Starting that fight against the winter

Last weekend, wow it seems so long ago, Andrew and I did our bit to help our minds focus on the spring. To focus on new life, brighter mornings and evenings and the memory of being out in the evening at the allotment.

It was bloomin' freezing down there, I had 4 layers on and still I was shivering, the wind more than anything cuts through you on our plots. Being a gentleman Andrew give me the shed to work in, he stayed outside and worked on the bench. What a man.

So we had 2 projects on the go.

1 - Andrew and his blubs in pots.

We have had loads of free-ish (we paid p&p) spring bulbs from a magazine sitting in our shed for a month or more now and it was decided we better bloody get some in soil or we'll never will. We had just been up to nursery and bought a lovely couple of pots so even though it was raining, blowing an arctic gale and quite dark (at 3 pm) we braved the lottie. I saw 2 other people down there, that just proves how hardy we Carrick folk are, haha.

Andrew did the layering technique in the big pot. Beautiful, closely packed bulbs on the bottom (it will be a surprise for me what comes up, I wasn't watching closely) and gorgeous cyclamen on top. Joy for now and some for later on, I love that in pots.

2 - Me and broad beans.

You see whilst Andrew was doing that I was planting broad beans (and turning round every now and then to first see if he had frozen to death and to take photos of what he was up to). I LOVE the sound and the feel of broad bean seeds. Lovely, that's the reason it took me so long to plant about 8 of them, I was in sensory heaven. I urge you to just spend time with your seeds, feel them in your hand, listen to them, give them a good looking at - they are astonishing things.

We choose 'Aquadluce Claudia' again for the third year running - they are prefect for our soil and taste so good. We always start some off in the cold frame at this time time of year so that when the season changes we can plant them out right away whilst plonking some other seeds in which will be a few weeks behind.