Early February on the Allotment - the start of spring

Early February on the Allotment

The weather is just stunning today. Bright sunshine, a scattering of little white clouds around the edges, a gentle breeze and so mild! You could almost kid yourself it’s springtime. n Ireland, the Feast of St Brigid – 1^st February, is traditionally the first day of spring and, just occasionally, it lives up to it.

As I walked to my plot this morning the little signs of spring were apparent all around. New leaves appearing on shrubs in gardens. Even my fig tree, in a large pot, at my front door, is showing signs of new growth. A large camellia is already showing colour in the new buds – not on my bush, I have to add, mine is always late. Bulbs are well up and some, like snowdrops and muscari or grape hyacinths are already coming into flower.

As always, the birds are desperately looking for food and are already mating up and shouting about their territories.

Well, I’ve had to take a couple of hours… or so… off writing, to watch the start of the Six Nations Rugby and … what a start, magic! And what a hero is Brian O’Driscoll and what a pity he is coming to the final years of his international playing. I’m more than happy about the result, especially as I didn’t want Wales to be trashed. I want them to win every other game. It is a pity that Scotland performed so poorly in the Calcutta cup. I can’t think of a reason why they consistently to fail to win  - coaches, players, motivation[nah!] but, perhaps they will make more progress in the upcoming matches. The next matches this weekend – France V Italy. I do hope Italy steps up. I would really like to see 6 teams which are equal and equal to beating the southern hemisphere teams in years to come. Good luck to all teams in the Six Nations but, especially to Ireland.

It has been too wet to do much outside on my plot. I’ve sorted a couple of brassica cages but, I only have a few Brussels sprouts stalks left and they are looking a bit ragged after the winter. My fruit cage has been seriously dented by the weight of the snow on the top of the cage. I think I will have to replace a few of the posts for it. This cage has mostly gooseberries, my main redcurrant bush [and it grows to over 6 feet- I’ve no idea what variety it is as I inherited it but, it is amazing] and a couple of high yielding blackcurrants. The birds seem to enjoy mostly the redcurrants and gooseberries. So far I don’t know about white-currants. I have never grown them before and only planted a couple of bushes last season. I will net them anyway – perhaps the birds won’t recognise them! While the birds do take a few blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries, I have not found them such a problem that I feel I should net these crops.

Of course, the ground is unbelievably wet and mucky. Impossible to even think of trying to work it. Today, my focus was on my poly-tunnel. I noticed a couple of damage spots to the polythene. On first looking, I thought this had been carelessness on my part when strimming around the edges outside. However, on closer inspection, I could clearly see the claw marks of an animal trying to get inside. The marks were wide enough to be fox damage but not sharp enough to be an invasion by a cat. What could they have been after? The resultant openings were not wide enough to permit a fox or a cat? I hope I will be able to get the coming season from my polythene cover for my tunnel, if I’m lucky with the weather and the unexpected damage, I might just get another year from it but, already I see the polythene splitting along its original fold lines.  It is a serious expenditure and I feel I must make the present polythene last as long as possible. This will be my fourth year from the present cover.

I haven’t set up my propagator yet but, today I sowed seeds in my poly-tunnel - broad beans, beetroot, winter lettuce – vaila,  leeks and sweetpeas. All in pots so that I can transplant when ready.