Baby Robins and a visit from our neighbours

Sunday 26th April
Our neighbours, Jo and Grahame have asked if they can come along to see the allotment. It was a lovely evening so they came along today with daughter Lauren and boyfriend Kev, who are keen gardeners. It's great to be able to share our enthusuiasm with our friends. We proudly showed them round. It's amazing just how much we have growing already. The strawberries and blueberries are flowering and the gooseberries already have little berries on. I love gooseberries and have never had any success growing them before. The beet seeds are all through and the broad beans are beginning to flower. Also, the early potatoes are showing and are nearly ready for 'earthing up'. Jo was especially impressed to see the asparagus growing. There was great excitement though when we peeked behind the pallet and found that the baby robins are all surviving. We were thrilled to see four greedy beaks opening in the hope of being fed.

Kev is keen to come and give a hand on the plot, so he is going to dig over the last remaining piece of ground and grow some veggies himself.

Of course we all sat and had a cuppa in the sunshine before they had to leave, taking with them the inevitable bunch of asparagus. Peter and I stayed on for a while and worked in the warm evening sunshine. Peter burned last week's hedge trimmings and weed killed the last corner of the plot, so that the weed killer can get to work over the next week. I weeded some more of the asparagus bed. The bindweed is beginning to return on the patch where I'd already weeded. It's a bit like painting the Forth Bridge - when you finish at one end you just start at the beginning again.

On the way home we saw John and Jenny who have just returned from holiday. They were dismayed at the number of weeds which have sprung up while they were away. We swapped veg - they gave us some sprouting broccoli and we gave them some asparagus.