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!
What a beautiful week off work - proper June weather for much of it. We were working on Plot3 and had to move our bench to this lovely spot under the trees in order to cool down a bit.
We’ve spent many hours on the plot since last Wednesday. I managed to finish digging the manure trenches for the squashes (nearly killed me). There are so many hedge/tree roots in Plot3 it’s really hard work.
Jamie’s planted up the two courgettes and two pumpkin plants, with plenty of slug protection. It rained one day so we sheltered in the polytunnel but the amount of slugs and snails that emerged was horrendous! I’m a bit worried about my squashes because of the placement of the compost bins, but too late to change that now.
Molluscs aren’t the only problem. Not satisfied with eating much of my mangetout, the pigeons have taken a fancy to chard and beetroot leaves this year - I’ve netted the chard now, I’m sure we haven’t needed to do that in previous years.
This is my chive flower vinegar - I managed to get a few flowers so it’ll make nice a pink and flavoured addition to salads. Although currently my salad crops are rather sparse...
Back on Plot7 I filled two holes with manure and put up two wigwams: one for Gigantes beans, which I’ll sow direct, and the other for the Borlotti beans which have germinated and are currently growing on in modules. I’m hoping to get some things planted out on Monday - last day of holiday, boohoo.
The daisies, buttercups, speedwell and other wildflowers are beautiful this year (not the ones we sowed, yet). The Spring weather was perfect for them, if not for our needs. My cousin quoted “Daises are our silver” on a post and it brought back so many childhood memories I had to share it here.
I have to say, it had completely disappeared from my memory, but now I can’t shake it off - such pretty words (it’s a hymn, but I wouldn’t have realised it when singing it at infants school). So, here it is - pardon the nostalgia, but it’s so sweet.
You've certainly been busy. I hope that it all survives the unwelcome wildlife. I like the first picture and the view, but if I sat there I'd be reluctant to do any plotting. xx
You've certainly been busy. I hope that it all survives the unwelcome wildlife.
ReplyDeleteI like the first picture and the view, but if I sat there I'd be reluctant to do any plotting. xx
Thankyou. It was quite hard to get back up, but needed to get on while I was off work. I always manage to sit down quite a lot anyway ☺️
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