Green Fields

The last week has thrown all kinds of weather at us including frost, gales, rain and even hail. In between the showers, and sheltered from the wind, the Sun has provided some welcome warmth. The English countryside really is looking its best with shiny new green leaves and lush grass.

Nights have gone cold, down to -3° outside the polytunnel so we’ve kept the potatoes covered and the remaining perennials in pots are covered with enviromesh. The pumpkin on Plot3 is also wrapped in fleece and the tomatoes and other seedlings remain protected in the polytunnel.

I did forget to protect 6 French marigolds which I bought at a plant sale - 3 of those caught the frost so I’ll have to plant some other flowers along that front edge - I have calendula seedlings so they should be okay. The leek seedlings have finally appeared and the Oasis turnips germinated within a week. I helped out at the HAHA plant stall at the Hungerford Food & Artisan market last Sunday where I had donated some rudbeckia and other perennials. It was so cold but surprisingly busy and I was pleased to find an aubergine plant to buy. 

Luckily Saturday afternoon was warm and dry as Jamie and I attended the Newbury Spring Festival parade. We bought camping chairs as all the benches were occupied and Jamie needed to sit - sitting in chairs in Newbury’s Main Street! Our younger selves would have died of shame, but we’re over that now 😊

It was enjoyable watching all the people and listening to the music waiting for the band mistress to arrive - just look at her! 

And apart from daily plot visits we’ve had a couple of trips out into the countryside - a lovely spot for lunch on the ridgeway, Court Hill Centre where we had a clear view of the Oxfordshire countryside around us.

And yesterday we had a marvellous afternoon tea at Littlecote House to celebrate Ivan’s 92nd(!) birthday.

We had a lovely time. Jamie and I haven’t been to Littlecote House for a few years and it’s interesting to be able to wander freely round the 16th century building. 

The site has changed a bit since I first visited on a school trip about 50 years ago. It’s been extended to include new buildings as it’s a Warner Holidays hotel - but it seems to have been tastefully done and the grounds are so beautiful.

The weather was sunshine and showers all afternoon - we had to hide at one point as the wind was so strong, and cold.

Apart from the house and hotel, Littlecote is famous for its Roman villa, with an exceptional restored mosaic. It’s really special to see though we only had a quick stop yesterday after a long afternoon of walking and eating.

At home we are noticing a lot of nature in our small courtyard at the moment - sparrows, blue tits and blackbirds have nearby nests and one evening we experienced hedgehogs performing a mating ritual which was surprisingly loud until they were distracted by a bemused cat! And we have a Tree bumblebee nest in our porch - they are very active and it’s interesting watching them go to and fro. The most we’ve seen together is 7. They won’t be causing any damage and will die off in a couple of months.

We’ll go to the allotment later though it’s still rather cold and damp with more rain forecast. I’d like to do some potting on and planting though there’s still a couple more nights at risk from frost.

The song is provided by The Beverley Sisters - a golden oldie, my mum had the single with the Skye Boat Song on the B-side - I do love it. Enjoy ☺️ but it may bring a tear to your eye.

Lost

I did some baking 🎉 (it doesn’t happen very often).

Rhubarb, honey & ginger flapjacks

OK so it was only flapjacks but the recipe was specifically chosen to use rhubarb from the allotment and honey from Ivan’s hamper. The honey is locally produced and could include pollen from our allotment as Cobbs Farm is less than 3 miles away as the bee flies. I used this recipe https://foodstak.com/rhubarb-and-ginger-flapjacks/#recipe Adapted slightly; some olive oil as we didn’t have enough butter and a bit of Golden Syrup as I read that honey isn’t always sticky enough. Anyway, it was very tasty and just the right consistency.

The PSB is the only other thing we’re still harvesting though it’s beginning to flower now so not too many more servings to come I don’t think. We’ve been to the allotment every day and have been busy digging the trench for the climbing beans on Plot3 under the old polytunnel frame and I weeded and cleared up the garlic and onion beds.

I snipped off some buds that had grown on a few of the onions and gave all the plants a sprinkle of onion fertiliser. There’s a rogue potato in there so I’ve left it for now, though it did get frosted.

I’ve planted out the mangetout with some sweetpeas at each end and in the middle of the trellis. Hopefully the wire cage will stop the pesky pigeons. We’ve had some sunshine and showers and the plants have already responded quite well. We’ve sown nasturtium and calendula and at the weekend we direct sowed broad beans in the front bed we dug on Plot3 - they have their bottle cloches as mouse deterrent. The broad beans sown in modules haven’t emerged yet, but if they do grow we’ll use them as spares.

We also planted out the Baby Bear pumpkin on the manured hole in the weed suppressant that we dug a few weeks ago. It’s got 3 watering bottles as hopefully the foliage will be so rampant they’ll guide us to where we need to water.

On one really warm day I did some work on the HAHA Wildlife plot, which has been rather neglected of late. Honeysuckle is threatening to take over but there are lots of other plants just emerging which have more light and space now the old dead layer has been cleared. Here are a few of the insects I managed to photograph on there.

