Late May

The first half of May often felt colder than it should, with things growing slowly as a result. Then we had rain and a boost of warmth, and it has put a rocket under all the plants. This last week has seen unusually high temperatures for May. There is a lushness and with it comes the feeling that there are too many gardening jobs to do in the time available. We are now at the stage in the year when leaving things for a week means significant growth in weeds and grassy paths. The woad is in flower, which is much loved by insects and this year it’s in amongst brassicas, which are also now in flower. So, there is a riot of yellows in that part of the plot. The last few pickings of purple sprouting broccoli are being made, while broad beans are looking happy further along the same bed.

I spent a morning sorting through materials and weeding some of the growing beds. A neighbour enthusiastically gives me a load of dandelion stems at this time of year. It’s a great gift (for me – I understand not everyone would feel this way). They are picked and gathered together in a bag, which means I then need to sort through them, picking out the ones that are broken or too small to bother with, as well as removing closed flower heads still attached – I usually remove these as I pick, or ideally choose the ones that have already gone to seed and shed their clocks. The stems are now sorted and laid out to dry, alongside others I picked myself in the last few weeks.

I am often asked how to dry dandelion stems. All I do is lay them out on a covered wide shelf at the allotment, where there is plenty of air flow. I turn them every so often and eventually, when they’ve shrunk in size and shifted from fresh green to golden browns, they will get moved into the shed. Here they will still have plenty of air around them. At some point, when I am happy they are completely dry, I will put them into paper bags and take them home to store on open shelves in the studio. I haven’t made new work with dandelions during the last year (my focus has been mostly on flax), so I still have plenty of stems stored and ready for when I do want to work with them.

The dandelions are now giving way to buttercups – more yellows. Nettles are suddenly growing fast and will soon be ready for me to start stripping the fibre. Bindweed is also developing at pace and soon I’ll need to start gathering stems to stop them taking over where I don’t want them. The flax I sowed a few weeks ago is now starting to put on a little growth. I expect it to grow fast in the current warmth. But there have been deer visiting the plot and their hoof marks are all over the beds that have been recently cleared for sowing. In fact, I met a roe deer yesterday when I was preparing to strim the paths. It was hanging out under the lovely shady, seclusion of my apple trees and didn’t move until I came quite close. It then pottered off across my beds and onto neighbouring plots.

I’ve put some sticks round the flax patch to hopefully deter them from trampling it further. It may not be enough, but I hope it might keep them off this particular bed. In the nine years I’ve had this plot, I have only once seen deer here before this week, but their activity has clearly increased recently. I always net the soft fruit and brassicas, against birds mainly. Some of the remaining chard from last year has been munched, which is not a big problem, but makes me feel I might need to protect some of my crops more going forward. If I was a deer, then an allotment site would be a very attractive prospect – they can wander from plot to plot helping themselves to whatever they fancy.

So far, the tomatoes and chilli plants in the new poly-tunnel are happy and the temperature in there is significantly higher than outside. I’ve left the door wide open this week with this heat. I’ve been drying off daffodil leaves in the small greenhouse. These are leaves I gathered when they were starting to die down a couple of weeks ago. They have significantly reduced in volume and are just losing any remaining green to dry golden lengths. As with the dandelions, these will be moved to the shed for final drying and then eventually to my home studio.

I was visited recently at the plot by journalist Sally Cliffird and then by a photographer for the Yorkshire Post Magazine. We chatted about how I use my allotment to source my materials and how my practice has shifted to accommodate the unconventional materials and processes I use. The result was a lovely article in the Yorkshire Post Saturday magazine. It’s also available to read online here.

Currently on the loom at home is a new woven flax piece I’m making for the next exhibition at Jaggedart, London. This begins on 8^th June. I also have work showing in Yorkshire from 6^th June in Costing the Earth at South Square Centre, Bradford. I’m showing the set of ‘Safety nets’ I made last year for the Textile Study Group exhibitions at the British Textile Biennial. It’s great to have them showing again and this one is really local for me, which is a lovey bonus.

Costing the Earth aims to highlight the harmful environmental impact of fast fashion and the small actions we can take to make a positive difference.

Presenting work by Mandy Barker, Alice Fox, Hannah Lamb and Atiyya Mirza, Costing the Earth explores different ways contemporary artists are responding to the climate crisis. Each of the featured artists works with recycled or sustainably sourced materials to create photographic, sculptural, and textile artworks.

Curated by Jane Hiley, Costing the Earth is an Impressions Gallery offsite exhibition in partnership with South Square Centre, part of Impressions’ Summer of Sustainability.

Exhibition continues until 30 August 2026.