Urban Fox: Daffodils are in bloom

Apr 6 2009 By Elspeth Scott

The daffodils are now in full bloom, adding their radiant colour and shoots from other bulbs are starting to appear here and there.

As the weather warms up and plants start to grow, refreshing shades of green begin to predominate again at the allotment site.

This will become a rapidly changing scene over the coming weeks and already weeds have promptly begun their advance and the grassy areas, prior to a first mowing, are growing swiftly upwards in uneven rounded tufts around the plots.

The daffodils are now in full bloom, adding their radiant colour and shoots from other bulbs are starting to appear here and there.

It felt too early in the season to find a bumblebee out collecting pollen, with few open flowers and the apple blossom still only in early bud. A butterfly hovered briefly on a pile of twigs in the sunshine and the newts have returned to the pond, barely visible amongst the pondweed in the shallow murky water.

Beneath an end of carpet, used to protect the taps during winter, I came across what looked like a large moth larva. Some time ago a Hawk-moth caterpillar was found on an adjacent plot. This was a remarkable sight since these larvae are very large, strikingly colourful and have a horn at their rear end.

Three autumn fruiting raspberries are now planted up in a new raised bed and the other remaining beds are almost ready to begin sowing with seeds. This year I have chosen to grow Pink Fur Apple, a tasty salad potato, and Kestrel, which are good for all cooking purposes.

These will go into a bed with soil which is not too heavy and has had plenty of compost and manure dug into it.