Some photos taken in the last few days.  There are tulip and cyclamen in bloom. Sprinklings of celandine in flower at the base of the damask rose.  And a big bunch of bluebell bursting forth in the path on the upper terrace area – promising wild blue blooms in the coming weeks.

The garlic bed is looking tidy.  I inserted a new brick path and in-filled part of the old path to maximise growing space.  The garlic bed is kept weed-free and we’re watering now and then to keep growth steady.

The small bed in front of the garlic was planted last year with red & yellow cherry tomato, and they did very well.  It’s a good, open, sunny patch.  I spread manure over that area, and yesterday I dug out some of the calendula growing in there (replanted into the planter tubs at the back boundary, under the front neighbour’s fig tree).  Some of the calendula right on the boundary of the bed have been left in place as they probably wouldn’t have survived transplanting.  I’ve not dug out the forget-me-not either, but will do so soon, and likewise will transplant these elsewhere in the hope that at least they might self-seed to a new area for next year.  I turned over the soil (very heavy clumpy clay!) in half of this small bed and will do so again before planting some purple beans in there.

The Malink has been delighted to find that after a full winter, the shed doors and window still open easily, and everything seems in good order.  Everything was removed and the whole place swept out of bugs & spiderwebs (not many but still..) and then re-ordered.  The back netting and lattice fence collapsed a little, but it’s now been screwed back into place and standing straight and firm.  The rain water system set up to feed into a tub from the roof gutters is working well; the tub was fairly full of clean, muck-free water, which we used a little of to finish the watering of the strawberry and garlic patches.

On the way to the allotment yesterday, we found some solid wood slats in the rubbish, so scooped those up and they are already tidied away, ready to be fashioned into a new raised bed form…  So much of our allotment has been provided by garbage-picking! Amazing.  The trellis, the plexiglass for the shed windows and roof lights, the wood…  We plan on making a new raised form at the front corner, in front of the holly and under the fig tree.  It will be a semi-shaded space, but may be good for crops like lettuce and spinach, which prefer cool conditions and may bolt easily in full sun conditions.

These final pictures show the rhubarb bed.  Richard next to us divided his rhubarb over a year ago and gave us some root cuttings, which I ‘dug in’ to a plot.  I had planned to move them to the back patch, but they do seem happy where they are.  We harvested a little for a tasty rhubarb crumble.