Better Together

Thankyou to all our helpful volunteers! Our mission yesterday was to prepare our 'horsetail plots' which surround the composting toilet.

About 6 poles (150 sq.mtrs) have been covered for at least a couple of years now and have always looked ugly (so ugly that the only 'before' photo showing the area is 2 years old - before the toilet was erected!). Two additional plots alongside the toilet-plot have been recently leased so we'll have a productive growing area there once again.

Look at that sea of covers - the aim was to stop the deep-rooted weed from spreading - we tend to call it MaresTail, (but that's actually its cousin which grows in water). Now here's the 'After photo' - doesn't that look much better!

I've never been convinced that we'll stop the weed as it's growing on the canal towpath, the other side of our hedge. If a plot is worked then the weed doesn't cause too many issues, but if left it can spread up the site, which we don't want. So we figure that if we grass seed the area and keep it cut that should curtail further spreading.

We've also prepared the end furthest from the toilet for wildflower seeds - hopefully the mass of roots will also stop the marestail from spreading - it's an experiment and both methods will look better than the white covers.

It was a particularly windy day for this task but, with enough of us, we managed to keep some control though the dirty puddles ended up all over us and we had a few slip ups in the mud, which caused some amusement.

It may have been windy, but the sun shone a few times and it didn't rain, so it was a good day to be working outside with friends. Now I need to select and buy enough grass seed for 100 sq.mtrs and 25 sq.mtrs of British Wildflower seed - what fun!

Thanks for the photo Kerry

Love this song is by Jack Johnson and the title is very apt - many hands do make light work, though our legs and backs are aching today!

Wonderful Wonderful

What a wonderful pre-Christmas week I've had - culminating in last night's Hungerford Extravaganza, where a few of us plotholders joined in with the lantern parade, I don't think I've ever been in a parade before, it was a lot of fun!

The HAHA lanterns were a beetroot, a carrot and one decorated with flowers and a butterfly.

And we managed to get HAHA into each of our designs...

We made our paper lanterns over the last two weekends at workshops. First we made the structures, then added tissue paper coated with a PVA/water mix, then they were hung up to dry for a week.

And after the parade Kerry, Zoe and I walked to Marsh Lane Allotments with our lanterns - look how lovely the look on the plot. (I expect they look a bit sad now as it's raining - freezing rain!)

While we were looking at the lanterns and star-gazing the Extravaganza fireworks display started and we had a great view from the allotment site. The ricochet around the town from the whizzes and bangs was amazing - echoing all around and such beautiful fireworks.

Earlier in the week Jamie and I enjoyed the HAHA Committee Christmas meal - delicious food and lovely company.

I'll say HAPPY CHRISTMAS now and please listen to this song, at least twice. It's so beautiful by The Killers - enjoy x

Clocks

Yesterday was the first time I've visited the allotment in 3 weeks! It was a good visit because we had a really good Autumn Workday to clear up the site and, although it was really cold, it was a bright sunny start to the day and we had a big bonfire to get rid of all the broken/rotten wood and hedge clippings.

With lots of helpful volunteers ...

Clearing...

Tidying...

Burning...

They're staring at the sky because there were lots of red kites and buzzards swooping over the site.
Very impressive to see

Eating...

A little more eating...courtesy of Richard's master BBQ-ing skills.

And a bit of drinking - Ivan brought some of his Apple and Blackberry & Apple wine along.

We achieved plenty and were so pleased that it was dry, as we needed the warmth of the fire when the sun went in.And I think the phrase 'Work Party' is very appropriate :-)

The previous weekend we had the HAHA versus Hungerford Twinning Association skittles match. The HTA organised the event last year, so we hosted this year. All the attendees brought food for the buffet - what a lovely spread!

There was a good turnout and it was a lot of fun. The raffle meant that we also managed a bit of fundraising for HAHA. We won the cup, so HTA will have to try again next year.

Jamie has been visiting the plot occasionally to pick some veg - we've had the last of the peppers and tomatoes. We pulled Pentland Javelin from one of the potato bags - a good amount of tubers, but they weren't that tasty. The Nicola that we had recently were much tastier.

Oops, there's that cup again :-)

Squashes have provided me with some nice meals including this one stuffed with marinated tofu and black rice.

I'm currently making Festival squash soup for next week's lunches. We saw a good Japanese TV programme about squashes the other day; I'm roughly copying one of their recipes - I've removed the seeds but left the skin on: the squash, garlic, fried onion, salt and pepper are all in the pan with some water bubbling away. The skin has completely softened and I've just tasted it..mmm

No need for any additional flavouring - just a quick blitz and a little more water, - so sweet and smooth, perfect! The skin adds to the aroma (apparently) so it's best to leave it on.

