A productive week. Not only did I mulch my asparagus but I also planted my first broad beans. I wasn't sure how many to put in, so I set up a mini cane pyramid and planted about ten beans round it. In about a month I'll do the same again. The pigeon netting is up; since I lack any form of DIY skill, I've used bent bamboo canes as a framework and piled earth around the edges of the net.. Unexpectedly it's actually stayed up and as a bonus appears to be keeping the pigeons out. I've dug over the potato plot, a piece of previously untouched soil, and while I haven't actually removed any of the weeds, I've loosened the soil into handy bite sized chunks in the vague hope that the frost will get in there and make my job easier. I have quite an area of grass to clear before March, at least 4m x 7m - my potato plot and my fruiting veg plot. Luckily it's mainly couch grass and seems to be light on the heavier stuff like dandelions and thistles.

The birds are hoovering their way through the sunflower seeds like they're going out of fashion. I'll need more of those and more peanuts for next weekend. From the amount that's being eaten I suspect I'm feeding every bird on the entire allotment site. Maybe they'll munch a few slugs while they're at it. On the plus side, I have a very sociable robin, send by some universal department of cliches, who comes to watch me digging from no more than a yard or two away. He has not yet perched on the handle of my fork but it's probably only a matter of time.

It was a fine, clear afternoon today and I was able to work until about 5pm. Although it's only January the first signs of spring are coming. The buds on the apple trees are lenthening and the garlic I planted last month is starting to appear through the soil. The purple sprouting broccoli is purple sprouting, and the gardening magazine are starting to go on about chitting seed potatoes (Apparently I need egg boxes. And seed potatoes.). What's more amazing is that I quite happily did two and a half hours' hard exercise today, and would have kept going if the light hadn't gone. I am really not an exercise person, as at least four lapsed gym memberships will testify, but I don't think I'll ever get bored of the allotment.

Planted: Broad Beans Aquadulce Claudia

Harvested: Nowt, although the leeks are coming along nicely

Drat that Pigeon

Weekends are the only time I really get at the allotment when the nights come this early. In the depths of December it was too dark to work by about half three. Now, on a good day, I can be working until half four or so, and every day there's a minute or so more light. Before I had an allotment I didn't appreciate, didn't really even register the long summer evenings. Now I look forward to the day when there's going to be enough light to head over after work during the week (that'll be March 29, British Summer Time fans).

At this time of year there's not much work to do - the soil is either frozen solid or what Jim on 15a calls 'claggy', which means that even looking at your allotment funny gets a pound or two of mud stuck to your boots. Still, time is running out and I'd like to get my potato and fruiting veg beds dug before sowing starts in March. I did manage to get a few fruit bushes in today (a gooseberry, redcurrant, blackcurrant, two loganberries and a blackberry, three for a tenner at Homebase), but the allotment was all but empty. Jim has shown me up by knocking together an impressive raised bed - he's told me where to get the cheapest timber and what nails to use, so my fruit bed will be next. Jim is by way of being my guru, supplier of kale and butternut squash and the font of all knowledge. He told me that he'd had an eye operation over Christmas, from which he'd recovered nicely, and also that my raspberries are planted too close together. Meanwhile, pigeons are decimating my purple sprouting broccoli and cauliflowers. The time has come to buy a net - a job for next weekend. I have no issues about feeding the small, cute birds, but I draw the line at these evil, honking winged hoovers.

Got the new Grow Your Own and Kitchen garden. One has an offer for ten quid's worth of Thompson and Morgan seeds for £1.99 - what you get is a lucky dip, I guess of whatever isn't selling. It might be worth a shot, although I'm already up to my ears in seeds, mostly packets of salad leaves from the aforementioned magazines. I'm not a huge salad fan, and my radishes have ended up as a sort of slug buffet in any case, so hopefully not more salad. The slugs are public enemy number one at the moment and as soon as the soil warms up I'm going to nematode 'em. Yeah!

And.... eight months or so later, the blog creaks into life. Sorry... I've been busy. The story so far... I've cleared about two thirds of the plot, acquired a shed for forty quid, started a mushroom farm, battled slugs and pigeons, planted a few battered looking cabbages, pruned my apple tree, 'acquired' several sackfuls of dead leaves from work and completely failed to start a proper compost heap. I have a stack of gardening magazines and seed catalogues a foot high. I also have a pair of flowery wellies which my friends bought me for christmas (the family completely ignored my requests for allotment related pressies... c'est la vie, but I did get a £30 argos voucher which should go some way to getting me a greenhouse, assuming they don't go bust before I've saved up the rest). The early nights and cold weather have put a huge crimp into the amount of time I can spend on the allotment. However I've planted raspberries, strawberries and asparagus, all of which are looking pretty miserable, and I'm about to head off and put in some fruit bushes. Wish me luck, gentle reader, the soil at the moment is either frozen solid or horribly boggy.