Hoe, Hoe, Hoe - No.2 in an occasional series of favourite tools.

I like all three of these, for different functions, and like to see them shiny, indicating that they've been put to work, seeing off weeds in a cloud of dust. The long Dutch hoe is from that well-known purveyor of gardening tools to the gentry, Wickes, but I've no idea where the others came from! My favourite is the short-handled onion hoe, which is as sharp as a sharp thing and really effective at "slash and slice".

Allotment activities today? In a packed schedule I

• hoed
• weeded and tied in the blackberries
• planted out 12 Parsleys (flat leaved)
• got rained on (but not enough)
• forgot to take the mouse-proof tin for teabags, but it didn't matter because I
• also forgot to take the stove to boil the water anyway. Duh!

Chesterfield Canal Wildlife Hour

In an hour cycling along the towpath this morning I saw:

• 2 swans a-nesting
• 4 herons a-stalking (well, actually the same one 4 times; started to look really grumpy as he kept having to a-stalk a bit further away each time)
• 1 moorhen chick a-having what looked like its first outing in the water. Very small and very low in the water, with much anxious a-fussing from mum, and
• 1 vole, not so much "a-questing through the plashy fen" as a-scuttling hell for leather across the path.

No partridges, no pear trees.

Catching Up!!

Finally cleared the garage of old-kitchen rubbish, with a mere five "car stuffed to the roof" trips.

Finally got the AGM of our Churchill Fellows Association out of the way (William Hague as guest speaker and a really good event. V pleased).

At last I can get on with catching up with greatly neglected seed sowing.

So this day I are mostly been sowing:

Lettuce - Salad Bowl & Red Salad Bowl
Rocket
Basil
Sybil
Manuel
Coriander
Mangetout peas (Oregon Sugar Snap)
Runner beans (Polestar stringless)
Climbing French beans (Veronica Lake)
Courgette (last years remnants)
Cucumber (Burpless Tasty Green) - don't you believe it; well they're green anyway.

And potted on a mere 30 tomato plants - 15 Tamina and 15 Moneymaker. I've got some Gardeners Delight (isn't that called beer?) and San Marzano Plum coming along too but they're a bit scraggy because they got a touch of frost nip.

And finally, planted a Lavatera at the plot and one at the house so we can have synchronised flowering. Aah!

To follow, in due course:

Yer Brassicas, which are miles behind
Yer leafy vegetables (spinach and beetroot; yes, beetroot, I know but it is quite leafy!)
Yer Flowers.

Next weekend with a bit of luck.

Mouse in mi teabags, what mi gonna do?

Something of a conflict of interest in the shed today. Old Mousey, sitting on the workbench waiting for me today, clearly thinks he owns the shed. Given that he's been there more than me just lately he has a point. But making a nest in my box of teabags is going a bit far.

Did all those Chocolate Oranges i left him count for nothing? He'll be turning his nose up at ordinary Sainsbury's tea next and asking for Earl Grey or, heaven forfend, a nice bit of Lapsang Souchong for him and Mrs Mousey. And probably cucumber sandwiches too (he'll have to wait a bit for those; haven't even sown the seeds yet).

Well listen up, Mousey; this is taking liberties. From next week the teabags are in a tin; a tin tin, ideally with a picture of Tintin on it, innit? Let's see you blunt your mousey teeth on that, matey. Teabags indeed.

Digressing into Sheffield dialect for a moment, the only possible conclusion to an exchange like:

It's in the tin

No it isn't

Yes it is

No it isn't

is

'tin't in tin

Any road up, as they say in this northern enclave of blogland, allotment life has been very quiet lately (unless you're a Mouse), due to the massive diversion of having a new kitchen installed. No, not at the allotment. I've done enough for that mouse already. Before and after pictures below - I know you couldn't give a stuff really but we're proud of it.

On the plot, the onion sets have come alive, lord knows how cos there hasn't been a drop of rain since I put them in 3 weeks ago. But alive they are. Spuds in too - row and half of Charlotte and half a row of Nicola. King Edward's take up too much time and space and as for Prince Albert, let's not go there.

So, it being dry and all, I got the hose out and watered the onions, topped up the baths etc and naturally it started to rain. I am rain god. The baths are v useful for soaking the wooden stool. The weather has been so dry that all its joints have dried out and it's fallen apart. A couple of days in the bath and it'll be fine. Know how it feels.

