A quick visit to the allotment

Before the snow arrived last week and as my fractured ankle was recovering enough for me to walk outside, we decided to pop down to Plot 8 for a quick visit. The intention was to take some bags of kitchen peelings to put on the compost heap and bring back some egg boxes which were being stored in the shed so that I could start chitting the seed potatoes.

Over recent weeks since I injured my ankle I haven't felt any interest in the allotment knowing how slippery the paths can get down there with mud, but once the sun started to shine I started to feel the urge to get down there and see how it was looking even though I wouldn't be able to do much work.

There's only leeks, kale and garlic in the ground now. There's a big bed of leeks, but they are not growing well this year, I think we will be having baby leeks to eat rather than a chunky leek and cheese bake. The kale looks to be getting to the end now, although it does sometimes perk up in the spring. I picked a few leaves to make crispy kale to go with our tea. The garlic was planted in November and is growing well. I was pleased to see lots of  rhubarb was poking through the soil, its pink shoots showing some welcome colour. More welcome colour was appearing in the woodland garden at the top of the plot in the form of spring bulbs.

After wandering round the plot seeing how everything was doing I felt I wanted to do some work, but I can't move around too quickly at the moment. I decided to give the pond a bit of a clean out, it was covered in pond weed and dead leaves. It will only be a few weeks now when the frogs return and it will be full of spawn so I wanted to make sure it was all ready for them. I continued tidying up around the pond in the bog garden, weeding and cutting the plants back. They grow really well in this little garden and as we have a lot of damp soil in our new garden at home I thought I would split some of these plants up so I could take some home with me. Richard came to the rescue here as any work which involves the use of a spade at the moment is beyond the capabilities of my poor ankle. I brought back home two Marsh Marigold plants, a water forget-me-not and a big clump of a golden grass whose name I have forgotten, but which grows really well in damp soil.

Whilst I was working on the pond and bog garden I felt I was being watched and I looked up to see a fluffy little bird staring down at me from the top of the water butt. I don't know what sort of bird it was, I could see a little bit of yellow around its neck and on its wing. I thought it was a bit early for baby birds yet, but it did look like a baby bird because of its fluffiness. It stayed there for ages and didn't seem frightened of me even when I got close up to take a photo. I wondered if it was injured, but it flew off after a while without any problem.

Back home the potatoes have now been set out in the egg boxes in a spare bedroom. That was a good bit of useful work done considering we only intended to spend a few minutes down at the plot.