Back on our plots, the potatoes have all popped up now so we’re keeping a close eye on the weather forecast - we’ll earth them up today as a frost is forecast overnight. Our last frost date is 13th May, according to historic records, so not too much longer to live with the threat.

Yesterday I dug an area in front of the nursery section. I sowed some  Oasis turnips and transplanted a row of lettuce from the polytunnel - they always look so sad when first put out but hopefully they’ll perk up!

The plots are actually beginning to shape up now, but there are still large areas that need work and I’m not sure where the dwarf beans, carrots and some other items are going yet…

It’s all happening - what a fun time of year! 

The song is provided by the Goo Goo Dolls - we won tickets to see Reading vs Blackpool on Saturday.

By this stage it was pouring with rain and, well, Reading lost - the last match of the season.😞 

Dammit

Forbury Gardens, Reading

We’ve had some glorious sunny weather and the wind finally died down so we had a little taste of Summer. Particularly welcome on Saturday when we took the train to Reading and enjoyed an afternoon in the presence of the huge (31 foot) Maiwand Lion in Forbury Gardens. The Reading Vegan Fiesta was really well-attended and a great place for people-watching.. It was so hot we had to seek shade on occasion but it was a fun, if exhausting, day.

It’s so nice to attend events knowing that all the food on offer is suitable for us, as vegetarians. We stuck with our favourite Vegan Street Diner hot dogs - they’re just too tasty to turn down and had the longest queue of all the food stalls!

Showing off my new hat

On Saturday morning I had the latest Covid jab - have lost count now, but it’s still worth having the vaccine even though Covid is no longer in the news. After that I nipped to the allotment to check all was ok. We didn’t zip up the polytunnel because no frost was forecast - uh-oh … our happy tomatoes were no longer happy…

The temperature in the polytunnel had dropped to -3.1°. One of the tiny pepper seedlings had also been frost-burned and the first leaves that we spotted in the potato row had been caught too. I wishfully thought there was a chance that the tomatoes may recover but by the evening….

Oh dear, what a sad affair. They had really suffered so the frost must have hung around for a bit - well it was a sorry lesson, as I used to say a lot at work “it’s only a forecast”. So yesterday we had another trip to Waitrose and déjà vu we potted on the tomatoes in the polytunnel.

These are different varieties from what we originally bought and are grafted plants: Rubylicious, Honeycomb and Crimson Plum. We’ll take more care this time …

Over the last week I dug a second compost-filled hole for  a courgette on Plot7. We sowed butternut squash and courgette seeds under the grow light at home - the Atena Polka yellow courgettes germinated but we’re still waiting for the butternut. The chard and beetroot seedlings are just appearing in their modules in the polytunnel and I sowed the Snowstar leek seeds outside. I sowed the whole packet as any we don’t grow on or give away can be used like spring onions. We’ve also sown some broad beans in pots in the polytunnel for planting out next month, hopefully. 

I potted on the remaining perennials - it seems that the Geum and Coreopsis plants may not have made it, but there are 40 surviving plants so more than enough for us and a future plant sale.

We cleaned out the Bokashi compost bin;  the solid waste was put in the bottom of one of the squash holes and we have a bottle of liquid fertiliser. It smells SO bad it must be good stuff!!

The apple has blossomed - so pretty - I wonder if it will fruit this year 🤔 The pear and cherry now have leaves, I need to check whether there’s any evidence of fruit on them - here’s a nice little video of a pear from flower to fruit, so I know what to look for on the pear tree.

I’m (so far) keeping on top of weeding ‘the orchard’. It’s rather satisfying to clear the clumps of bindweed when it dares to emerge through the mulch.

So now it’s Monday morning again and I’d better get moving to open up the polytunnel. It is very pleasant to visit the plot early (-ish) in the morning and just sit quietly watching the birds.

The apt song title is provided by Blink 182 and obviously refers to our tomato shenanigans.

Monday Monday

The ornamental cherry at home is putting on a spectacular show at the moment. The wind is creating confetti and forming pink drifts in all the corners, it’s so lovely to see. As is this Holly Blue butterfly (male) at the allotment. He was willing to pose on my hand for some time, but refused to reveal his beautiful blue wings that catch the eye as they flutter by.

The weather has certainly been changeable so we weren’t surprised to have seen at least one rainbow. This was from home - photos rarely do them justice, do they?

We’ve been visiting the plot daily to open/close the polytunnel and remove/add fleece. The polytunnel measured a maximum temperature of 44° during the day and -1.3° overnight last week - as I informed the checkout girl in Tesco but I don’t think she cared 🤭. We’ve sown a few more seeds including beetroot, chard and more pumpkins - the pumpkin popped up within 4 days! I’d normally direct sow the beetroot, but the area isn’t prepared yet. The chard I like to sow in modules so I can select the more colourful seedlings for planting out. We finished clearing and preparing the front quarter - intended for sweetcorn, sunflowers and there should be room for some other things.

The covered plot in the other quarter is being used as a nursery for the potted-on perennials. Most of the plants have grown okay but a few have withered away - can’t tell what they were at the moment. There are quite a few more to be potted on once their roots appear in the bottom of their modules/pots.