The title is provided by Coldplay - the clocks have gone back today and it's beginning to feel a lot like Winter...

Man on the Moon

Last night Jamie and I had a bbq on the plot and were joined by lottie-buddy Kerry to do a bit of star-gazing and bat-watching. We'd preset the camera to try to capture the moon. This is probably the best one (with a little studio engineering).

Many others looked like this, but most were a lot more blurred. I've cropped this and changed the contrast otherwise the craters were barely visible. I need more practise, or a different camera.

I'm hoping that the Super moon - super BLOOD moon - super blood BLUE moon(!) will be visible on Friday night to try again... This week's lunar eclipse is meant to be a good one - but we're also forecast rain... hmm, which do we want to see more?! I know what the birds want - they've been queueing up for our birdbath - only Robbie is brave enough to drink from it while we are sitting nearby.

My Birthday week off work has been lovely so far. Sunshine all the way and scorching temperatures have meant that the watering regime continues, but that's fine when we can do it at our leisure.

Pimms and cake on the plot - nice

We harvested our first potato bag - Foremost. It produced a good crop of tasty perfect-sized tubers from just one seed potato (I forgot to weigh them before we ate some, but the remaining ones weigh 2kg).

And look how many more were waiting to grow!

So this post's title had to be moon-based.... so here's a bit REM to singalong to.

Sunny Afternoon

We had another sweltering day for Open Day yesterday (Sunday).

Committee members were on site from 10:00 setting up games, bunting, sun umbrellas (lots of them) and picking flowers to decorate the tables. We had two gazebos: one that we bought with the Tesco Bags of Help grant money and the other on loan from someone in Hungerford.

About 30 minutes before the start time (2pm) we risked putting food out - lovely donated cakes, delicious sweet and savoury scones, squashes, home-made elderflower cordial with sparkling spring water and tea and coffee for those who could bear to have a hot drink in 30° sunshine!

The barbecue was surprisingly popular on such a hot day - well done to Richard, Neale and Jane who worked with that additional heat.

The tombola was a huge success as usual, with so many lovely donated prizes to try and win. Children were happy with their party bags if they won a bottle of alcohol!

The stone painting was really popular with the children - they've done it at school and love it. As part of #HungerfordRocks people place the stones around the town (country or further afield) and if you find one you should post a photo to Facebook with the hashtag and then re-hide it for someone else to find. I hope some of ours turn up online. The little ladybird won't though, because I painted that and it's on our plot!

People had tours around the site, peeping into greenhouses and checking how we grow different vegetables before seeking out the shade under the umbrellas or anywhere else they could find it. I even showed someone around for a new plot - that's what Open Days are for, just perfect!

Kate, enjoying the stone painting as much as the children :-)

Then at 5:00 the last of the visitors had gone. Phew, time for the volunteers to have a bit of relaxation.

And we crowned Neal with his Peoples Choice award for receiving the largest number of public votes for his plot - well done Neal, sorry you only got a round of applause!

So, at about 9:00 we left the site and wobbled home through warm streets and placed a few HAHA Rocks around the town as we went...
So, what better song than The Kinks? Though yesterday wasn't an afternoon for lazing...

Smile

I love it when a plan comes together! The Town Hall steps was a great location for our plant sale yesterday.

Setting up

Our lovely plotholders, from the Marsh Lane and Fairfields sites, provided us with masses of plants: courgettes, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, brassica, chard, flowers, herbs, and more unusual items like ornamental grasses, cucamelon and celeriac. Also bags of gooseberries and rhubarb.

The sales team: Forbes, Kerry, Andy, me and Gill

We had so many plants that we easily covered the three trestle tables and could re-stock each time an empty spot appeared. It was lovely talking to the many visitors about the allotments and how we're getting on with our growing this year. And we managed to advertise our Open Day (8th July) quite a lot - that's the next thing for us to start planning...

Trying to answer gardening questions

The sun shone (most of the time- though I've added a bit of extra sunshine to these photos) so there were a lot of people in the town and the Coffee morning for cancer inside the Town Hall was handy! We made about £100 total profit, which is great but the main point of the sale is to promote the allotments.

Encouraging the younger generation

Adorned with our HAHA aprons (bought through a Tesco Bags of Help grant) we had a great day with lots of fun and smiles.

Song title courtesy of Lily Allen.

Hard to Beat

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

Here's Hard-Fi with the great title song...