Chinese Wilson

I spent last Wednesday at an RHS Study Day on the life and works of EH "Chinese" Wilson, another of my plant collecting heroes, second only to David Douglas. Look him up on Google for more info but this is the man:

As you would guess Chinese got his nickname because of where he did the bulk of his collecting, and he was prolific. The most spectacular is Davidia involucrata (the handkerchief tree but he is credited with literally thousands of others. Travelled hard in difficult country and had a horrendous accident crossing a scree slope, which almost cost him his leg and his life.

The Study Day was classic curate's egg - good in parts. When it dealt with the man and his travels it was first class. When it dealt with his plants it amounted to trainspotting for rhododendrons, and Ye Gods, the audience were a load of buffers (present company excepted of course!). I'm sorry to admit that I fell asleep in one of the duller parts.

Simply the Best.....

....manure is well-rotted horse manure. Three big bags of it so far, from my free supply in the woods, through the holly bush and over the rickety bridge (no trolls, at least none I can see).

And the allotment is OK, a bit dry in glorious sunshine but my pathetic plum tree is finally flowering

and the garlic continues to roar away.


Planted 150 onion sets (Stuttgart Giant), 75 red onion sets (Red Supreme), 15 Shallots (Golden Something or other).

Two-Sheds

Devotees of early Monty Python will recall Arthur "Two-sheds" Jackson, who in fact did not have two sheds but was only considering a second shed.

Dear Reader, I have gone better - I am now Two Sheds. My rude hut at home now supplements a ruder hut at the allotment and rejoices in the title you see below.

Sixteen Miles on the Erie Canal?

Well, no actually, more like 10 miles on the Chesterfield Canal towpath this morning, by bicycle. The Chesterfield Canal should look like this

but bits of it actually look like this.

There's been a breach; the ducks look very confused.

I was listening to Springsteen singing about the Erie Canal on the Seeger sessions last night, and I have actually been to the Erie Canal,

here in 2001 when I was on my Churchill Fellowship following David Douglas - all good allotmenters should know about David Douglas (1799-1834).

But the Chesterfield Canal has grand aspirations:

Meanwhile, back in allotment-land, it's been glorious here today.

Finished clearing out the cabbages

and came home with that great Russian delicacy, a bucketful of cabbages. I've also started digging out some of the internal paths - my path:plot ratio is too high and I'm wasting good growing space. Although all I have in the whole plot at the moment is a few leeks and some excellent garlic.

Other plans for the plot this year include:

• making a manure 'bin' immediately behind a thin part of the hedge so that I can have manure delivered and hurl it, in a cavalier fashion, through the hedge into a cunningly placed receptacle - not unlike what my Geordie Granny would have called an outside netty.
• To one side of the pseudo netty I want a flowering mallow (Lavatera), for big showy colour and
• to the other I want a Rambling Rose to ramble picaresquely through the hedge.
• Downhill from the pseudo netty, I want to extend the top part of the plot and and actually grow things in what is currently a fallow area.
• Also need a new water butt for the top, and to repair an old one with concrete (what else?), and fix a puncture on my wheelbarrow.
  

Exciting times, what?

Pheasant in mi Garden, what mi gonna do?

(with apologies to UB40).

Anyway, today's snow seems to have driven an unusual visitor out of the woods and into the garden.

Ronksley Cabin Brunch

Bloggers with long memories (Sept 22nd, last year) will recall an off-plot expedition to Ronksley Moor shooting cabin in the Peak District, Derbyshire,

and a threat to revisit for brunch. Been there today with my old mate Paul.

A "no-breakfast" start got us to the shooting cabin by 9.30, for bacon, eggs, sausages, mushrooms & tomatoes, courtesy of Sainsbury's and two small camping stoves.

Fabulous. Completely stuffed, it took us another two hours to get back to the car and make plans to do it again.

Favourite Tools - No. 1 in an occasional series

The Spade

This was my Dad's spade, which I inherited when he died. He never had much money in his life and I discovered after he died that he had saved up for a month, in his seventies, to buy this spade. It is a really good spade (Bulldog, I think). It isn't stainless so I have to keep it in use to keep it shiny, which my dad would have liked. He was wont to say "Come on, put the tool to the job", so I do.

