Showing posts with label pond. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pond. Show all posts

Thursday 24 March 2022

New Life

Frog Tadpoles
I was amazed to see how quickly the frogspawn have developed. The frilly bits aren’t legs yet though, they’re external gills. The tadpoles look much more black in real life and are very small. I recorded their arrival on the Pondnet Spawn Survey.

Tadpoles

Most of the hatched tadpoles were huddled together eating the remaining spawn jelly. I retrieved some more tadpoles from a puddle before it dried out in the hot March sunshine and put it in the newly- created pond in the bog garden on the HAHA Wildlife plot. It'll look better once there's a bit of growth round the outside and I'll probably buy a plant for in the pond.

Wildlife plot
When I pointed out the ‘pond’ to a new plotholder he said “I drink my morning cocoa from a mug bigger than that”. Haha, you’ve got to laugh! It may be tiny, but it’s a life saver to some residents at the moment. I’ve put a flat stone in it so the birds may like it too, but I hope they don’t eat the froglets!

We've had a beautiful few days and I was on leave so enjoyed a sunny 4-day weekend. On Friday we visited the Inkpen Crocus Field again - we visited 3 years ago in February and there were more crocuses then, perhaps due to our recent wet and windy weather - the ground was soggy, even at the top of the hill. 

Inkpen Crocus Field

It's so pretty and natural with the crocuses tending to grow individually rather than in clumps, it's quite fascinating and the origin is unknown; I prefer to think of them as from 12th Century crusaders rather than garden escapees.

We walked more than 6km that day; my working-from-home legs aren't used to it! And then for the rest of the weekend we were working on the allotment - quite exhausting, but so lovely to be out in the sunshine.

Red Tailed Bumblebee queen

I showed a couple of new plotholders around and there were lots of people gardening on site. Along with many butterflies (comma, brimstone, tortoiseshell and whites) and bees enjoying the grape hyacinths and the few other flowers that are showing.

Broad Bean flowers
Let's hope they do their work on our broad bean flowers which have started to appear. Our bean plants are a really sickly bunch, so small after all the battering by the wind and frost, but we should get a few handfuls of beans eventually.

Broad Beans
I spent most of the time working on the area by our pond where the mammoth sage had taken over with a tree-like root. Eventually managed to pull the remaining roots along with the couch grass, raspberry and various other roots - in fact I still have a tiny strip to do. The soil looks quite good, but I'm mostly clearing it for our new seating area.
Cleared of roots and weeds (almost)

We've actually sown a few seeds, including mangetout. They're in the polytunnel at the moment. On a couple of the sunny mornings this week I've popped up to the allotment first thing to open up the door. The temperature in the polytunnel has fluctuated between 30° and -3° over the last week! Jamie's been closing up at the end of the day. The mornings are so beautiful up there, it's hard to pull myself away to sit back at my desk, but it is a lovely benefit of home-working.

Early morning sunshine

Seems like I'll be working from home for a while yet, as covid cases are increasing again - not suprising as people don't need to isolate. It seems that a 5th vaccination will be on the cards for immuno-suppressed people... ho hum.. Anway, less of that depressing news... the song title is provided by an extremely young Depeche Mode. Feel free to bop 😉

Sunday 23 May 2021

Radioactive

This photo sums up yesterday’s time on the allotment; lovely warm sunshine interrupted by hefty showers which sent plotholders scattering across site to the toolshed, cars or polytunnels.
Rain on its way
We were working on Plot3, attaching the netting to the old polytunnel frame.
Squash tunnel frame
This is my long-talked-about squash tunnel. Hopefully the netting is secured tight enough for the weight of the squashes (I have high hopes - dangerous, I know!)
Squash tunnel frame
So it’s ready and waiting for the squashes, which have nearly all germinated in a week - just 2 of the Boston seeds haven’t broken through so far. I’m planning on growing two of each type, so ten plants (Boston, Crown Prince, Festival, Honey Boat and Tromboncino). Some of them have large heavy fruits so may need additional security, but that can be sorted as and when required. 
I’m excited, hope it works!
Squash seeds germinating
I’ve been talking to a friend about his lovely alpine garden so thought I’d take a close-up look at the succulents and houseleeks by our little pond.
Succulents
They’re so pretty. I thought they were stunning enough to be considered ‘treasurer’ in the BlackBerry Garden Chelsea Fringe - what a fun idea!
Pond area
The pond is nice and full but the frogs are a bit shy at the moment. It looks nice overgrown, but the bindweed needs pulling and some of the nigella otherwise that’ll cover everything else.
Here are the potatoes. We covered them on Saturday night as there was a frost risk. It seems we got away with it, though the thermometer showed 2.3° in the polytunnel.
Plot7 Marsh Lane
And a few Spring onions, meals for the future come to mind.
But for the timebeing we’re still living on rhubarb 😆 
Pancakes
Mmm, rhubarb pancakes for breakfast and the presentation gave me a song title. I like this song by Imagine Dragons, I didn’t realise this was the title. Enjoy

Sunday 20 September 2020

Purple Haze

 It’s been a hot weekend and we’ve had two busy afternoons on the plot.

