At last the first signs of spring. Today the temperature reached 11degrees, so we took the opportunity to make a start on the allotment. A lot more work needs doing before we can even start thinking about putting in any seeds or plants, but at least it feels like we are moving in the right direction. A local farmer has kindly offered to come and plough the field for us, doing in less than an hour what would take us several days to do with a small rotavator. But before he comes we still have a bit more preparation of the plot to do before it is "tractor ready"
Dad pacing out and measuring our plot before the final bit of clearing.
We have made a start by planting up a few tender plants inside on windowsills, and these plants are now sprouting inside out of the cold, ready to plant out when the weather improves - and when the plot is ploughed and badger proofed. I have been researching badgers and allotments on the Internet, and the general consensus is that they are not too much of a problem. However, we lost a large ball of nylon string which we were using to mark up the plot. Searching for it today we followed the end tied to a marker post across the plot and down into a badger set. When we pulled on the string, it came up neatly chewed off
so a whole ball of bright yellow string is now deep inside the set. Badger proofing has now moved up in importance on our list of "to do".
Yakon
Our first plants are coming up inside in the warmth. The very first planting was Yakon, Smallanthus Sonchifolius, or Peruvian Ground Apple. These are apparently crisp sweet tasting roots from the Andes. They are supposed to taste like an Asian pear raw, and like the finest Jersey Royals when steamed. One plant can produce between 5-10 kilos of tubers. According to James Wong in his book Homegrown Revolution Yakon is rich in a complex sugar known as inulin, which despite its sweet flavour is not absorbed by the body, so it's a great food for diabetics and slimmers. James Wong was on Gardeners Question Time a few weeks ago promoting Yakon as the perfect alternative to the other more famous Andean tuber, the blight sensitive potato.
Our Yakon came from yakon.co.uk, 5 tubers for £12.50 including postage. They can be sown in pots on a sunny window sill in April, and planted out when they reach 30cm in height. Hopefully the badger fence will be up before then. We are planning to save a few tubers in the same way dahlias are stored overwinter to plant out next year.
The second thing we planted were Gardeners delight tomatoes - the seeds came free with a gardening magazine. They are now potted on and enjoying a sunny windowsill.
