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What a week we've had. The weather has been gorgeous — almost summery. The big blackthorn tree on the edge of the plot is blooming beautifully and the birds have been flitting about in it, acting friskily and obviously checking things out with a view to nesting sometime soon. It ...

The first bumblebee of the year flies past like an animated boot brush. It's a huge queen of the buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, looking as big as a mouse as it drones about the allotment. It comes and goes several times as we're digging

It's always good to aim high, isn't it? I had lofty ambitions of getting all my potatoes in last weekend, along with my shallot and onion sets. But it wasn't to be. I literally ran out of steam with an aching back and tired feet.So round two will take place this week. I'll be pla...

Easter weekend in Bath was beset by bad weather. We had some dull, dreary and drizzly days to contend with, which certainly slowed momentum on the plot. The wet weekend was far more suited to sowing seeds indoors than pluckily plodding on outside.There's something really inspiri...

What a lovely spring to be growing things. The weather has been pretty near perfect — lots of sunshine and some lovely soft, steady rain to get it all germinating and growing well. Perhaps we've had a bit too much wind, and the temperatures at night have been a bit chilly, but yo...

There are always a few jobs that I hate doing at this time of year. One of them is pulling out the overwintered plants that have flowered and set seed. It seems such a shame to remove these plants when they're only doing what nature intended.But I need the space, so I've ripped o...

I've been harvesting potatoes like a lunatic for the past few weeks. First earlies and second earlies always seem to be ready at the same time.I've been digging up some gloriously rotund first earlies, which have been brilliant for baking, roasting and general steaming and sautéi...

miserable, skinny crop. Is it just me that’s been unlucky this year? Eager to find out, I recently took to driving very slowly past the local allotments, to get a glimpse of the leeks there!Without wishing to tempt fate, at least my crop hasn’t been affected

It was blisteringly cold on Sunday, and the water butts were frozen over, but it was not a deep frost. So repairing and replacing the raised beds up at the allotment was relatively easy. The old scaffold planks we put in four or five years ago have

is the perfect time to start.It's too late to sow onion seed now, but you may find that friends still have some sets left over (my allotment neighbour gave me some surplus red onion sets - 'Red Baron' I think). I also bought white onions ('Marco' F1) from