It is another glorious morning. There has been a sharp frost in the night but the only sign of it now is a few patches of glittering white on the roofs. I know that when I meet one of our neighbours our greeting will include a comment about the weather. Oh what it is to live in England! But, add to the equation an owner of an allotment, or veg grower and then you have double the reason to talk about the weather. Not just because it’s polite, but because it is near on vital to know what the weather has done/is doing/ is going to do if you want to make the best of growing your own.

Personally, I have never been one for weather watching unlike my husband, Thomas who was brought up on ‘the weather’. I’ve bought him outdoor thermometers for Christmas and if you want to know what the forecast is on any one of several websites, just ask him. But now, as a grower of fruit and veg I have a little more interest.

So, after discussions with Nick I took the plunge a couple of weeks ago and planted two lines of Anya potatoes. He said that they are vulnerable to frost so I will keep an eye out for them coming up so I can cover them with fleece. We had already put manure on that part of the allotment and I finished the planting with a dressing of fish blood and bone. I had meant to rake it in first but I forgot.

 Talking of manure and fertilizer, it is still a topic of much confusion to me. What am I supposed to put on what bed and when? What plants like manure? Can you put manure on in the spring? Will the plants die if I do? What fertilizer should I use and when? What is and isn’t organic? Oh, the agony. Last year I threw on the odd handful of chicken manure here and there on the beds but it was all about luck rather than judgement. This year, I have taken note that most of the gardening books we have talk about ‘raking in a general fertilizer’ either when planting or a few weeks before. Therefore, I have bought a box of fish blood and bone and will throw that on randomly instead!

Finally, last week Thomas installed our raspberries. We have covered all bases with five plants each of early, mid, late summer and autumn fruiting raspberries: Glen Moy, Malling Jewel, Malling Leo or General (there is some disagreement between Thomas and I what we actually bought. I think the second label on the ‘Malling Leo’ which says ‘General’ actually means ‘general information’!) and Autumn Gold. We copied Hilary’s set up and put them in two lines, 5-6 foot apart and put down weed suppressing membrane in between. I was really pleased with our two straight lines of nicely ordered raspberries until that is, I arrived at the allotment this week to find Stuart and Lindsey had planted their new Malling Minerva raspberry canes (see photo).  I love the idea of planting raspberries in a wigwam but I’m going to have to settle for growing our runner beans like that instead.  

Stuart with his new wigwam of raspberries