It’s spring. We have passed the vernal equinox, meteorological spring began on 1st March, it looks like spring, it feels like spring, and by golly it is spring. So imagine my annoyance, and yes I know that I sound like grumpy old ‘angry from Ashen’, when the very nice weather presenters on Radio 4 have kept referring to lots of lovely ‘spring-like’ weather in their forecasts in the past week. It makes my hackles rise. It’s not spring-like weather, it is spring weather….because it’s spring! I know that it’s not good for my blood pressure to get so upset about such daft things, but I can’t help it. And while I’m at it, neither do I like it when they finish up with “and that’s your weather for today”. Don’t pretend that it’s me that you are talking to, you don’t even know if I am listening. It’s the weather, I don’t need the presenter to by my friend….I already have one of those. Just keep it factual and formal. Thank you – if you happen to be reading this.

And what a fantastic week of spring weather we have had. Okay there was some mistiness about at times, and light frosts most mornings, but really it couldn’t have been much better. The ground has dried out nicely, and even the grass was dry enough by the afternoon to cut, and boy did it need cutting. In fact, had I not managed it last week I think that the mower would have struggled to cope with if left any longer. I set the blades to the highest setting, and this week I will go over it again with the deck set a couple of notches lower, just to try to keep some control over it. I did a bit of muck spreading, dug out some comfrey roots in areas where it really shouldn’t be growing. It’s the sort of invasive plant that regenerates from the smallest fragment of root left behind, and it grows into a huge beast of a thing, with a tap root that penetrates deep into the soil. Its leaves make a great potassium rich fertilisers for flowering plants, but it spreads like fury. For your leafy plants you should make a liquid feed from nettle leaves, particularly rich in nutrients (high in nitrogen) when picked at this time of the season. Wear sturdy gloves though, because the sting is brutal when the growth is young. I got zapped a couple of times during the week, and my hands tingled for days. If you do make either liquid fertiliser be sure to dilute it well, because both are very strong – a dilution rate of 10:1 at least.

We also know that it’s spring because by this time next week we will be on BST, so next Sunday the sun will not set until 7.25, but it will not rise before 6.40. And it will be Palm Sunday, heralding the start of Holy Week. Easter feels like it’s early this year, but it’s actually about mid-way between the earliest and latest days that it can fall on – 22nd March and 25th April. I still find it bizarre that a Christian festival is governed by when the first full moon occurs after the vernal equinox – seems quite pagan to me. I’m not religious, but I do like a hot cross bun 😉

There is not much change to what is available this week, though Celery makes a return. The purple sprouting broccoli is nice, as are the spring greens and  calabrese. Some of the root crops will begin to fizzle out soon, but there are lots of leeks for now, and still some parsnips. I hope that you enjoyed the wild garlic pesto – more of that this week. There are Blaze apples and Lane Late oranges, plus avocados and lemons.

I need to get some beds prepared this week for planting out, because I have young broad bean plants and cabbages that are about ready to transplant, well they will be after a bit more hardening off. It won’t be long before I start thinking about getting the potatoes in too. It’s all systems go from now, so working days will lengthen and there will be less time off, so good health and fitness would be handy.

I have my annual audit by the Soil Association in a couple of weeks. It’s always a slightly anxious time, though I do everything in accordance with the standards, so I shouldn’t really be concerned about non-compliance. The only area where I may be vulnerable is in record keeping, particularly harvest records. As a one-man operation I find it difficult to find the time to make a note of everything that I harvest, though I do for things like tomatoes, cucumbers and other high value crops. I will let you know how it went after the event.

Birds, bees, butterflies and bugs, they’re all about at the moment, and what a treat it is to observe them going about their business. I often sit in the greenhouse for my coffee break, and in the past week or two I have loved watching the industrious ants tirelessly going about their work while sipping my coffee and munching a snack – I even purposefully drop a crumb or two to see how they deal with them. You’ve just got to find time to observe, it’s all there.

Have a good week….keep your eyes peeled.

Phil