The soil is warming up, the birds are merrily singing, spring is clearly sprung. Certainly more sprung than it was this time last year!

The Builder has been busy. He's dug the beds on the allotment down to where there is a former brick base for a proper greenhouse. It had been our intention to put our greenhouses at the bottom of the allotment and to have dug beds all the way down. However, if the bricks are going to prove very difficult to remove, we may need to rethink and, following proper allotmenteering principles, make use of what we find and plonk the greenhouses in the middle. The shallots are coming up and that bed needs weeding. I hope to do it this weekend, and then to plant leek and onion seeds in drills. In the meantime, there are onion seedlings coming on back at The Sidings, in the propagating tent. It is a little early to plant the potatoes, but it has been such a mild winter and early spring, when even the cold snaps recently haven't been that cold, I might risk it and plant them out next week. I don't reckon there will be all that many ground frosts now. And we can always dash up and cover the beds if frosts there be.

We have a new propagating tent. We bought it yesterday. It's higher than the existing one, and wider. It's almost time to start germinating the majority of the summer veg! I've got onion seedlings in one, and tomato and cauli seeds in trays in the new one

Things are starting to come back in the flower garden. Even the mint is re-shooting. The orchard trees are coming into leaf. No blossom to speak of this year, just the odd brave flower. So no fruit. But we weren't really expecting any this year. With a bit of luck we'll get some next year. But even the trees we summarily plucked from the old, lamented Hangingwater (no longer ours, alas - the lease ran out on March 31st) allotment seem to be settling in. So far the only loss has been one gooseberry bush, though the white currants are being a bit slow to bud.

Something is eating the broad bean and pea seeds in the kitchen garden :-( We planted broad bean seeds ages ago, and nothing has happened. Then a couple of weeks ago I planted some more, and I planted some pea seeds. Even given the coolth of the soil, you'd have expected some sort of movement. And movement there has been - but it's been seeds appearing mysteriously above ground. There are no seedlings. So yesterday evening we had a bit of an investigation and there are virtually no seeds left. I've put some broad bean seeds in pots, but that won't work for the peas. I suspect it's wood mice eating the seeds. We do have them in the garden and they are known to enjoy a little might time nibble on pea and bean seeds. I'm not quite sure what to do about them. I can tackle pigeons and squirrels and slugs but mice are a new one on me! I planted out four new rows of broad bean seeds on April 2nd. Am waiting to see what they do!

The Builder has built me some salad boxes, about the width and length of an old greengrocer's fruit box, but half the height. I'm going to grow lettuces and radishes and salady things in them. Plus he's built me one the exact size of a wooden fruit box for carrots. He's also blocked in where the brick patio is going to go and built a little tiny retaining wall. There are lavender and rosemary bush-lets edging it. And I've bought four solar light for the path to the compost bin. They have an eerie blue glow overnight!