I like to think he would approve of the use it continues to get. Not sure what he'd make of this blogging business though.

Plastic Fantastic

New "greenhouse" is up & running. Well, it'll do for now.

Oh, Potting Bench...

Oh potting bench, oh potting bench

To leave you now is such a wrench

Next lines please. Have to scan to the tune of Tannenbaum, People's Flag, Oh Christmas Tree etc.

Woodpecker in St James's

There I was at 9 o'clock this morning killing time in St James's Park in central London, before going to a sustainable development conference, when I heard loud and clear, twice, a woodpecker.

Got the day off to a good start. Glorious bright sunny morning, good conference in prospect (and it was) and a woodpecker.

Are there two moons? Was I looking at the wrong one?

Watched the eclipse last night, on a brilliantly clear night. Everyone is banging on about the reddish colour it went. Not in my sky it didn't. And it was an hour late.

Am I missing something? It was good, and very clear, but not the teeniest bit red. Am I in a parallel universe?

First seeds sown, taters chitting, mice hungry

At last, some seeds sown! Tomatoes - Tamina & Moneymaker (haven't grown MM for years because I remember them as insipid; we'll see how they do this year. Leeks - Musselburgh - back to an old favourite because my Gigante d'Inverno from Seeds of Italy did badly last year (suspect I'd kept the seed too long). Parsley - Flat leaf. can't get enough of it in summer.

Taters - Nicola (chosen by Mrs M) are chitting well but, checking back through last year, I find those are the ones Mrs M said she didn't like on account of them having a 30 second window between being cooked and being boiled to mush. So Charlotte are now chitting too!

And finally, the saga of the omnivorous mice seems to be over. They've eaten not only the chocolate orange but the box and the silver paper too. That must have given 'em bellyache!

Garlic is doing well,

Rhubarb too. Spring is Springing!!!

A Pile of Poo

Taking the visiting relatives for a walk in the woods, we chanced on a pile of poo, of the Horse variety. What better for allotments? A neighbour keeps two horses in a paddock in the woods behind his house and the poo is beginning to escape the confines of his manure heaps. Free for the taking, but for the small matter of bagging it up, barrowing it through the holly bush and over the rickety bridge into the bottom of our garden. You think I'm making this up don't you?

The holly bush diversion is new, following a tree coming down in the Big Storm. The rickety bridge isn't very rickety but still challenging with a wheelbarrow full of poo. Why don't I just get a trailer load of manure delivered, like normal people, you may ask? Trouble is, the unstable back won't handle that amount of lifting, twisting, turning, tipping. It's actually easier to do it in smaller quantities, through the holly bush etc. Pictures in due course. Bet you can't wait?

Meeces tidy up too!

It hasn't taken them long to get to the 2nd Chocolate Orange. Through the box yesterday, now through the foil and half the choc has gone. Oh for a mouse cam.
















But look what they've done to my shed by way of thanks. How tidy is that?

















Sadly, tidy inside doesn't necessarily mean tidy outside!

Meeces clean up!


















As you can see they've left no trace of the Chocolate Orange but plenty of traces of themselves. There's another, still wrapped, Chocolate Orange next to the remnants. They've already started on the box. Let's see how long it takes them to get through the foil.

Of Mice and Spiders

At last I've found a way of disposing of the Terry's Chocolate Oranges I get in profusion at Xmas. I don't dislike them hugely, I just get a bit fed up of them, so take them to the allotment for an emergency sugar surge. Carelessly left one unwrapped last week and found it today, significantly smaller and with mousey teeth marks on it. Meeces, you're welcome!

Less welcome was the spider which had made a nest in my [allotment emergencies only, got to be pouring with rain before I wear it] cap. Big, nest, big spider, and of course only discovered when I put the cap on and it ran round the top of my head. Hey Ho.

Who nicked my Darwin Fish?








I bought one of these last week. A really neat and elegant statement of belief, from www.darwinfish.co.uk , and put it onto a nice clean car on Sunday. By Wednesday, GONE!!!!

And it had spent Monday & Tuesday in a secure car park. Unless evolution has speeded up dramatically (mutants?) and it's gone off for a nice walk by itself I have to conclude some toe-rag has nicked it.

Or has it been too provocative a statement for a passing Fundamentalist?