The weather has been ok apart from the cold breeze. We’re so glad to have the polytunnel to protect us while we’re sitting watching the birds. The swallows have arrived! Their numbers are increasing each time we visit plus we’ve seen great tits flying to a (somewhat intentionally) overgrown bit of plot where they nested a couple of years ago.

Whilst digging at the weekend I was approached by a couple who are clearing their garden; they found a slow worm and wanted to re-home it somewhere safe; nice people!

It looks to be a male and we let him go on the Wildlife Plot. Hope he finds a mate and hangs round.

Jamie and I had a busy weekend; we enjoyed a music quiz with allotment friends on Saturday (did really badly) and yesterday went to a vegan market in Chippenham - we had some delicious teriyaki bao buns from The Garden Restaurants. The allotment is still providing purple sprouting broccoli and rhubarb pickings. We’ve been baking the rhubarb in orange juice with demarera sugar - so tasty with chocolate ice cream.

The song is provided by the Mamas and Papas because, well, it’s Monday and the allotment looked nice in the Sun this morning, with wispy clouds overhead.

I don’t think it’ll be frosty tonight, but we’ll go and zip up anyway. The temperature was just below zero last night (-0.3°)

Hail, Rain or Sunshine

We don’t fancy plotting today as the weather’s turned nasty with showers and such a cold wind. Last Sunday (Easter Day) we were lucky because we had a plot cream tea with Linda and Ivan, with English sparkling Rosé and raspberry jam from Ivan’s hamper. We needed a wind break and the chiminea but it was a lovely afternoon with plenty of sunshine.

And on Bank Holiday Monday the ice cream van visited site which was a most welcome treat on a hot sunny day! We usually hear it travelling around so it was great that he actually stopped.

We’ve been busy in between the snacks over the last week 🙂 We’ve planted our potatoes in manure-enriched trenches; one row of Desiree and another row with Orla, Baby Lou and Paris.

We’ve planted three shop-bought tomatoes in the polytunnel - Gardener’s Delight, Supersteak and Alicante. We’ve hung drip feed waterers up - it’s rather reminiscent of a dialysis ward 😱 and should help while we’re on holiday.

The little row of carrots have germinated in the front of the raised bed and the sweet peas can grow on a bit more before they are planted out along with the mangetout.

Plot-neighbour, Val, kindly gave us a rhubarb crown which was from the Avebury Manor kitchen garden, which I think we should visit in the Summer.

I’ve re-mulched round the fruit trees - the Apsley mulch did a good job of curtailing the spread of bindweed last year. The pear and cherry trees have white blossom and the leaves are appearing now; still waiting for the apple to flower but the leaves have budded so the flowers will follow. Most of the daffodils have been dead-headed but there are a few multi-headed ones still putting on a bit of a show. I’ll leave them to die back but may tie them as I’ve seen other people do.

Jamie weeded the shallots in the raised bed - the bindweed had reached the top of there already - and gave them a bit of onion fertiliser. We only have a few but they served us well last year. Each green stem should produce a bulb so the more stems the better.

I’ve started clearing the front quarter of plot7 and dug the (reasonably) neat edges, mostly to please Ivan and Neal - it does look better, but it’s hard work especially with all the grass and couch grass which has spread onto the plot - of course some would say that’s why I should keep the edges maintained …

I just need to dig/clear the rest now….

I’ve done some weeding in the flower bed so scattered the seeds that my cousin Jen sent. They’ll be lovely additions to fill gaps - I cleared some of the Nigella seedlings which take over each year - they are so pretty but I must be more conscientious and pull them before they set seed. Jamie’s sown a pumpkin in a pot at home - just one, I think he’s feeling positive because his pepper seeds germinated successfully whereas mine are a no-show at present…

I’ve updated my Wildlife Blog recently - the first update was a new addition - a tiny 24-spot ladybird. It’s not rare in Southern England but just not very visible due to being so tiny.

The other update was to an earlier post about the Ashy Mining Bee - there are so many of these around our plot at present and the evidence of the females’ ground nest building. The males wake from Winter first and wait for the females to emerge - I felt sorry for this female, with at least one too many suitors! The bundle was rolling about on the ground with lots of angry buzzing and it went on for ages 🤦‍♀️ 

As I write this, the Sun is on my back through our South-facing window. It’s so lovely and bright but the next April shower could be along any moment and at 10° plus a stiff breeze I'm inclined to sit here a while longer.

Oh, well we did drive up to the plot as it remained sunny, but as we arrived there was a huge hail shower - blowing horizontally across the site - so we waited in the car…

It stopped, hail covered the ground then the bright sunshine returned.

I fed the blueberry bush which has lots of flowers and picked some purple sprouting broccoli, which is now a tasty soup. I added garlic and some plant-based cream. Yum! So it was worth the quick plot visit in the end. At least we know we’re heading in the right direction for Summer; more butterflies are visiting the plot, the birds have paired up and are full of song and we saw our hedgehog amble by at home the other evening; so great to know he/she got through Winter.

The song is provided by The Script and very appropriate for the time of year. It’s a sing-along 😊