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# 1797The poached egg plants are back beneath the gooseberries :)

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# 1747Making a start on mulching the gooseberries with shop-brought organic soil improver.

# 1734.04Total Allotment Time: 30mins
Principle Tasks: Pruning 'Hedgehog' gooseberry. Starting removing old growth from border L-bed.

# 1734.03 How the 'hedgehog' looked after pruning.

# 1729The gooseberries are next on my list to be pruned.

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First Hoverfly 2009!

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# 1398But which one? I spent over an hour looking them up but with no luck. They were small, very, very furry and they loved the muscari!

# 1397Another first. One of the honesty plants (Lunaria annua) I've had growing overwinter in my backyard plastic fabric greenhouse, seen here positioned along the border herb and insect-attracting flower bed.

# 1396The rest of the 'Golden Gourmet' shallots about to planted out in veg bed 2 alongside those I got in on the 18th (I knew I had brought more of them!)

# 1395Looking hopeful. One of the two rows of garlic 'Vigor' in vb01. Nb. The trowel's there only as a height guide, not to dig them up.. yet!

# 1394The rhubarb's also looking good. Maybe though I should of been braver and tried forcing it for an earlier and sweeter crop?

# 1393A shrinking violet indeed. One of the purpled-leaved variety.. named Tim :)

# 1392I was a little worried that the stable manure that I put 12cm deep around the gooseberries on the 24th might still be a little 'strong'. As yet the 'Hedgehog' doesn't seem to mind too much. Finger's crossed!

Total Allotment Time: 3 hrs.
Principle Tasks: Planting out 3 honesty plants along the border L-bed. Planting 11 'Golden Gourmet' shallots in vb02. Continuing clearing away the old growth of the border L-bed onto the compost pit (Allowing any bugs therein the freedom to escape).

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24/03/09

# 1390# 1389A very sad sight indeed. My local farmer has decided to return his land to intensive arable use after almost 10 years of it being left fallow (Seeing as how his hopes for selling it off for housing have gone for the foreseeable future). Criminal, really. The foxes, rabbits and pheasants seen running for their lives thought likewise.

"Businessmen, they drink my wine, ploughmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth." Bob Dylan 1967.

# 1388# 1387Hmm.. not a great new view ahead of me either: A weather vane.. of a lorry cab!!

# 1386# 1385Potato 'Anya' (A salad type) in desperate need of planting into veg bed 03.

# 1384The grape hyacinths have really come on since Saturday.

# 1383The one positive surprise today. Someone has kindly attached a bird box to a limb of the whitebeam!

Total Allotment Time: 3 & 1/2 hrs
Principle Tasks: Planting out 12 potato 'Anya' into VB03. Mulching the gooseberries in VB04 with the recently arrived stable manure.

# 1382

19/02/09

# 1340# 1339The 'Guys Seedling' gooseberry before and after 'pruning' (I think I got a little carried away with it again).

Principle Task: Pruning gooseberries VB03

Total Allotment Time: 3/4 hr

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# 0627Total Allotment Time: 2 & 1/4hrs.
Principle Tasks: Moving the two gooseberry bushes I was given last year by my allotment neighbour who works at a local fruit nursery ('Hedgehog' and 'Guys Seedling') and planting out the additional 'Invicta' variety that I brought on the 4th of January from the now-closed garden centre. Planting out the Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea) and the Salad Burnet (Sanguisorba minor) that I brought the other day, into the perimeter L-bed. Plus, into the same bed, a small clump of snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) that I was also given.

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