We managed to do a lot of clearing and some proper digging - I do like digging, though my body’s aching after more activity than it’s used to these days! The ground is so dry, I don’t know when we last had any rain. Here’s the before...

And here’s the after, and Jamie dealt with the edges. That area has been limed for broad beans to be sown in a few weeks time.

We still have lots to do. The enormous, spiteful bramble got me a few times, but we’re getting it too! Slowly, but surely.

I retrieved and potted up some strawberry runners as the strawberry bed has grown wild this year.

We hoed and dug up some enormous weeds around the Raised bed, where the garlic will be planted as soon as it’s delivered. And I cleared around the pond and planted some iris into the ground; it’s been pot-bound for over a year so I hope it will appreciate the freedom.
We actually saw a big dragonfly today, but it didn’t fancy visiting our pond which is in need of some more water. The frog doesn’t mind though and we may get some rain this week. At least we have the polytunnel for shelter when the rain does finally arrive. And we’ve got the fleece tunnel ready to protect a couple of the Speedy french beans which are just about to produce some beans for us and may coincide with our first frost - doh!
The courgette plants are still providing for us and Neal gave me some beetroot today (thanks Neal) Also my sister is supplying tomatoes still (thanks Joanne) so I made these nice spicy tomato noodles for lunch this weekend. And we’ve got a big bag of potatoes to use. We had a dish made with mash, cheese, ‘This is not bacon’ (which, to me, tastes like kippers) and peas - mmmmmm, so delicious! (But I forgot a photo, shame because it looked nice too).
Please forgive another globe artichoke photo, but that colour! And the bees are loving it and really did appear to be in a purple haze at times! One of those bees was in there most of the afternoon.
Did you see what I did there? Thanks to Jimi Hendrix (obviously) for the title. (And the crowd at the end of this video is great 😀)


Sunday 21 April 2019

Infinite Sun

That's the only frog who's visited our pond this year - he's from Jamie's dad, so nice to have him on our plot.
What an amazing Easter weekend - yesterday we saw some of the canoeists in the Devizes to Westminster race and Hungerford was nicely crowded. But today was a plot day. We were on a mission to clear Plot46A...
Eurgh, what a mess of chickweed, deadnettle, fumitory and various leftover veg from last year.
With a lot of this...
We managed to convert it to this...
Aah, that's better. And now it's covered in weed suppressant fabric, so we're good neighbours again!
Meanwhile, our poor marigolds in the polytunnel couldn't survive the 39.9° temperature - I really hope they recover!
When we arrived at the site someone had left some seedlings in the polytunnel for us. Thinking they were Antirrhinum (Snap dragon) from Ivan I dutifully plotted them on into individual pots. Only later did I discover that they were in fact a mix of Rocket and Pak Choi from Malcolm - duh, I'm blaming the heat!
We were pleased to see that the weather has encouraged the grassed communal area to grow. Hopefully the grass will overcome the weeds which are also very happy.
Kula Shaker provide the great song and we're expecting another amazing sunny day tomorrow - hooray!

Sunday 31 March 2019

Sail Away

Friday was a beautiful day and I was off work - hooray - so we spent a few hours on the plot.
I collected two bagfuls of grounds from the coffee lounge at work - we get through a lot of coffee each day! I added some to the compost bins which are still housing rats because I still need to mix them up a bit. Apparently rats don't like coffee, though they like everything else I put in the bins.
Jamie cleared the plot where the potatoes will be planted.
Then he dug in some 6x and the coffee grounds - hopefully a slug deterrent and a bit of acidity to prevent scab...
Voila! A lovely dug plot and a painful Jamie - it's hard on the back/knees/arms/hands for these first few plot visits of the year!
While Jamie did that, I worked on the raised bed. Lots of weeding.
And now it's ready to become a salad bed.
No sign of the broad beans yet, but the marigold and salad seedlings are on their way, in the greenhouse.
Look at the temperature range in there!
On Saturday we arrived on the plot just in time for a little lunchtime soiree with David and Ivan and some of Ivan's home-made wine. The blackberry and apple was delicious with some crisps and olives. We did manage to do a bit of allotmenting afterwards - I planted up 5 tubs with Summer bulbs - hopefully they'll be in full flower for our fete on July 7th. And I also planted the five Chinese Lantern plants by the greenhouse. Hoping all these can survive the chilly nights.
No frogspawn has arrived (I may bring some in from elsewhere), so Alfie provided us with some cheer for our little pond.. unfortunately the little boat didn't float so I had to balance it against the edge :-)
And that is the reason for the song title <ahem - poetic licence>