Wot no snow and ice?

Well OK I was lying about the ice, but it had defrosted enough to do some work down on the plot to do some work. Strictly speaking it was too wet to be doing much, but you know, time, opportunity, etc.

Just after arriving I spotted an interesting looking bird in the tree. It then helpfully flew down to the plot not long after. Sadly I was too slow with the camera and my knowledge of birds isn't so good, but chatting to the neighbours later they seemed to think it could have been a sparrowhawk. Sadly it didn't seem to be scaring any pigeons away. I finally find a use for the tree and the council are going to get rid of it...

Having chopped down the rose bush came the task of digging out the root. I've never like roses! Some time later, most of it is out. The rest is going to rot in situ. Hopefully. I tidied up along the wall where the rose was, weeding as best as possible in the conditions. I discovered a couple of blackcurrant bushes I'd put in a couple of years ago as rooted cuttings from the old blackcurrant  bushes. Seem to be doing OK, although couple probably do with being moved.

Wot no rose bush?

Further down is the 'triffid' aka the loganberry (the sprawling mass to the left of the picture above). It's doing its best to take over that side of the plot, so much so I'm going to have to consider putting in some wires to hold it back. Or train it, if you want to get technical. It's also started to root in various places where has touched the ground. I have cut these away from the main plant and planted them a bit further away to get it to spread along the wall further - which I can't imagine will be too difficult. I also game one away to Tim on the plot below, along with a few Jerusalem artichokes - along with suitable warnings of their 'effects'.

In amongst the attempted weeding - mainly of the creeping buttercup - I cut down the raspberry canes. I was in two minds about whether to dig them up due to their poor performance last year, but they've had a reprieve for now - and I can't remember why! I pruned the redcurrant and gooseberry, putting some of the cuttings in the ground to see if they take for new plants. They could both do with moving, but I'm not really sure where to!

So more weeding, moved the decaying dead rat (fortunately no pics!) and off home. Quite a few people around and stopped for a chat at the end, which was a mistake as the sun was going down by this stage and easy to get cold!

Mulch = slug party

So now I've declared summer, I planted out some of my French beans: Borlotti to climb up the newly assembled netting and Major, a dwarf, yellow bean. I started both of these in toilet rolls a few weeks ago so they've established good roots now and with my new found confidence in the arrival of summer, they were good to go out. To grow up the other side of the net I planted a row of tall peas (Alderman).

Since it's so dry and my water supplies are running low (I'm going to be forced to walk to the tap at this rate!) so my thoughts turned to mulch for the beans, following on from the fruit. So I put a good layer of leaves around the newly planted Borlotti beans. Some time later after I'd returned home I couldn't help but think I'd just created the perfect environment for slugs to get to the bean plants. Hmmm, didn't really think that one through when I put the mulch out did I? So today I popped to the local garden centre to get some slug pellets, hoping it wasn't too late. Unfortunately I asked Mrs D if she'd like to come along, so it turned into the most expensive trip to get slug pellets I've ever been on!

Fortunately only one plant seems to have been attacked and the whole row has now handful of organic slug pellets to keep to little ******** away from my plants. It also has a couple of 'windmills' I nicked from the kids to help keep the birds away too.

Since I've got plenty of leaves, I mulched round a couple of rows of broad beans as well, lord knows they could do with all the help they can get to start growing.

The strawberries have far more flowers on than ever before. This weekend I'll be 'putting them to bed' with a good covering of straw around them before the fruit starts to set, and I need to put the chicken wire over the top as well.

The loganberry is doing its best to take over the allotment. Whilst you can't see it so well in the picture, what started as just a 50cm plant 3 years ago has now spread about 5m along the wall, and possibly over the wall too!

And this year it looks like it's going to be covered in fruit.