Winter and spring are just starting their handover process now. We’re getting sunny days and the ground isn’t too squidgy. Indoors seed catalogues have been perused and a plan exists for how the allotment will be in 2019. I’m giving it another week to clear from my mind a little before I go back for another look. Sometimes my mix of small and large beds is a nuisance for planning (especially large plants), but it makes them so much more manageable overall.

I went to the plot yesterday to make sure everything was ok. My knackered gate had come open, but everything else was fine. The shed’s still standing, all the plastic is still down, the compost bin is fine.

The first corner bed is coming to life. There are gladioli coming up and there’s couch grass coming up too, of course, doing its best to look similar. The clumps of lemon balm are fine for that deep corner, but I think two or three dahlias will go in here to help fill up the depth.

Lots of anemones are coming up over at the boundary. I daresay I’ll do more nasturtiums over there again, but they always seem to get going fairly late, so I’m still half looking for another, or an additional filler/climber.

Over by the elder there are new verbenas still standing and grape hyacinths and alliums are on their way up. Maybe this year I’ll get going on better coverage, or at least distortion of my fences.

A couple of the lemon balms in the front bed need their dead material cut off before the new stuff comes up much higher. I wonder if they’ve dropped lots of their seed now, leaving much less to leap into my eyes when I touch it.

This patch in front of the left water butt by my shed door still needs a better solution. Thistles and docks are coming up and while I want to keep foot access to the water butt, I’d like to get the soil covered with something to restrict the weeds. Maybe even thyme or aubretia.

I took a few photos of my two fruit trees in an effort to have an idea of their shape to study at home. Pruning time is coming up again and as hard as I try to apply what I’ve learned and read, it’s still difficult. The apple tree in particular doesn’t seem to match the usual shapes. I do not it needs taking back a bit though, as it’s huge compared to what I inherited.