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!