Welcoming Spring at the Allotment

As a new gardening year starts, we’re accompanied by early birds and Howard prepares his hazel sticks.

With the arrival of spring, it’s time to create frameworks for our sweetpeas, peas, and climbing beans to grow up. Howard has secured a fine set of hazel sticks through his contacts in the spoon-carving scene.

He’s got robust, tall poles ready for the French beans (this year it’s the blue Blauhilde and a golden Italian type), and he’s also sourced some shorter, slimmer rods for the sweet peas and other blossoms (like the richly fragrant Spencer variety, which we source from Roger Parsons, a specialist). Then we’ll weave the trimmest twigs through these structures.

Read full article at The Guardian.