Episode #27 On the audacity of apricots

28 February - 16 March: Spring bulbs, more blossom and an important book.

It may be for fools this early in the year, but spring is definitely in the air now. The plot is awash with blossom on the stone fruit, and we have more broccoli than we can shake a colander at. Plus a shout-out to writer Olivia Laing.

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This post’s Plot Shot

In this episode, I’m celebrating the Annual Audacity of Apricots, in which our two apricot ‘Tomcot’ trees dare to blossom out on a scruffy allotment in Walthamstow. No growing against a warm kitchen garden brick wall for these superheroes, oh no. They’re out on open ground, in whatever weather comes their way.

Every spring we hold our breath as the bubbles of blossom buds wait for a sunny day to open - Ta Dah! - and evey year it feels as if this moment signals that spring has arrived. Of course, we then fret for days, hoping for more sun to coax pollinating insects to visit and anxiously watching the weather forecasts for possible frosts which would spoil the blossom and stop the fruit from setting.

(Technical note: there are usually a *lot* of photos in this post, and it might not all fit on your email. Hitting the View Entire Message button at the end should sort this out, as will reading via the app or online versions of Substack.)

Plot work in progress

While the apricots have all the action going on up in the air, down at ground level the new crocus bulbs we planted under the ’Discovery’ apple last autumn are putting on a good show. Here they are sunbathing.

Not to be out-done by the audacious apricots, the cherry plum (the plum that is very much not the ‘Victoria’ it was sold as) is putting on its usual display of white petals which fall like snowflakes all over the plot in the slightest breeze.

Harvesting now

On the crop front, it is all about the PSB¹. This is the first time we’ve managed to grow a successful crop of purple sprouting broccoli. All previous attempts have failed due to rampant slug damage or too-hot summers, and the plants have never made it to the sprouting stage. But this year, the plants are doing their purple sprouting thing faster than we can eat them.

Of course, being new to the PSB game, I wasn’t ready for the rapid resprouting - cut one box of purple sprouts and there are three times more in about a week. But they are all adding to the produce tally, after a slow start to the year².

Making and eating

No prizes then for guessing what we’ve ben cooking. The art school renegade in me couldn’t resist taking a photo of PSB in a purple colander.

I reckon we’ve added a new staple dish to the revolving house menu: PSB with orechiette pasta in a gorgonzola and cream sauce, a few chopped toasted hazelnuts for crunch and contrast with the cream.

I see more broccoli-based meals in our future, given how many sprouts the plants are pumping out. Any recipe ideas?

E17 Local Hero

The first spring sunshine must have gone to my head, as I saw that the paperback edition of Olivia Laing’s ‘The Garden Against Time’ had been published, and that there were special edition copies in a few independent bookshops. I hot-footed across London to snag some copies with this sprayed edge design to match the cover, then doubted my sanity a little.

Olivia Laing’s book is now my go-to present for any friends who wonder why I spend my time grappling with an allotment, fingernails caked in soil and out in all weathers doing what I can to make a small plot of ground in E17 useful and beautiful. (Yes, William Morris is in the book.)

But this isn’t a book about garden design or a practical guide to planting and harvesting. It is rather a book about how gardens connect deeply to our very human idea of paradise on earth, why gardening can be an act of rebellion, of regaining Eden, and how common land is vital as a place of shared purpose. Story short, a book bang on message for what our allotment gang are doing in our own small way. It feels important and urgent, which is why I wanted to include it here.

Community of Practice

The sunny days turned us all into mad mowers, passing the petrol lawnmower from plot to plot to get the common paths on everyone’s plots tidied up after the winter and mowing for friends who are away or not able to do the job themselves.

It is a rule on most allotments that the shared paths between plots need to be kept clear and mown by the tenants, even if the allotment association or the local council mows the main access paths across the site, and Allotment Officers are always on the look-out for path neglecters. Snippy letters get sent.

On our site, shared paths are supposed to be a minimum of three feet (roughly a metre) wide for accessibility. I try to maintain ours at four feet, so that I don’t have crops in the raised beds up against the path. My neighbours are all in the neglecter camp, less community-minded, so I end up pushing the mower round all four sides of the plot to keep us all tidy and legal. No snippy letters here.

Weekly Fox News

Our mowing has been supervised by the few fox boys who are out and about, defending their territories from each other. All the vixens are rarely seen, spending most of their time in dens expecting or nursing the year’s new cubs. Lovelly Leo is on patrol here, hoping for fresh chicken pieces to take back to his missus, Nellie.

Until next week, may your paths be neatly mown.

Ang

1. This week’s harvest, 650g of PSB, £3.90 per 300g on Ocado, total £7.80.

2. Plot tally for 2025 stands at £11.70 to date. Double figures at last!