Lots of potting on this morning – zinnias, pumpkins, JBL and the non-great tomatoes. This year’s tomatoes are bigger than last year’s runts at this point. Maybe they’ll make it after the shock I gave them? Everything had a feed with seaweed to buoy them up.

The cucumbers are doing very well, with two smaller ones being kept as backups. I might just get some cucumbers this year, assuming the slugs don’t get the plants as soon as they’re planted out.

I’ve got lots of beans, sweetcorn, leeks and nasturtiums in the grow house, growing slowly in cooler conditions. So far, this plan has been working. I’ve just brought them in on chilly nights, but at 8ºC or so, they stay outside.

There’s still not much I can do at the allotment with it being so wet underfoot. The wet ground was good for one thing though: getting dandelions and buttercups out of the lawn. I need to get my own dandelion fork.

The apple tree is waking up and I’ve weeded underneath it. I need to get some more wood chip, as it’s decayed enough that a lot has disappeared, revealing the plastic.

I’ve cleaned up one of the pots by the shed and put a little foxglove and a few poppies in it. The other pot seems a similar tidy up. The end of the bed to the left had become completely overgrown, so I weeded it as best I could, turning it over to make a greater surface area to dry off. A zinnia could go here, next to the veronica.

The Christmas bug hotel has now been mounted to the back of the left fence with wire wound through the chicken wire. The robin was soon there to serenade the new addition.

I’ve moved some cornflowers into the trellis and front beds. They’ve all formed quite a fibrous net of roots in Bed 7, so the sooner I can get them all out, the better. Unfortunately it’s still too wet on the left hand side to do anything about making space over there.

The onions have started to grow and the first barely visible carrots, beetroot and chard have arrived.

I’ve added a final compost layer to beds 5 and 10 and scattered coffee on the compost heap and any other open beds where there was room. I’ve only got a couple more beds to bring up now. Next year I shouldn’t need to add as much. I also hope I’ll have a bit of leaf mould too. J’s leaves are still mostly in their bags, rather than the bin, but they’re rotting down just as well.

My bed full of bulbs is looking good. Last year’s tulips have multiplied and the new doubles have started to open.

The pear tree has started to bloom. It’s going to have far more flower than the apple tree will this year.

The first round of indoor seedlings are doing ok, but the zinnias are getting a bit leggy and the cucumbers are big enough that they could do with a bit more space. So I’ve potted everything on except for the tomatoes, which are still quite slow – and I know will be fine with being buried low later on anyway.

The tomatoes and cucumbers are going to remain indoors – I won’t know for weeks whether the first round of tomatoes have been stunted by their day outside early on.

The currant is doing very well. Slightly bent, but things never grow straight for me. It’ll most likely go into the centre of Bed 3 when it’s more obvious where all the bulbs have come up.

In the morning I sowed:

• Runner beans x 16
• French beans x 5
• Leeks x 20 (18 needed)
• Sweetcorn x 12
• Resowed zinnias x 3

We don’t have huge amounts of sunshine coming, but we have daytime temperatures of around 12ºC, so I’m going to try keeping these trays in the grow house with lids on. If it’s going to be cold overnight, they’ll have to come indoors.

In the afternoon I found that the tulips have started to open at the plot. I should try and get down during the week to see them open better. The red and yellow ones are new.

The helianthus has started to appear.

The plot was mostly underwater again so – aside from spending a very long time playing with the robin, who now takes mealworms from my hand – I weeded all down the right hand side again. The bittercress and grass had worked its way back in and I filled about ¾ of a bucket. I wish the water would recede again, as it’s the left hand side that really needs my attention. The couch grass has to go and my cornflowers need to be moved into place.

The leaf bin has been stirred up and the drier top layer has been removed in favour of J’s somewhat slimy leaves. They’ve been mixed in and as everything compresses again, I’ll add the oak leaves back. I probably won’t up end the leaf bin until next year.

I’ve spread two sacks of manure on Bed 1 and Bed 10. It needed a bit of breaking up and I’m going to leave the beds open for now. I can always recover them if weeds start. Bed 1 needs a straw covering too at some point.

