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At last, the plot is free of snow. It's time to get down to some serious preparations for spring. The plot looked beautifully tidy and well kept while it was covered in snow, but after the thaw I'm fully aware of how much work there is to do

!Now I'm busily into planting up all the winter and spring crops - all my brassicas including kale, cabbages and purple-sprouting broccoli. My young purple-sprouting looks glorious - really well grown and leafy, though I do say so myself. But I always

The weeds are growing like mad this year. They seem to love the combination of spring showers and sunshine we've been having lately. Sadly, the fine weather is having as positive effect on the weeds as it is on me.Speedwell is one of the moist

. This was looking fab — big, bushy and full of promise for early spring harvests. That was until last week's winds which blew the netting off, exposing my lovely plants to the ravenous attentions of the local flock of peckish pigeons.Of course, my tardiness

physically eat and deciding whether to give sweet potatoes another go. This is the time I order shallots and potatoes, bare-root fruit bushes and all my seeds for spring and summer sowing. It just gets it all out of the way and then I can relax and wait

moving so they can incorporate the compost for me. It should be lovely by the spring.

was right and within a couple of hours the first shoots of the season were harvested, gently steamed and served with a knob of butter.The first harvest of purple sprouting broccoli, along with spring birds and emerging blooms have fired Paul and I up about

next year my plot will be free of aphids, brassica whitefly and countless other pests that survive mild winters, and multiply with a vengeance in early spring. Mild winters are a boon to many garden pests; pests such as whitefly can shelter in the folds

According to the papers it's been the coldest start to December for 30 years - an average of only 1.7° C.The cold weather has hopefully killed a lot of pests, but I've not been able to get on with many of my jobs on the plot. I've not been able

next year. So here are my allotment New Year resolutions for 2009:I must grow crops that don't require regular picking as I don't live close enough to the plot to get there more than a couple of times a week. That's just not enough to harvest runner