Hungerford allotment blog - grow your own, harvesting and vegetarian cooking. Enjoying allotment wildlife, weather and other things that catch my attention.
Enjoying time on the Marsh Lane Allotment site in Hungerford, Berkshire.
A record of successes, failures and a handy reminder for me.
From 2017 each post title brings a song to add a little extra music to the world - enjoy!
My 10 days off work started well, with some lovely, albeit windy, weather. Jamie and I lazed under the blue sky and had a barbecue on Friday.
It really was too hot to work - not that we were intending to do any. Instead, we were delighted to watch the great tits fledge. Jamie noticed that the chirping had changed. We saw a parent fly to the nesting site with a green caterpillar which it ate rather than taking it to the nest. Then we watched as four chicks flew out in turn - rather wobbly flying, but not bad for the first trip out. Then one of the parents returned to the nest site, chirped a bit and flew off. Finally, the last of the brood made its way to the edge of the crate and flew over us to join its siblings and parents in the hedge. Such a pleasure to watch and perfect timing for us!
The rest of the afternoon I mostly looked up at the beautiful blue sky and sweltered.
Aah, blue sky! How happy it makes me!
Saturday was still mostly sunny and warm so we managed to do some digging on plot3. Jamie’s dug and manured the hole for the melon, which is growing on in the polytunnel for the timebeing. I’ve dug the first trench for one side of the squash tunnel and filled it with manure. I’ve sowed the seeds in pots at home under the grow-light: Honeyboat, Festival, Winter Celebration and Sunshine.
Talking of seeds, I’ve got some parsnips Sabre (hopefully) germinating on some paper towel so I can plant out if the seed proves viable… perhaps I’ll manage to grow more than 8!
I showed some newcomers around site yesterday - such a pleasure to show the site off when it’s looking so beautiful. Of course, they were enamoured with Ivan’s irises, so I can’t resist sharing some of the fabulous blooms here again. Just stunning.
And HAHA has its first iris in the bog garden on the wildlife plot. There are plenty more buds to follow that one.
And the foxgloves have flowered. Loads of evening primrose is growing, so that will be good for moths, which will in turn be good for bats. We’ll have to have a Summer night visit with the bat detector.
Our Cleor pepper has arrived so is growing on a bit at home, along with the tomatoes. The temperature dipped to 3° In the polytunnel the other night, so we're still playing it safe and not planting everything out yet. The song title, provided by Queen, is dedicated to those five little great tits. Out in the wide world for the first time, how frightening and a frost is threatened for tonight 😖 They should go back to their cosy nest, poor little things.
The robin that visits the wildlife plot is so friendly. He eats from a lid in my hand but isn't willing to stand on it; just takes a mealworm hummingbird-style and eats it on the fence.
We've had two afternoons on the plot. There was a stiff breeze but the sun shone occasionally so it was pleasant. I showed a new couple round yesterday and leased another empty plot this afternoon. It's a good time for new plotholders when there are lots of people on site in the sunshine.
Jamie sowed some seeds in seed compost that's he's made up from coir, 25% vermiculite and perlite. He's sown some calendula, tagetes and 3 Brussels sprouts into modules. Hopefully they'll be OK to germinate in the polytunnel.
I retrieved some frogspawn from a puddle on an empty plot on 3rd March. Those frogs really should have gone to a pond.
I’m pleased to say that the foetus have developed and they now look quite tadpole-y. I’ve tried to clear the duckweed from our little pond and have put a mesh over the top.
A couple of other people took some of the spawn away to their ponds today.
I’ve been attempting to clear our mammoth sage plant.
I was going to remove the sage completely but I found a frog so have left some of it. We want to move our seating there this year so we can plant some of Ivan’s iris at the other end of the plot where they should get more sunshine.
Unfortunately the area has couch grass, stinging nettles and raspberry so it was a bit hard going, but it's getting there. I’m hoping to grow Love Lies Bleeding (Amaranthus Caudatus) next to the bench. The long red tassels looked amazing on another person’s plot last year and the birds apparently love the seed.
Someone else’s plot last July
I may add some to the wildlife plot, which is a segue to share a photo of some poop that we discovered in the straw-filled compost bin on the wildlife plot.
It appears to be weasel scat. We have seen one on site before, several years ago. We would welcome them on site, though the birds and voles will be less pleased to share their space with them 😒
On that note, the song title is provided by Scatman John 🥳
Such a windy few days! I’ve been busy all week with work, but have enjoyed looking out at sunshine, rather than needing to brave the wind. I have a decoupage project that I’m working on so have been cutting pictures out of the seed catalogues but it has been making me want to buy more. I’m sure you know what it’s like!
We had a few hours on the plot this afternoon but it was still horribly windy and rather cold. Our plots gained some pots and compost bins but luckily the only damage was to a table; the glass tabletop landed in the manure pile so didn’t smash 😆. I was pleased to see that our polytunnel is still intact and most of my mangetout have germinated as have the marigolds.
We’ve set up an old fire guard as shelving for more seeds in the polytunnel. And have sown the celeriac seeds at home. I was amazed to see how tiny the seeds are!
I sowed all 40, as they can be tricky to germinate. I could have sowed them in a tray but I was keen to use these cut-off milk bottles. They’re under a cover in Jamie’s foil-coated windowsill germinators. And we have some more marigolds germinating at home too. They make such a great display and bees like them.
Meanwhile more buds are appearing everywhere you look and the birds are pairing up. It seems so Spring-like, until the wind cuts you in half! I wouldn’t want to be a seedling out there right now... just need to hang on a bit longer...
We left the site just as it started to rain, having achieved little, but at least it was a bit of time spent outside. Look at it, just waiting...
To be honest, I would have sowed something outside if it had been a bright sunny weekend. Instead, I’ll hold on.. What a great song, provided by KT Tunstall.
