potato planting

Spent some very happy hours on the allotment this weekend--the first time I've been able to get up there this year. I'd hoped to start preparing the ground last weekend but it was still too wet. The soil's Oxford clay, which takes a long time to dry out--and to warm up.

Mostly the ground was pretty easy to fork through, having been dug over last autumn. The severe winter really broke down the clods.

For years we've been cleaning what was a very overgrown plot and this weekend I felt that all that hard work was paying off--not much couch or bindweed about, save for near the paths. The bindweed will come up from deep down, of course, but the topsoil if free of it. People who've had plots for years say we'll never eradicate it.

This afternoon I planted our first rows of spuds, using an amazingly useful potato dibber that was given to us by our friend Carol. It belonged to her father and I've never come across another one (see pics above). Planted Estima and Kestrel. Will plant Cara and Charlotte next weekend, weather permitting.