t need to see hysterics in the vegetable patch) and went over to closely inspect the damage. Not a leaf, not a stalk, nothing. Just a fat slug at the base. He looked like he was about to launch into the plastic label for dessert. Hah! He didn’t have a chance. I happened to have a pair of secateurs in my hand as I went to inspect and I’m afraid, in my fury, I made it an ex-slug in a thrice.
It’s so unfair; why couldn’t it go for the rhubarb leaves instead. There’s plenty of those and they are utterly useless to me. If it only knew that the cucumber was a rare beast; one I had purchased at the garden centre, carefully jogged one mile home, watered, nurtured it and then… sent it to its death. Time to order more nematode biological controls.

And I knew that I couldn’t possibly plant anything else up in that area of the plot until the slugs had been brought under control. All the flower seeds went back into their box. I’ll have to plant them at home in jiffys instead. So, what to do? I had a whole afternoon and only task left. Cutting grass. Such a bore that it is romping away and I have huge long swathes of the stuff surrounding my plot. One of my duties as a plotholder is to maintain the paths around me. First I tried out Charlotte’s hand mower that she inherited. I cleaned it, pulled off the grass stuck in the blades and heaved it over to my paths. Sadly, despite getting some tremendous exercise by pushing the heavy object up and down the length of the plot, its blades are just too blunt to make any impact. So I got out my hand shears and went to work. Two hours (and one blister) later I have a neater area of grass, but it is knee high at the perimeter. I’m just going to have to make friends with someone who possesses a more powerful mower.

Home to plant my flowers in the dull surrounds of the kitchen window.

Flower: Nicotiana Evening Scent
How many?: 7
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: Unheated windowsill

Flower: Scabiosa Black cat
How many?: 8
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: Unheated windowsill

Flower: Nigella White
How many?: 8
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: Unheated windowsill

Flower: Cornflower B
How many?: 8
How planted?: Jiffy 7s
Notes: Unheated windowsill

The temperature reached 26ËšC today and I came back from the allotment with sunburnt arms of all things. All those months of cold weather, and now I have to resort to sitting under the apple trees to escape the heat. The weather was perfect mind you for the main task I set myself – to fill the wheelie bins with lots and lots of water. It took about five trips with the wheelbarrow, full of bottles of water from the trough, plus a bucket and a watering can. Naturally I slopped a lot of it around – especially when trying to manoeuvre my way off the grass path and close to the bins. But it was deliciously refreshing.

I seem to be the only person who isn’t using a now-illegal hose on my plot. But everyone does it with such insouciance that you know there is nothing to say or do. One of the advantages of this hose activity was that the man hogging the top watering trough with his hose pointed out a trough at the lower end, closer to my bins. I would never have noticed it as it is fairly buried under a tree of mess, and close growing stinging nettles. But it did cut some of my journey time down.

I should have done the watering work last, and the digging first. But I just didn’t plan for such a warm day. I found myself in the blazing sun digging away at the new path, shovelling heavy clay soil into the barrow and then using it to build up the potato beds. Hot sweaty work.

The good bit of the day was all the planting. White Lady runner beans, a row of basil seedlings, celeriac plants (planted a bit close I fear, as only six will fit in my narrow rows.) Two little dwarf French bean plants, four purple sprouting broccoli, three pepper plants, a row of soya beans, a row of scorzonera, half a row of beetroot seeds and third of a third of the row of rocket. It means that my original planting scheme is almost complete. Just the tomatoes to go. I have given up on the okra as most books say I don’t have a chance of growing them outdoors. There’s plenty enough without them.

Vegetable: White Lady Runner Beans
How many?: 2
How planted?: On beanpole supports
Notes: Middle of plot

Vegetable: Basil
How many?: 11 seedlings
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 3

Vegetable: Celeriac Monarch
How many?: 4 plants
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 2

Vegetable: Scorzonera
How many?: 1 row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 2

Vegetable: Dwarf French beans Maxi
How many?: 2 plants, 3 seeds
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 4

Vegetable: Rocket
How many?: third of a row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 3

Vegetable: Peppers
How many?: 3 plants
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 4

Vegetable: Beetroot Bolthardy
How many?: half a row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 2

Vegetable: Soya Beans
How many?: 1 row
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 4

Vegetable: Purple Sprouting Broccoli
How many?: 4 plants
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 3

Last night just as I was dropping off to sleep I realised that I didn’t water in all of the bean plants when I planted them up. Curses. I had said that I wasn’t heading up to the allotment again until Friday, but I may have to go earlier and Attend To Matters of Watering. We came back from a long weekend of climbing at lunchtime. And our return journey took us straight past the allotment. Why don’t we drop in? suggested David. And delighted I concurred; but realised that I didn’t have my keys with the teensy gate lock that lets one in. So we went straight home instead. Must remember to always have the keys at hand – just in case such impromptu visits come up.