It's certainly growing weather (though those beautiful sweetpeas were grown by Ivan, ours are still small). I've chopped back a lot of the chive flowers to encourage more new growth, but the butterflies and bees love them, so I don't chop them all in one go.
Two days of this second Bank Holiday in May and they've both been beautiful, with heat, mostly sun and none of the threatened rain showers during the day - will it last for a third day??
The tadpoles have been hiding for much of the month but I was very pleased to see lots of them appear during some very heavy rain earlier in the week. And even more pleased to spot legs on these two today!
We had a not-very-productive afternoon on the allotment on Saturday - well, it started with a soiree. so it was a lot of fun, but digging in the sunshine after all that home-made wine and home-made scones (thanks to Ivan and Kerry) was hard work!
At least I got the one job done that I've been meaning to do for a couple of weeks - Epsom Salts for the garlic and shallots. It should help the leaves perk up - they're yellowing due to lack of magnesium.
Sunday was much more productive. I've sown the following in rows on Plot46A: Boltardy beetroot Chinese leaf
Radish Mirabeau Sweet Marble turnip White Lisbon salad onions Oasis turnip Lattuga Red Salad bowl
Some of the salad-y bits I sowed earlier are looking promising
We eventually finished clearing Plot3 of valerian, couch grass, thistles, nettles and every other type of weed you can think of - even a bit of horsetail for good measure. 4 big bags of weeds - that's what happens if you don't do the Autumn tidy-up like good plotholders!
There are many more insects about now - plenty of bees and we've seen various butterflies, caterpillars and interesting flies. I saw a huge hornet in the week and at the weekend Ivan found this dead in his greenhouse...
I really love these Thai silk flowers, they've done well so far this year - such stunning colours.
So now it's Bank Holiday Monday, it's rather grey outside but humid. Not too much digging to do today, but clearing and preparing the way for our pot-grown plants which are desperate to get out of the flat and up to the allotment.
Aaah, Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks - this song makes me sad, but I do like it.
Three days of sunshine on a Bank Holiday weekend - just what we all wanted. We had several hours each day on the plots, but had to disappear under the brolly at regular intervals to re-hydrate.
And despite the heat we did manage to get quite a bit done.
These little violas have spread around the site over the years. Such beautiful colours. I've potted some on for the HAHA Plant Sale in June, along with some of the houseleeks, in the top photo, which I love.
I planted out the additional 16 broad bean plants which all germinated in the greenhouse. So we have 28 plants - that's quite a lot for us. I intend to use some of the beans for broad bean hummus and although all my salad leaf and spinach looks like cress at the moment I'm hoping there will some suitable leaves just in time for a fresh baby broad bean salad.
The broad beans that were planted out nearly 3 weeks ago have grown quite tall and have evidence of flower buds. They've had their leaves nibbled by weevils, but that doesn't seem to affect the beans.
As expected, we had a couple of frosts during the last week. We didn't have much in the ground which could be affected and we closed the greenhouse up to be on the safe side. The only victims were a few of the strawberry flowers, where the centres have gone black. This means they won't become fruit, but lots have survived ... so far.
We got most of our potatoes planted. This year we used a bulb planter to make a neat hole, dropped the potato in and refilled with the earth and a little potato fertiliser. Much quicker and less labour intensive than digging a long trench for them!
Here's a sketch of where we planted what, for our info. (Kestrel, Catriona, Nicola, Orla and Pentland Javelin), We still have a few to grow in bags but we're not planting masses this year as we find we just don't get round to eating them.
And, here's a lovely yellow/orange poppy just waiting to pop its bud.
There's so much activity and the hedgerow is alive with birds and bees. The robin is feeding its mate and the cuckoo is calling in the distance over the marsh. It's such a fabulous time of year, especially when the sun shines, and we're almost keeping up with nature, but
although we took about ten bags of green waste home over the long
weekend, we have a lot more to do!
Can you spot the blue tit upside down in the may?
So, how could we improve on such a beautiful sunny weekend? Ah yes! A spontaneous home-made wine tasting session, courtesy of Ivan - quince wine was my favourite, but the apple was good too. Most of us had to go home for a kip after that little session hic, but we did make it back to do some work later in the afternoon and to collect our car..
The unstoppable Ivan - puts all the younger plotholders to shame with his skills
Definitely an April showers day, and some of the showers were heavy and cold - eurgh, not nice to get caught in...(I hope you can see this little animated gif, made up of 11 photos while we sheltered in the car).
Our plan to continue digging the potato plot didn't come to much. Jamie did some digging, but I spent time clearing last year's carrot and parsnip plots. A lot of grotty parsnip and carrot remains were chopped up and added to the compost bin. And 2 soggy piles of thistles, grass and other weeds have been put on a grid to dry - some chance! The patch looked better when we left, but too rainy to stop for a photo.
Our seeds, and a few tiny seedlings, got a nice watering while we left them outside the greenhouse. I sowed salad leaf, rocket and little gem lettuce in a tray last Sunday. Also some chard and Boltardy beetroot into modules. Today I sowed some Florence fennel into modules too. There are also our free petunias 'Night Sky' which arrived as plug plants last week and have been potted on. I hope they grow to be as beautiful as the pictures promise!
Our 3 grafted pepper plants were delivered from Thompson & Morgan during tthe week and Jamie potted them on and put them in a little propagator (an old Roses chocolates container). There's one of each: Britney, Chelsea and Milena.
Here's a link to my latest Chainmail article. Written in January when we were still in misery about losing the site. It's still hanging over us, but nothing seems so bad in Springtime..
During one long shower we escaped to the local Wyevale Garden Centre and bought some Farmyard manure. It was still too rainy when we got back to the plot so we gave up and went home.
