Smoke signals

...the end of winter (that's the remains of the Christmas tree in the dustbin) and the start of a new growing season...nothing much showing today as yet at the plot, though I did manage to spot just one spring bulb shooting green through the ground....for the rest, a collection of rather sorry looking frost damaged leeks, some residual brussels, lots of hearty kale and a couple of stout looking cabbages....but even though it was damp and muddy, Im always very happy to be there. One of my local Big Issue vendors added to my store of gardening folk lore today when i was doing some food shopping on the way home, by telling me that in the Middle Ages, peasants planting potatoes would drop their trousers and sit on the ground and if it was not too cold to sit on, then they would plant the tatties....a sort of medieval proxy soil thermometer...cant quite see that happening at the allotments though, well not our allotments....