I went to buy groceries, went for a run, sat at my computer doing work – and all the time pouting that I wanted to put in the celeriac, cabbage and kale. David came up with a great solution. At 6pm he announced that he would drive us up there, look at the plot and while I got on with half an hour’s gardening, he would go for a run around the playing grounds at the back of the site. What a star. I was changed into my grotty gardening clothes (tattered cashmere and grubby black cotton trousers) in a flash.

It was great to show David all the progress that has occurred since he was up last in January. I hope he was impressed. The potato plants are certainly thriving. I didn’t waste much time as David jogged off to the park – I started with the beans. All the varieties I planted up in root trainers came up, except the White Lady Runner Beans, which rotted. They will have to be planted from seed next visit. Now each of the 12 supports (except for the white ladies) have either sweet peas or runner beans or French beans. Hopefully they will thrive.

Almost at a trot (and hence forgetting to water them in) I then went on to the cabbages. There are now two rows of the same variety; quite a glut I fear and they may not grow on as they were so leggy, but it’s all a learning curve. Next to them went three rather sturdier kale plants, nicely spaced. I watered these little plants, then stalked up to the busiest bed – the onions and roots. The garlic, shallots and onions seem to be doing the right thing. I weeded carefully between the plants, then hoed the bit where the celeriac is to go. They will grow into monsters, so needed plenty of space. In went the two little plants that I grew from seed. I will plant two more seeds up later – if I remember. There’s just so much to do now.

I earthed up more of the potatoes (must ask Mick next time he visits to show me how it’s done) and hoed off the small weeds in the spare parts of the legumes and salad beds.

I pulled out huge stalks of rhubarb which is to be made into a rhubarb crumble for a friend at the climbing centre – he is poor as a church mouse at the moment after a month in the Himalayas, and looks like he is in need of a bit of pampering and feeding up.

The cabbage and kale have to be protected from the pigeons and the mysterious white cabbage moth or some such pest. So it was out with the sturdy material called enviromesh I had bought back in January – sort of a strong white mosquito net. Alas it’s too narrow for the bed. David, who had come back from his run, helped me to place it over the little vegetable plants, and I finally found a use for those wretched cane supports that were going to go over the top of the beans. We pushed them into the ground and used them to hold up the netting from the cabbages. I secured the mesh as best I could, and we drove home.

Not sure what to do about the cabbage mesh. Some plot holders have elaborate and neat cages for their brassicas. I may just have to buy another (expensive) mesh and sew two together. That ought to make it wide enough to cover the whole bed.

Today on my run I went to the garden centre (pathetic bit of multi-tasking) in search of the cucumber seeds that everyone seems to recommend for outdoor growing – it goes by the ghastly name of burpless tasty green. I will now have some space for such a beast next to the rhubarb plants. No seeds to be found in the huge array of seeds at the shop, but I did find a little plant outside in the vegetable section. Not easy to carry the little thing at a trot through the delights of Camden town – but I held the pot, pressed firmly down on the soil to stop it flopping about, and ran home.

It is now upstairs with the other little plants that can go out next week. The tomato plants are turning out nicely, as are the peppers. I then got out the secateurs and did something I have been dreaming of for years. I cut the tulips growing in pots and now have two large vases of gorgeous flowers. White tulips in a glass vase, and the magnificent deep crimson parrot tulips in a favourite blue Wedgwood vase. Hopefully this will be the theme for this year – armfuls of flowers for the house.

Vegetable: Scarlet Emperor Runner Bean
How many?: 2
How planted?: On beanpole supports
Notes: Middle of plot

Vegetable: Fasold French Bean
How many?: 2
How planted?: On beanpole supports
Notes: Middle of plot

Vegetable: Polestar Runner Bean
How many?: 2
How planted?: On beanpole supports
Notes: Middle of plot

Vegetable: Kale redbor
How many?: 3
How planted?: Plants, in a row
Notes: Bed 3

Vegetable: Celeriac Monarch
How many?: 2
How planted?: Plants, in a row
Notes: Bed 2

Vegetable: Cabbage Greyhound
How many?: 7
How planted?: Plants, in a row
Notes: Bed 3