Back to basics

We're almost weed free, thanks to the bitter winter, most of the plot is dug over, and we're further ahead in terms of clear ground than we've been since we took on the plot. But we've decided to go back to basics this year, and spend our time on getting the shape of the plot in hand. Sorting out the borders, defining the central path (look how ragged it is), evening up the size of the two beds on either side, getting rid of The Heap and the corrugated iron.

So this whole big bed is planted with potatoes, onions, shallots and garlic. Red Duke of York and Charlotte potatoes, Shakespeare overwintering onions, garlic (Solent Wight??? I've forgotten already), and several varieties of onion which I must remind myself of. And that's it. Nothing fancy, no celeriac, no green peas which need staking. Just a basic Scottish diet and a lot of hard work on edges and earth moving.

Just to situate you - the bed in front of the dark orange shed is ours. The other half of the plot is off to the left, and the bed to the right, in front of the black shed, is our neighbour's. The hand that is just reaching out to close the blue-spotted shed door is my husband's.

I will post about the other half of the plot when I emerge from another busy spell at work, daughter about to sit important exams, son looking for flat for next university year, hamster in the last couple of weeks of her short life (sob).

The list

The first of the season, scribbled on a Post-It at work last week. Miraculously, despite the frantic pace of everything else in life just now (children taking part in music festival, plus 3 weeks of school orchestral, chamber and choral concerts to mention only a few pieces of our jigsaw), I've done everything on the list. It feels good to have started the season with a small success, although I've had to cut down on blogging and visiting other sites. I'm eager to catch up with what everyone's been up to.

To explain the list: the box for chitting is a sturdy wooden tomato box which I use for chitting seed potatoes. During most of the year I store it in the allotment shed, but it's now cluttering up the dining room with the first phase of the potatoes: Charlotte salad potatoes.

The 'fleece to allotment' was a new fleece tunnel I'd ordered, which sat in its box in the hallway (already taken up with the Ikea 'Billy' bookshelves which are waiting for chain reaction too complex to go into here). I've now re-located it to the allotment shed. Billy is still in the hall.

In the autumn I ordered garlic. I was too late to get the winter planting variety, so I settled for the soft-necked spring type. It arrived way before Christmas, and in the meantime has been rotting gently in our garage. I've now re-ordered, and intend to bung it in as soon as it arrives. It's already late for getting it in the ground.

Broccoli - well, I was seduced by Delfland Nurseries' purple sprouting broccoli programme - two organic plants of each of four varieties. Delivered in July, this will take the stress out of my limited windowsill space for raising seedlings.

Time for action again: husband and son have just arrived back from collecting water samples for son's Advanced Higher Chemistry investigation, and I've made a romantic date with my DH to turn the compost bins at the allotment - if it isn't too windy. March is roaring like a lion today, with a blizzard of quickly melting spring snow this morning.