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!
I finally used the macrame kit my sister gave me a while ago (sorry Carolyn, I think it’s been used as a monitor stand for a few years 🤦♀️). I must say it was rather fiddly and I did have to unravel the plant hangers a couple of times. I definitely didn’t follow the instructions properly but they look alright and no-one will look that closely 🙂 Anyway, they’re perfect for that little plant and a re-homed spider-baby plus I bought the white pot for 50p from the Antiques Arcade in Hungerford - bargain!
While I was getting into knots, I grew an affinity with this (not so) little lady Cross Orbweaver spider weaving her web on our window. (I could have done with some extra limbs for the macramé). Sorry for the blurry photo, taken through double-glazing - no way I’m getting close even if we did bond! I’m not a spider fan, but she is fascinating to watch. She sleeps under a leaf and waits for the day to warm up a bit before fixing her web and sitting waiting for anything to cause a vibration, then she’s up and on them. She spent a long time dealing with a leaf; I’m not sure if she ate it or tossed it aside but I did see her deal with a butterfly, which was rather disturbing.
Since my last post the weather has turned dry and cold - especially overnight. I picked all the outdoor melons as the foliage had died back and a frost was threatened - I’m hoping one or two of them will ripen at home. The melon in the trug was from the polytunnel and was so ripe you could smell the sweetness. And it was delicious.
And finally I’ve had some beetroot - so incredibly slow to bulb up this year. I’m trying to blame the weather but I know I should have thinned out the seedlings earlier - along with so many jobs that didn’t get done properly this year, but…. Plot7 did win third prize in the plot judging, I think maybe there wasn’t much competition!
On the last sunny day a week ago I planted 48 Snowball onions - lovely white ones. I put a net over them to deter birds/mice/squirrels from digging them out. The leeks and onions are going to be joined by garlic quite soon and the whole bed is going to be highlighted with salsify judging by the number of seedlings I found. Well, they have a pretty flower, so I don’t mind as long as they don’t get in the way and perhaps I’ll actually get to eat one next year.
I think plot neighbour, Neal’s, busy Lizzie’s are evidence that there was some frost on site, but it’s only hit a few susceptible plants so far.
Our flower plot avoided it and even got some nicotiana which has been attempting to put on a show for months.
And I do love the Cerinthe Major and the sedum which the bees were enjoying today too.
Our scattered sunflowers have taken advantage of what little Sun they’ve seen over the last week but they didn’t know where to look for it today!
The sunshine and showers earlier in the month have encouraged everything to re-grow - this was a bare patch of earth 4 weeks ago, now it’s a whole bed of nigella, valerian, cranesbill geranium, bindweed and probably a few other things - some welcome, others less so… I’ve been hoeing quite a bit but I think that’s just helping the seedlings, until the weather gets really cold - which I don’t really want!
So from that green foliage to the lovely colourful chard - it seems to have enjoyed the raised bed after a dodgy start. It’s so pretty - I just wish Jamie liked the taste of it 😊
We’ve just passed the Autumn equinox now so the days are getting shorter. Pull those curtains and snuggle in, surely all the fruits and berries mean we’re in for a hard Winter…. Brrr, we’ll see…
This time last week I was buzzing about, getting into a bit of a panic about the fete planning and the Hungerford in Bloom judging, which both happened at the weekend - you may have noticed.
Jamie and I did some final frantic clearing of Plot7 on Friday - Jamie's neat edging always makes it look tidy and the polytunnel now looks like a growing area, rather than a messy shed! We have three Aviditas tomatoes on the left and three peppers on the right.
The judge took 3 hours walking around the site, judging the plots and scoring them according to size - HAHA decided a couple of years ago that it was difficult to compare a 1-pole plot with a gardener who has 16-poles. Jamie and I only entered Plot7 into the competition - it's the only plot in my name (I don't know why that is, but it was a good job).
Anyway, because everyone who entered had made their plots look lovely for the judging, the site really was looking its very best for the fete on Sunday afternoon. And the sun shone - phew, it was hot!
We had lots of visitors - happy children when they saw the bouncy castle; happy adults to see the tables set out down the centre of the site and happy everyone when they saw the amazing stock of cakes and the barbecue.
We had several games as well as the tombola - Guess the Teddy name, treasure map (based on the site plot numbers), the spray boat and blow boat races went down very well. A little friendly competition between partners ...
..and friends. I beat Ivan. I won with dignity I feel :-D
The ping-pong pots game, coin toss and ultimate lemons (have you ever tried balancing a coin on a lemon in water?) proved popular too. As well as the FlowerPot pressies for children.
The wheel of fortune was an excellent piece of engineering and raised quite a bit too, drawing attention whenever it was spun.
And the Aunt Sally and HorseShoe tossing games also kept people entertained. The trouble with running a fete is that you miss out on so much of the fun yourself, don't get to take enough photos and it was exhausting. However, I managed to talk to lots of visitors (never managing to finish a conversation) and it was a pleasure when they marvelled at our site on its 10th Anniversary.
We were visited by ex-plotholders, local councillors, the local newspaper photographer as well as people who had never visited the site before. Also, Bill Ackworth who was a councillor when the site was sourced and first set up in 2009 - so lovely for him to see what a fantastic community he founded. It was definitely a great event for raising the profile of the allotments in Hungerford.
THANKYOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED, DONATED,
LOANED OR VISITED US AT THE WEEKEND!
Guess the weight of the cake! 1.8kg
And finally, after our mad bit of tidying, planting, edging and clearing <drumroll please> we won 1st place in the '2-3 Poles' category in Hungerford in Bloom! What a welcome surprise!!
And we pulled our garlic
The song is by Jorge Drexler "Todo se transforma" which is referring to the site - because of the beautiful plots and also how different it looks when there are lots of people there!
