Tempus fugit...

These last few weeks have been very work busy and, more importantly, wet. Let's face it, digging is a bind at any time, and digging in the rain is one of the most unappealing pastimes I can imagine. Except perhaps wet-paint observing. Or poo tasting. Anyway, I digress...

Things are growing well at the vicar's garden: the potatoes look very happy; the broad beans are in flower; the second planting of peas are creeping up the netting; and there are lots and lots of blackcurrants on the bushes. The goosegogs are a disappointment, as once again they've been covered in mildew, in spite of our radical pruning. Rob's sprayed them with some stuff, but it doesn't seem to have made much difference so far. We'll keep trying. On Sunday, we planted out the spaghetti squash and the tomatoes, so the only major things left to plant are the sweetcorn and the squashes/courgettes. Julia's in charge of germination, so hopefully they're growing gently as we speak.

Plot 9, however, has been quite neglected in the post-rain fight to get the Vic's back on track. However, we spent a reasonable amount of time up there on Sunday and planted out globe artichokes and did some weeding. We also got accosted by one of the old boys who has the allotment opposite ours. The conversation went something like this:

Old Boy: There's something that's puzzling me
Me: Oh yes?
OB: Why have you put two trenches here, right in the middle of the allotment?
Me: That's for asparagus
OB: Well, yes, but you'll have to wait two years for that.
Me: We know that
OB: Why haven't you put it at the ends of the allotment? There's no sense putting it in the middle.
Me: Eurm, because we wanted to?
OB: But it doesn't make sense.
Me: All of this top bit is going to be permanent - fruit bushes and the like - so it doesn't matter that we won't get an asparagus harvest for a couple of years.
OB: Oh.

....and on, and on, and on. We apologise now for not posting a notice explaining exactly what we are planning to do, and justifying our reasons for putting the plants where we've chosen to put them. Had we realised quite the level of interrogation we'd have to endure, we'd have personally spoken to you, Mr Old Boy, before putting spade to earth. As it is, you'll just have to lump it.

Talking of spades, earth and lumps, the soil at the allotment seems beautiful - Rob's done most of the digging up there (planted so far: cabbages, purple sprouting, beetroots, turnips, asparagus pea) - but the spits I've turned over have been good crumbly stuff, with far fewer stones than the vicar's, so there's even chance for the carrots!