Time to 'cast a clout'

With a distinctly warmer feel to the air, it's tempting to 'cast a clout' as the old English saying goes, but I think it may be a little premature, as the 'May' in this phrase refers to the blossom on the hawthorn, which isn't in evidence yet. Clout, I've just discovered, is an old term for clothes, but even so I have always known it means to not throw your winter woolies to the back of the cupboard too hastily...

With the sun shining, Peter and I managed to weed part of the soon-to-be brassica bed (the plan is to put green manure on part of it as ground cover, before we plant out the winter brassicas later in the summer) and also transplant some of the cauliflowers, broccoli and brussels sprout in the polytunnel.


The school's little flower bed is looking fantastic, with the tulip bulbs I got for about £1 putting on a really good show. One of the children at yesterday's Greenfingers club (who planted them last autumn) asked how they'd got there. He really didn't quite believe me that something so fantastic could come out of a boring looking bulb all those months later.

It was an afternoon of mulches yesterday with the children - seaweed on the asparagus (much holding of noses and squealing), sawdust around the raspberries, newspaper on the potato bed (soon to be weighted down with grass cuttings), and a good dose of manure on the leek trench.


Yesterday morning I stopped by Whickham Community Garden (unfortunately they don't seem to have a website at the moment, but when they do I'll post up a link) which was a real inspiration. It's been going for about seven years now, and the man behind it all, Dave, has all the passion and utter madness I see in myself. We hope to link up and do some activities together in the future, which is something to look forward to as we're very different types of garden but with the same purpose: to get people out there enjoying gardening.

The rest of this afternoon I roped Alan into shifting some slabs around the allotment, so he'll probably never 'drop by' again. We've now got a good, recycled path up the side of the Greenfingers bed, where we're planning on planting some creeping thyme or similar inbetween the slabs and bricks.

I also cleared out the polytunnel, made edging for the border soil, planted out some of the lettuces, and had a general sweep around the allotment making sure it looked at least almost presentable for the BBC's visit on Sunday.

Naturally, they couldn't have picked a worse time for visiting an allotment in the North East as the over-wintering stuff has all gone and it's too soon to see much happening for the new season (especially as it's been so wet) but I hope it will look ok all the same. The programme is about the problem of waiting lists for allotments, and if I don't make a complete fool of myself, I'll post a link to the programme at the weekend.