Globe artichokes take up a lot of space, and you don’t get much food from them. BUT what you do get is rather delicious: I love the smell of artichokes boiling in the kitchen. They have a mealy, earthy, aromatic tang that fills the whole house and makes me drool with hunger.

They are best consumed cooled, dipping each leaf in a mixture of melted butter, pepper and lemon juice.

Heaven on a plate.

Maybe I just got lucky; I notice that other folks’ plants haven’t fared so well.

I could take this lovely April weather as a sign of things to come, but I made that mistake last year (as did the UK meteorological office). I may even have done it the year before, too.

It’s always a mistake to predict the weather in Britain. This country is a graveyard of meteorologists’ ambitions – just think of poor old Michael Fish. Turns out he didn’t fuck up the hurricane forecast, but it will haunt him to the end of his days.

Best to assume it will all be shit. Usually is.

The artichoke flowers turned out nice, although I’ve left it a bit late for the photo. They were at their best a week or two ago.

I’ve been very lackadaisical at the plot of late. Hardly any progress on clearing up for next season, and time is ticking by.

Still, I have days off on Friday this week and next, and some serious allotment work is pencilled in. This time in a fortnight, I’ll be fully on top of it*.

* Editor’s note: This may well prove to be bollocks

I grew these from seed, and they’ve been surprisingly successful. They all got pretty big, and they’re obviously keen to form flowers.

I reckon next year I’ll get a great harvest. If the frosts don’t get ‘em, that is.

A bloody big ‘if’.

That’s not all. My new asparagus crowns have arrived. Which means I’ve GOT to get the bramble bed ready to receive them this weekend.

Which means I’ll need to get some compost. And dig it in. And pull out the remaining bramble roots. And perhaps make a movie about it. And… and…

* Nurse! The sedative! *