Mid-April Sunday morning, 8.30am, before breakfast. Howard and his terrier, Otto, are outside, waiting in the car. They have been away and we are meeting to sow flowers. The plot is tidy, pretty pristine, near ready now for spring.
I have cleared most of the overwintered greens. Faded chards and beets, home to colonies of ravaging snails, are pulled and carted away to the compost. The ragged Red Frills mustard is thriving, tall and beautiful so we will leave it alone. I’ll pick a few spiky, spicy leaves to take home.
I have been obsessing over large yellow sunflowers, grown here these past years in a small silent solidarity with Ukraine. First, I find Sunflower Giant which promises to grow to 2m tall, with 30cm flowers. But then I discover Titan from DT Brown (among other good suppliers) with a promise of blooms that can reach to 60cm across. I sow a few too many in the top corner where we will likely leave them for the birds.
Howard adds a couple of short rows of Sarah Raven’s Crimson Flowered broad beans, while I scatter tagetes, calendula and trailing nasturtiums around the edges of the allotment, as always. The snails have razed the new comfrey plants so we’ll try to protect them through their next few weeks.
Late April is one of my favourite times at the plot. The days are longer now, the soil so full of promise. Our closest neighbours are starting to return, the surrounding trees fill out, bluebells appear in the corners. The blackcap calls out welcome.
While Howard leaves to pick up his daughter, I mooch around, fiddling, tidying, sorting seeds for spring. Soaking it in. The sun is shining, the earth is slowly warming. The soil is pretty much ready. Our organic allotment year starts here.
But tell me, how does your garden grow?
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