As the allotment starts to be transformed with the arrival of spring plants and flowers, rhubarb is the first new crop to appear on the plot, their young wrinkled leaves unfurling at a surprising rate.
A mass of shoots have emerged from the crowns beneath a heaped layer of well rotted manure that I tipped onto the bed in the autumn.
Tulips planted in the same bed are preparing to flower amongst the crimson stems and elsewhere I am happy to see that some of the daffodils have multiplied and will also soon be coming into flower.
The fox, freely meandering amongst a familiar trail of paths on the site, will again be compelled to relinquish the territory once busy allotment life returns over the coming months.
Now is the time to be thinking about seeds and crops to begin planting as soon as the frosts come to an end. I have bought three different varieties of seed potatoes to plant this year; Casablanca are a first early white potato, pink fur apple, that tend to do well on the plot, and British Queen, a Heritage variety raised in 1894, is another white potato that is good for mashing.
