Saturday

I'm up earlier again today.  So much for sleeping until five!!
It's still dark outside but it looks dry and it doesn't feel all that chilly so fingers crossed.  Annoyingly, light showers are forecast for this morning but that might not happen - I hope not.

I didn't do anything wildly exciting yesterday in the end  What I did do was refresh the allotment related shopping list that Beth and I made on Tuesday and drive over to Wyvale with it.  Allotments are a frugal thing, but there are always some associated expenses, especially for fairly ignorant gardeners like me.

So - off to Wyvale I went.  First of all I wandered around the outside area, making a few notes of what they had.  I'm still umming and ahing about a gooseberry bush but they had a very poor selection.  They did have some lovely primulas and some oxslips so, as I've lost my cowslips (very careless of me), I bought three plants and they are now filling a few gaps in that front strip.  I'm doing my best to fill that patch with perennials so that they come up year after year with minimal effort on my part and they fit that bill nicely.

Then I went indoors and bought seed potatoes, sticking to our favourites, Maris Piper and Charlottes.  Not very interesting, I know, but our space is limited so we get what we know we like.  I bought some seeds - baby corn, runner beans, cress (for the window ledge), mange tout and tomato.  I got my favourite and reliable sungolds and I already have some gardener's delight which I've never grown, although I know they are great favourites.  Like last year, I couldn't find any yellow courgette seeds so will have to look around.

I've been umming and ahing about a bird table for a little while; if I was a wood worker, I could knock one up, but I'm not.  However, in Wyvale they had a rather twee but quite attractive hanging feeder so I got that - call it an early birthday present to myself or even a reward for being a Good Girl with my food - as well as one of the usual cylindrical feeders.  They are now both hanging out (one has seeds and one has peanuts) but I guess it will take a while for the birds to start using them.  Fingers crossed!

On reflection, it is daft to start growing soft fruit and attracting the birds in but that's what the fruit cages will be for!  I want it all!

Once home, I sorted out the shopping and laid out the seed spuds in two trays and I even remembered to label each tray!  Over the next week or so, I will sow my other seeds, keeping them inside for a number of weeks because I am sure we have a few frosts to come yet.

It was a beautifully sunny afternoon so I pottered around, enjoying the sunshine and doing little things.  I stitched quite a lot more of my cross stitch project and generally took life easy.

Today I am meeting Beth at the allotment so tomorrow I will be whinging and whining about aches and pains, I expect.  I don't think I will take the mower today, the grass might still be a bit damp, but maybe tomorrow or Monday I'll get the grass short again.  I'm hoping we can clear some residual junk and get the asparagus area ready and the little plants in.  I'd also like to sort out the bit at the back where the raspberry canes will go.  Realistically, that's probably all we will get done today but next week I will try to go every day for a couple of hours (weather permitting).

In the afternoon I have ironing and more bits and bobs to do in the garden.  I think it's going to be a productive and pleasant day really and I hope yours is too.