Auld Lang Syne

Hoping for a good year and it seems an opportune time for a brief look back over the last decade on the allotment. I've selected a couple of photos from each year...

2010

After almost losing the site in 2009 we were given a 4 year reprieve so we could really concentrate on growing our own.

Look at how dry the earth looks - not suprising, as we were having to collect water from the nearby river. The borehole was dug in November - when it didn't stop raining :-)

Here we are painting parts of the container - one of the first jobs for newly-founded HAHA.

2011

I had a diary previously, but so much easier having an electronic version so I started this blog in June 2011.

The purple Conga potatoes (mini tubers) did particularly well - just look at that mash, with no added colouring!

We bought our first bench for our plot and clearly found that spending evenings on the plot (with a bit of wine) were a great part of allotment life - some habits stick fast :-)

2012

This was my busiest blogging year, with 142 posts! We took over Plot 8A and this was the year that the Edinburgh Fringe acting group performed their play on the site.

We had some freezing Winter weather and saw -9° in February, but showing how keen we were we were working on the plot in those months that we tend to avoid these days.

My cousins visited from Hastings in October, for the wettest Hungerford Food Festival on record.
We all got a drenching when we showed them around our plot - the pot marigolds were a lovely display that year, but I'm sure we didn't plant all those :-)

2013

We took over the other half of Plot 8 in a year that started with thick snow and suffered a heatwave in July.

We spent months encouraging this little robin to get braver and eventually he ate from our hands. We haven't been so successful with subsequent robins but they're lovely to see on the plot.

Gluttons for punishment, we also took on an empty plot for HAHA 'unusual veg' to show at the Hungerford Food Festival - we did rather well, don't you think? All those lovely bright colours. We haven't grown mooli since as they weren't that tasty, but they do look good.

2014

Neither of us were very well in 2014 and only 32 blogposts as a result. I was off work for a bit but the plot didn't get all that extra attention - which I'd love now, though I'd rather stay healthy!

This was a Spring workday - well attended for those early days. Look at that lovely blue sky and happy workers :-)

These were the tallest sunflowers that we've ever grown -  I don't know what we did to make them so happy, but I'd like to grow them that tall again!

2015

We finally erected our polytunnel - our lease says we're a 'no structure' site, but it's easily de-constructable if we ever need to ... :-(

Our bench was the perfect spot for viewing the partial solar eclipse - what a great event that was, definitely worth getting up early for!

Jamie's HAHA-carved pumpkin was a great success at the Food Festival. The stripey Cornell's Bush Delikata squash on that table were some of the tastiest we've grown.

2016

We had a further year's reprieve for the site - still under threat as a pawn in a building contractor's plans for the town...

We took on another plot - to encourage more plotholders to a rather abandoned section of the site. Plot3 is a nice square plot with just tree roots and mares tail to contend with...

Growing the cucumbers in moulds gave us these great star-shaped and also heart-shaped additions to salads and we still grow the little Rocky cucumbers as they're so abundant and tasty.

2017

I started using song titles as blogpost titles. I like having a song for each post but finding an appropriate one is by far the hardest thing about writing this blog! I'd like to stop, but I'm a bit obsessive....maybe I'll stop in 2020...

I love this amazing cloud formation - so interesting, I think they're a type of cirrus

I began planting a few more flowers on the plot - they are such a lovely addition and there's still plenty of room for veggies. The trouble is, I have so many that self-seed now that I've lost control a bit...though it looks beautiful!

2018

Visiting frogs laid frogspawn on the empty plots' white tarpaulin so we made a little pond to save some of them. It was lovely watching them develop. What a sweltering year that was!

Two adult frogs moved into our little pond after the tiny froglets had moved on - there's certainly plenty of slugs for them to enjoy.

HAHA joined in with the lantern parade in the Hungerford Christmas Extravaganza with vegetable-shaped lanterns - they ended their day on the plot.

2019

Last year was the 10 year anniversary of the Marsh Lane site, so we had plenty of social events including our best ever plant sale on the Town Hall steps.

Everyone helped out

 Our Open Day was also our best attended with lots of games to enjoy in the hot, sunny weather.

Ivan and I enjoying some healthy competition on the Squirty Boats.

We got some great local press coverage and lots of visitors discovered the little corner of Hungerford that we've been raving about for the last 10 years.

Our plots looked pretty and produced plenty. We hope we'll have more time next year to enjoy a few more days/evenings just sitting and watching things develop in 2020.

Happy New Year!