Last weekend the spade was used to very good effect so that now just two digging jobs remain:

• Leek seedbed – leeks are readily sown outdoors from early March in this district so a perfectly level, crumbly seed bed can be made now and this is best achieved by careful digging. 

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This what I would have done on the allotment this weekend had the weather been sufficiently inspiring to tempt me away from the many long overdue DIY tasks abou the house:

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People have asked what are you going to do in your allotment this weekend?  Since, where no snow actually lingers, it is covered with 5cm of mud on 5cm of frozen soil the answer is very little.

None of the produce will get any better from now on so it is dig and use root crops (carrots, celeriac, parsnips, long beetroot, Swedes and scorzonera) as fast as we need them (a few days supply is covered against frost with cardboard and pallets). The state of dearth and desperation required to start lifting Jerusalem artichokes has not yet been reached.  A square metre of these are grown for that unhappy day in February when there is nothing else left

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Frozen ground means manure shifting time.  Cultivations are best left to the New Year on sandy soils as they slump if left loose and exposed to winter rains becoming what is technically called 'sad'.   A lorry-load of composted horse  manure was bought off a local manufacturer.  The owner assures me that he takes the greatest care to keep weedkiller contaminated manure out of his supply chain, but no one is perfect, so the propagator was cranked up to full heat and beans sown in the prescribed way.  After three weeks all is clear and the weedkiller-free manure can now be spread.

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