this is an excerpt from my journal on www.englishrosegarden.co.uk

Despite the showery weather we have been able to spend a couple of evenings up at the allotment. The path is perfectly straight in a hazy rough old country way. I still need a plank of wood though to finish the last five feet but I am sure that a piece will turn up in time.

Having done all the donkey work I have now been told by my dear wife that the allotment is no longer ‘mine’ but ‘ours’! She has been up there this week and admittedly done an excellent job of raking the soil to a fine tilth until it looks as smooth as a billiard table.

The recent rain has moistened the soil and made it easier to work. Some of the weeds that I buried with the top soil have poked their green noses above the surface but I hope that by persistent hoeing they will die off.

Five stout hazel poles have been lashed together with twine to make a sturdy tepee for the runner beans to be sown later. In the meantime a crop of radishes can be popped in the middle to fill in the space.

My wife and I have rather different approaches to gardening. I tend to throw seeds around with poetic abandon: where they land is where they grow. Straight lines do not feature much in my world of geometry. She, on the other hand, likes to have plans, diagrams, spreadsheets and crop rotation schemes. I leave things where they fall and she likes to keep things tidy and shipshape. Oh, what fun we shall have!

But we have put our differences aside and sown various seeds which include: radish, parsnip, carrot, beetroot, turnip, spinach, various types of salad and shallots. Each row has been marked on either end with a hedgerow stick and a white, plastic, plant label inscribed with the name of the crop.

We wait with eager anticipation for the first of the seedlings to emerge!