Gardening Blog
Allotment Diary
March 24, 2009: patience will pay off
The animal kingdom is already busying itself with house-building and feeding, but, warns Terry Walton, you'd be well advised to hold your horses when it comes to sowing certain crops
This mad March weather continues unabated. These glorious sunny days of hazy warm sunshine are confusing my gardening brain into thinking it is early summer. But as always beware - those nights are a dead giveaway as the temperature plummets.
I was working away at the bottom of my plot when I caught this silent movement out of the corner of my eye. Much to my surprise, floating on the warm air was a red admiral butterfly. Its iridescent colours gleamed in the sunlight and it was a surprise to see one so early in the year.
Then soon after it was joined by the rotund prop forward of the insect kingdom, yes the bumble bee. Wearing his club colours of amber and yellow stripes he frantically flapped his tiny wings to keep afloat. These early emergent insects were desperately seeking a pollen source on which to feed.
More signs of the change of season were evident in my blackberry bushes. Here a pair of blackbirds was seeking twigs and dry grass as it was house-building time. No credit crunch in the housing market in the bird kingdom, house building is racing ahead. Yes, all these creatures are able to read the signs of nature far better than us!
There are also other strange stirrings down on the allotment. Five fine sunny days and the summer gardeners are back. They are the ones who only use their plot in the best of the seasons and are not tempted to come here in rain, hail and snow.
They come through the gate with all their tools gleaming and are soon hard at it on the plot. Ground is tumbling over, weeds are being destroyed and a frenzy of activity is everywhere.
We old hands, ever present on the plot, watch on as they beaver away for hours on end. We work a bit, rest a bit to complete our tasks at hand. There will be no aching limbs and muscles for us tomorrow but many of these will feel the outcome of their toil.
Gardening is all about pacing yourselves and it is a hobby, not a chore or race that has to be completed in the shortest time. It is there to be enjoyed. But there again we all in our time have carried out this high energy activity but have realised with the passage of time the folly of our ways.
They say that there is no substitute for experience and, as with all things, that comes with time.
This is the time of the year, when to adapt a quote of a recent prime minister, it is all about preparation, preparation, preparation. It is a good time to keep many of the sowings in the packet but to get the ground ready for the onslaught that occurs about early April.
The broad beans were hardy enough to go out in the soil last week but they will stand alone for a couple weeks before they are joined by the onion sets and the cabbage and lettuce plants that are still languishing in the greenhouse.
There is time enough yet for all things to happen and the season is long and hopefully bountiful. Sowing too early causes the seeds or plants distress and they will suffer. Wait until conditions are just right and they will grow on well and reward you for your patience.
More from Terry Walton
More on garden wildlife
- The bee
- The blackbird
- The orange-tip butterfly
- The comma butterfly
- Butterflies: where to see the symbols of summer flutter by
- Chat to other allotmenteers at Saga Zone
My Life On A Hillside Allotment
Terry Walton is a regular contributor to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 and has written a book called My Life on a Hillside Allotment, published by Bantam Press. The book is available from Amazon.