Bed 2 has had a sprinkling of phosphorous and a bag of compost. The low beds are being brought up more generously this year. In a year or two, I won’t always need to add as much new material.

I’ve sown half a row of chard, left a line for beetroot and/or carrot and left half a bed of space for French beans, which I hope I might do better this year if I actually tend to the plants more.

In the afternoon I did and level 3  then 2 mow all around. It needs some more aggressive edging, as I’m still left with the paths climbing the sides of the path and I don’t want that to get away from me. There are also some worm cast mounds and weeds that have appeared over winter that I need to sort out.

I’ve sown half row of carrot and and half a row of beetroot in Bed 10. New kinds this year: Maestro carrots and Moneta beetroot, which is a monogerm. The seed looks quite a bit flatter than Boltardy.

The goldfinches returned today, making a lot of fuss at each other at the top of the tree. The robin was following me around and hanging about in front of the shed to summon me. He took mealworms from my shoe and later took them from my hand a couple of times. I hope to get that on record next time. And if I could find a way to do it without being folded in half, that would be good too.

Easter weekend and time for gardening. I’ve sown:

• 4 x pumpkin
• 4 x JBL
• 6 x nasturtium

The pumpkins are indoors, but the nasturtiums are in the grow house in an effort to get them to grow slowly. It was a nice day, so i put my tray of seedlings outside from the office, but I think I overdid it and the little tomato seedlings look poorly now. I think I do this every year, putting things outside too soon, so I’ll resow the tomatoes to get backups underway.

Lots of errands were done at the allotment. We delivered a sack of grass cuttings to the compost heap, returned some plastic rolls, uncovered Bed 2. Terry and Rourke carried 4 sacks of manure and 6 bags of compost from the car and put them where they need to be for work on Sunday and Monday.

I strimmed all the edges, making the place look so much better. Bed 3 is looking very hopeful – lots of new tulips have arrived and the first signs of irises have come up. The apple tree has the first little signs of growth now too.

I’ve sown a new lettuce mix at home. I’ve covered the top with vermiculite and so far it seems to be keeping the birds off!

It’s been raining a lot, and so parts of my plot were squidgy and others were underwater.

I uncovered Beds 4 and 10, raked them over, added phosphorous and then topped with a layer of new compost.

I’ve planted 48 onions in Bed 4. One was mouldy, one was small and caused an odd number, so I threw them onto the compost bin.

I realised on the way out that Plum Corner is far too full of lemon balm, so a bunch of that needs to come out and a number of cornflowers could fill the gaps. One of the cornflowers in Bed 7 has a bud, so I really need to do something with them.

Since things are starting to grow now, I’ve sprinkled grass seed in the emptiest areas. Some of those are covered by my walking blocks, so those can protect the seed quite nicely.

It’s been raining a lot recently, but it was clear this afternoon and the wind had died down a bit, so I was able to get down to the plot and do some weeding. Plum Corner was quite muddy but I made a good first pass at it. A bit more lemon balm needs to be removed and some nettles. I shall probably have room for a couple of cornflowers when the soil is drier.

The soil was better drained in the front bed and I got out lots of a broad-leaved weed and grass. One lupin has a rotten side and was being taken over by a lemon balm, so it’s a bit smaller than other specimens. Hopefully it might catch up a bit with some more room to breathe.

I’ve propped up the pear tree a bit, as it still insists on leaning and getting caught in the fence. Maybe it’ll stand up for a minute before it overpowers the prop. Similarly, I’ve added a third wooden prop to the saggiest fence post in the trellis bed. That’s stood it up quite well, but it could really do with a guy rope the other side.

To help the elder and apple tree out a bit, I’ve thrown a few handfuls of chicken pellets underneath them. Tonight’s rain can water that it.

First seeds of the season have been sown:

• 6 x Giant Double zinnia
• 6 x La Diva cucumbers
• 6 x Red Alert tomatoes

Absolute failures last year, so let’s see how we do this year. The tomato and cucumber seed is fresh, while the zinnias were bought last year and have multiple resows written on the packet.

I’ve used vermiculite for the first time: 1 part vermiculite to 4 parts compost.