Allotment Visit

Well, the rain held off and we made it up to the allotment last evening and brought home purple sprouting broccoli, white sprouting broccoli, leeks and rhubarb. I've potted up several oregano and marjoram plants. The Moroccan mint has come back (and has been potted up) but not, so far, the garden mint. I hope it does for there was lots and lots of it last season. I hope it's just that the cold spell we had in April has held it back! I wonder if the chocolate mint will come back this year. It did last, but quite late. I've taken heel cuttings of the rosemary. My little "greenhouse" back at the house is quite full now (and about to get fuller -- one of the women who works weekends at Collegiate came in today with bits of her various honeysuckle plants for me to pot up this evening!)

The Builder has planted some more pea seeds and hoed over the bed where the various beans will go. The potatoes are starting to show, the shallots have sprouted, the earlier sowings of peas are peeking through. The second sowing of broad beans is coming up. Things are looking quite verdant. Now if I could just think of something to do about the slugs. They're even eating the onion leaves!!!

When we were in Australia at Christmas, I was listening to the radio one day when there was a house and garden type program on. Someone rang in and asked what they could do about the cockies eating their wooden window frames and sills and the man said to put down plastic snakes cos the birds are scared of snakes. My ears pricked. If it works for cockies, perhaps it will work for the pigeons that completely demolished my brassicas (and many other things) last season. I also noted (again) Matt and Belinda's use of the bladders from inside wine casks in their vegetable patch. Well, something seems to be working. The broccoli plants are producing really quite well now. The bladders (and accompanying CDs) swing gently on their bits of string. I don't know if the pigeons are scared of the wooden snake we've put down -- but it never fails to make me jump when I go in there!!

So we ate well last evening. I made a steamed cinnamon and rhubarb pudding for dessert. And we had the broccoli and leeks with boiled potatoes and pork chops with sage flavoured gravy (the sage came from the garden). Very yummy, it was.