Here comes the sun

It's said that jerusalem artichokes rarely flower in the UK, so I'm pleased to report that evidence to the contrary is above. They're lovely yellow sunflower-like blooms (which give a good clue as to which plant family they belong to) but are unfortunately so high up that only the birds are really getting to enjoy them; I had to jump up and pull this one down to get a photograph.

Today was a hive of activity on the allotment: Peter and I cleared all the old tomato plants out of the polytunnel, dug over the ground and added some organic matter from the hot bed, while David and Paul were on a manure mission with a spade, bucket and wheelbarrow in the nearby field, which conveniently has some horses grazing in it at the moment who were happy to oblige.

We also managed to weed around the base of the hop vines in preparation for creating a trench to fill with manure and compost when the plants are cut down for the winter, and bluebell, snowdrop and crocus bulbs are now buried under the ash tree at the shady end of the allotment. Peter thought the idea of throwing the bulbs over your shoulder to create a more natural looking display was quite mad, and decided a more sane option was to weed instead.


I promised earlier in the week that I'd explain more about the sheep fleeces: the spring cabbage above, like all our other brassica plants, is tucked in with a blanket of Suffolk Down sheep fleece, kindly donated by Bill Quay Farm in Gateshead. I know of a smallholder in Weardale who uses fleece to protect her plants in the winter, so I thought I'd give it a try, and it seems to have the added bonus (although I hate to speak too soon) of deterring slugs and snails, as they don't appear to like the texture.

We also had a few visitors from Gateshead Council today - it was great to have Michelle from the social enterprise team come and see for herself what I've been going on about all these months, and also two unexpected visitors dropped by with some hopefully encouraging news about clearing up the land outside, so we'll wait and see how that pans out.