A week may be a long time in politics. It’s even longer on the allotment.

About ten days ago it was cold, I mean really cold, there was a north easterly wind coming over the south downs, that would cut you in half, walking into it would give you an ice-cream headache in a matter of minutes. Any thought of going to the allotment was quickly dismissed as sheer folly. I’d been on the plot a few days earlier and found it to be a desolate place. The scene was much as it had been towards the end of November. No signs of the gardening year ahead, just f few leeks and Brussells stems survived the winter.  On the few occasions I did venture on to plot, I busied myself with non-gardening jobs that needed to be done. Clearing the bee plot, sorting and burning rubbish, siting my cold frame.

In view of the freezing conditions I decided to get on with a job closer to home. A new chicken run was needed, that seemed a productive use of my time, so I got on with it. My garden fish pond had developed a leek so clearing and re-building that was another project to take up my time.

On Saturday the weather had made a substantial improvement, the chicken run was complete, I returned to the plot. What I found was a significantly different scene to that I had left only a week earlier. Ground had been cleared, earth had been tilled. One couple had cleared their ground, collected manure from a nearby stables and made pleasantly aromatic heaps at various points. On Monday I went back again, and found that Eddy, an allotmenteer of 14 years experience (and he started when he was seventy), had actually planted his potatoes, and was busy putting onion sets in the ground.

So why is all this so worthy of note. Up until the end of the cold snap, I was confident that I was ahead of the game. My plot was tidy, the non gardening jobs wre just about complete,I felt ready for the coming of spring. I left the plot for a week, and bingo. I find that my fellow plot holders have made even better use of the time, and left me trailing in their wake. I now feel somewhat humbled. Just goes to show. Take your eye off the weather for the very briefest of time and the world will leave you behind. A week is a long time on the plot if your not there to make full use of every oppertunity to make progress.

Things go from bad to worse. The inclement weather has returned the ground is so sodden I don’t stand a chance of getting those seed potatoes in the ground for at least another week.

Hay ho.