This is the busy time where you can hear the plants growing and panic starts in that you are falling badly behind. Or is that just me?

To make myself feel better here is what I HAVE done (too much that I haven't done to list!):
- Planted Sharps Express on 16th April
- Planted out mangetout but didn't support them well, planted Duke of York potato at row ends, and added an extra row for Maris Piper on 17th April
- I repotted all plug plants and seedlings

- I harvested 840g of rhubarb and made some rhubarb syrup for cocktails. Delicious.


Things that I really must make a priority:
- Sow more seeds (Maybe Cavollo Nero)

I need to establish when can I start to put seedlings out

Frost watch
We were still getting frosts on 27/28 March and we had snow in the 4th April
Just as you thought it was safe. Following 20+ temp on Thursday the temperature plummeted again down to 9ish degrees. Hopefully temporary blip.

Bulbs and blossom are finally emerging (unfortunately so are weeds and snails and I've been told this will be a  bumper year for them - damn)

Warming up now on the 2nd  May (I should hope so too!)

I just planted the last of the potatoes into a bag for the patio - in layers. But I won't be earthing up as apparently it makes no difference.
- Innovator at the bottom
- Purple Majesty in the middle
- Anya on the top
All from a stall at RHS spring show

I also planted out the onion sets which were in modules. While popping them in I noticed the tops of the Jerusalem artichoke are showing through in garden (and the tops of the Charlotte potatoes in the patio bag are just starting to show). On top of that I potted up 6 strawberry plants - I can never resist.

This is such a  busy time and I just can't find time to plant out tomatoes/ chillis/ look after peas properly/ plant brassicas (summer cauli and kohl rabi). I'm also not sure where to put wild garlic - I don't want it to spread but I also don't want it to die out....

Argh... Spring does my head in!

Lest we forget

The yearly allotment meeting is coming up and we are being encouraged to grow more winter crops. In theory this is a good idea except that the plants take up a lot of space for a very long time and aren't that exciting in terms of flavour or money saving.  Honourable exceptions, in my opinion, are cavollo nero and psb. I say that however last year my cavollo nero failed and only 2 psb plants made it through the dreadful winter/ summer. And those two plants, so full of promise a few weeks ago, seem to have been pigeoned. Damn.
We even had a slight snow shower on Easter Saturday. The plug plants remain indoors....
Just so that I remember, the seeds that I sowed on the 18th March were:
Tomato - Gardener's delight, Black Cherry
Early psb
Lemon basil
Pea Carouby de maussanne (purple mangetout)
Cosmos mixed
Verbascum
26th March and the mangetout and the psb are starting to emerge. March declared joint 5th coldest March since records began. As is traditional, I sowed some of my chitted potatoes on the plot (Maris Peer, a first early variety) and Charlotte potatoes in a bag at home. I also sowed 3 types of chilli and some cutting flowers.

Back to winter

After a single glorious spring day which sent me scurrying for the seed packets and planning outdoor activities the temperatures are due to drop from a positively balmy 13 degrees back to 0-3 degrees at the weekend. And snow. Oh good. So no burning of garden debris then.
Other tasks I'm supposed to do now according to the RHS app and weekly garden magazines (with a new magazine format for Garden News):

Weatherproof:
Penstemon cuttings
Sow broad beans
Sow peas inside
Sow tomatoes
Sow sweet peas

Big jobs that I'd prefer to have help on or at least do in the dry and warmer weather:
Fix Raspberry wires (again)
Spread manure (needs to be warm so don't trap cold in)
Cover with cardboard
Burn rubbish (unlikely to happen if the clouds open)

More urgent and secretly satisfying:
Dig behind water butt
Hand weed self seeders
Dig potato trenches
Prune red currants and gooseberries

It's not just in the allotment though. I've decided the garden deserves some love too:
Tie up rose at back
Tidy in general
Cut back jasmine
Burn rubbish
Repot blueberries
Plant fruit bushes in garden
Spray and clean patio (again need a dry day for this)

Indoors the potatoes are chitting well. Once again I have too many to plant on the plot but I will grow the surplus in sacks again this year. I just need to buy vast amounts of compost (or use the stuff in the garden come to think of it). Varieties I have are mainly early as that means they can be out early freeing up space for other crops or a second sowing (I never know whether to move this within a growing year).

