First dig of spring

After uming and arring about re-starting the gardening I came home from work and started to dig.  (Al and I did start but quickly gave up because it was too cold/wet/hard work, but today it was too glorious not to).   One of the benefits of having a back garden as you mini-allotment is that I can work on it any time I wish to.

The garden itself has spent several years being ignored or used as a alternative for the local dump, this has meant that any work Al and I have done has taken almost twice as long; a bag is needed for the weeds, another for the excess soil and another for the rubble.    Given the time of year it feels as if we're up against the clock to sort the patch out before it gets too warm.   Last year was a bit of a rush but we did managed a small plot with successful  early potatoes, beetroot, courgette and parsnip we also unsuccessfully grew carrots and peas.   This year we're being adventurous and have decided to really go to town and grow as much as we can fit in!  Yes, we're the type of gardeners who throw the seeds in a hope that something happens because of this I count myself as a highly methodical gardener.

So to start the gardening off I've spent my time digging space for our home made cold frame, which will hopefully be used for growing melons, although I have to confess I have no idea how big or small melon vines grow so it might not be used to grow melons in.  By digging the space I also managed to create two huge bags of spare soil that needs to be dumped.   As an ironic birthday present, in January, I bought Al a gooseberry bush,  I say ironic because I hate gooseberries and his birthday is in August.  It has been living on our door stop ever since  and today it finally ended up in the garden.