OH and I have entered the early summer stretch of watering duties on the plot. On Saturday, we planted out some more, e.g. OH put his sweetcorn in the ground and I made another valiant attempt, this time with carrot, mizuna, leek and radicchio seedlings, which I snailproofed with my collection of homemade mini greenhouses (i.e. the tops of plastic dairy containers and PET soft drink bottles). Now my beds look as if I'm growing cola and fanta and milk.
Everything else has mostly taken though: the three Lidl courgette plants have rooted, the leek seedlings from some weeks ago, I thought I'd lost them but they're coming back, they're greening, they're getting there. The red cabbage and the Romanesco cauliflower at the back are also doing very well. On the new plot, OH has earthed up the second earlies and has been busy hoeing the weeds off the bit that's yet unplanted. He is dreaming of a huge lorryload of woodchip, free from a local source, to lay down on the paths to suppress weeds. I am dreaming of a huge lorryload of metal, broken glass and plastic rubbish being removed from that plot before we do anything. And four 1000-litre IBCs, all nicely lined up to take run-off water from the shed. Because, as one of the Old Boys said, "We could do with a bit of rain."
The Pinot Noir vines continue to attract the Old Boys' interest and one after the other will step onto the 'terroir' to allow themselves to be guided knowledgeably through the process by OH. "Good to have something different!" one of them, clearly deaf, shouted across as he passed us.
Today we harvested our first punnet of strawberries, always a joyous occasion. Going to have that for dessert with some Turkish yoghurt, following a pumpkin soup from frozen allotment pumpkin and fresh herbs from the garden.
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