The varieties are:
Maris piper - main crop
Sharps express - 1st earlies
Duke of York - 1st earlies
Golden wonder x3 which are looking very manky
Pentland javelin - 1st early
Charlotte - salad
Maris peer - early

Mother's Day and a cracking hangover limited my activities over the weekend of the 10th but I did tie up the rose and cut back the jasmine and bamboo in the garden. A distinct lack of compost put an end to seed sowing plans. Next weekend.....

2 weeks later.... Well it got even colder and on the 24th March we are experiencing the coldest March since records began. It is snowing in zone 2 in London and it's even settling.

Stuck indoors, potting compost was bought and mangetout peas, cosmos, verbascum, lemon basil, tomatoes (gardeners delight and black cherry) and purple sprouting broccoli were sown. I have also bought plug plants for 3 varieties of tomato (baby plum, cherry and money maker), chilli pepper, bell pepper, cauliflower. Now I just need the snow to stop so I can start planting things out.

Famous last words - never underestimate the weather

I don't mean "never underestimate the weather" are anybody's famous last words. Though they may have cropped up in a lightning storm and I might suggest them to Michael Fish (will we never let him forget dismissing reports of a hurricane? I probably won't).

I mean that it was only 10 days ago that I was thinking how mild it was and had bought countless bags of potatoes and was even considering recklessly planting them in February when, out of nowhere, along came snow. 

To be fair, it wasn't really a surprise - they had predicted it for over a week and we'd had a chilly period ahead of it. We'd even starting mocking the weather men as there was no sight of snow on Saturday evening. It was only as we started driving across town that the snow started in earnest. Damn.

But a day and half later, the snow man's head has rolled off it's body in a snowy parody of the French revolution and things are returning to normal. Except I STILL haven't sowed the broad beans, cut down the raspberries or prepared the potato beds.

In the mean time I have been reading gardening magazines. One feature on whether to dig or not (which appears in most magazines at this time of year) appealed greatly.  Clearly my lazy self favours the no dig method but only if it means that I don't find myself 'mini digging' throughout the rest of the year to get rid of roots and pernicious weeds. There is also something quite satisfying about digging over a plot (at least at the beginning before your back feels like it is breaking. Technique, I know, blah blah blah).

As it is, I did little bits of digging to neaten things up and then promptly made things messy again by upending a whole compost tardis (sadly not really rotted down enough). Fingers crossed the snow will have had a magical effect on the contents otherwise I can see me pleading with Tom to put the heap back into the tub whence it came. 

A dilapidated wheelbarrow and laziness are also the reason I haven't hoarded the manure that was recently(ish) delivered to the plot.  I did pick up some in the autumn and that will have to do for the moment on the pony poo front.

My friend Carol who has a plot in Thornton Heath has had great success with some winter green manure seeds I gave her to help control the weeds and protecting the soil from losing minerals over the winter. I just always worried they'd end up being more worrisome than the weeds...

Frost and physalis

Top tip: Keep trying exotics - they might surprise you

Well not only have we had amazing frosts but we have also had snow showers that disabled the Southeast and threatened Brussel sprout farmers. Apparently despite frosts making sprouts sweeter, the snow and prolonged bad weather has meant that farmers can't harvest during their usual hours (the sprouts go black if picked when frozen) so hopefully my few on the allotment will be worth a million pounds. Well, a girl can hope.  Mind you, as we are not allowed to profit from the plot I will just have to enjoy the kudos of serving our own sprouts on Christmas day.

In the mean time I have been enjoying using kale which I can sometimes find a bit tough in an Asian inspired dish. Boil up the leaves in chicken stock and add noodles and sprinkle with dried shallots - a perfect and nourishing lunchtime snack.

Just before the frosts hit I had the excitement of harvesting the first and last of the physalis or cape gooseberries as they are known. I thought they would never ripen and thought the seedling I bought at the Hilly Fields Country Fayre would be a complete dud. It grew but stayed a resolute green. And then by magic, fruits appeared. Not many but they were lovely.

Tangy and sweet, they are great dipped in melted chocolate but they are great on their own too.  It just goes to show don't give up on a plant too soon (unless it's carrots, peppers or aubergine where it really isn't worth it).