For the birds

Hungry birds are becoming the bane of my allotment life. This week I'm going to stretch an old net curtain over the onions, shallots, peas and broadbeans now that some of these enterprising creatures have taken to their taste. Almost overnight they've pecked at the seedlings and helped themselves. My neighbours too have an array of impressive bird-control scaring devices; a cute pink scarecrow, tinker bells, toy windmills and a row of Tricolour flags. 

Birds, especially the Narraghmore crows, are smart creatures. Let's not underestimate them. I'm guessing they'll soon learn that scaring devices represent not real danger, so I'm going to improvise using a variety of devices and replacing or moving them around from time to time. Clearly this is one of the first signs of allotment madness!

How we have all grown

It's now five months since our first dig into the allotment at Castlefarm in Narraghmore and dare I say out loud things are going smoothly. 

These past weeks we have been planting in earnest, indeed a race against time to get seeds into the ground. 

On row one, 'The Traditional', we have potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic and herbs (borage and chives). Row two, 'The Experiment', we have broadbeans, French beans, peas, runner beans, chicory, radishes, rhubarb, sweetcorn and pumpkin. Next is 'The Unknown' row three, so far fennel, cabbage, turnip and a half row yet to be planted. And row four 'The mix' we have beetroot, carrots, leeks, spinach and a poly-tunnel, where I've started courgettes, tomatoes and have yet to source organic sweet pepper seeds. It's full steam ahead. 

Everyone on the allotments are sharing ideas and seeds; each proudly giving a tour of what they have planted, what's growing, what's not.

We are all nurturing the soil with Castlefarm's organic manure, caring for the seedlings, feeding them now with organic nutrients in turn hoping that they will feed us in the coming months. 

Back in February in the bucketing rain and freezing wind, we tilled the soil, the hardest part of the preparations. Then we got real and ordered a battery-operated rotavator that many of us used. Now in the past weeks, the plots are springing to life and we have faith that a good summer will yield a great harvest, fingerscrossed!