At the allotments, things are stirring at ground level. The weeds are making a comeback after a cold spell last month. It won’t take them long to get a foothold so this is a good time to get out there and dig a few up. I like to pull or dig them out and then rake the surface to level it (on beds not yet in use) and then come backa week later to pull up any new weeds before I sow my seeds. This is the ’stale seedbed’ method that helps to get those first weeds out of the way, in theory you are supposed to get fewer of them around your crops later on.

I think it gives the vegetable seedlings a slightly better chance to grow away with less competition early on, and it’s worth trying if you have time.

PS. The ladybirds are emerging too, I seem to see them on the soil a lot. Perhaps they have flown down to warm up, or maybe they hibernate in the loose bits of soil, I’m not really sure. Either way protect them, they will be useful on your broad beans in about a month’s time when the bugs get started.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Plants, The Allotment Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.