New Life

I was amazed to see how quickly the frogspawn have developed. The frilly bits aren’t legs yet though, they’re external gills. The tadpoles look much more black in real life and are very small. I recorded their arrival on the Pondnet Spawn Survey.

Most of the hatched tadpoles were huddled together eating the remaining spawn jelly. I retrieved some more tadpoles from a puddle before it dried out in the hot March sunshine and put it in the newly- created pond in the bog garden on the HAHA Wildlife plot. It'll look better once there's a bit of growth round the outside and I'll probably buy a plant for in the pond.

When I pointed out the ‘pond’ to a new plotholder he said “I drink my morning cocoa from a mug bigger than that”. Haha, you’ve got to laugh! It may be tiny, but it’s a life saver to some residents at the moment. I’ve put a flat stone in it so the birds may like it too, but I hope they don’t eat the froglets!

We've had a beautiful few days and I was on leave so enjoyed a sunny 4-day weekend. On Friday we visited the Inkpen Crocus Field again - we visited 3 years ago in February and there were more crocuses then, perhaps due to our recent wet and windy weather - the ground was soggy, even at the top of the hill. 

It's so pretty and natural with the crocuses tending to grow individually rather than in clumps, it's quite fascinating and the origin is unknown; I prefer to think of them as from 12th Century crusaders rather than garden escapees.

We walked more than 6km that day; my working-from-home legs aren't used to it! And then for the rest of the weekend we were working on the allotment - quite exhausting, but so lovely to be out in the sunshine.

I showed a couple of new plotholders around and there were lots of people gardening on site. Along with many butterflies (comma, brimstone, tortoiseshell and whites) and bees enjoying the grape hyacinths and the few other flowers that are showing.

Let's hope they do their work on our broad bean flowers which have started to appear. Our bean plants are a really sickly bunch, so small after all the battering by the wind and frost, but we should get a few handfuls of beans eventually.

I spent most of the time working on the area by our pond where the mammoth sage had taken over with a tree-like root. Eventually managed to pull the remaining roots along with the couch grass, raspberry and various other roots - in fact I still have a tiny strip to do. The soil looks quite good, but I'm mostly clearing it for our new seating area.

We've actually sown a few seeds, including mangetout. They're in the polytunnel at the moment. On a couple of the sunny mornings this week I've popped up to the allotment first thing to open up the door. The temperature in the polytunnel has fluctuated between 30° and -3° over the last week! Jamie's been closing up at the end of the day. The mornings are so beautiful up there, it's hard to pull myself away to sit back at my desk, but it is a lovely benefit of home-working.

Seems like I'll be working from home for a while yet, as covid cases are increasing again - not suprising as people don't need to isolate. It seems that a 5th vaccination will be on the cards for immuno-suppressed people... ho hum.. Anway, less of that depressing news... the song title is provided by an extremely young Depeche Mode. Feel free to bop 😉

Its Only Natural

What an unexpected bonus for two days leave in February - temperatures in the high teens with a beautiful blue sky. Just lovely! Yesterday we had little trip to a nearby village called Inkpen to visit a ... field.

And what a field! The Inkpen Crocus Field is apparently "Britain's biggest display of wild crocuses" and I'm not surprised, but I am surprised that we only learned of its existence a couple of weeks ago.

The flowers aren't densely packed like in Kew Gardens or other cultivated gardens. It's prettier, I think, because the blooms aren't really in clumps as you may expect. Were they brought back by 12th Century crusaders? Or have they just escaped from nearby gardens? Well, surely there would be yellow ones if they were garden escapees....

Anyway, we loved it (and so did all the bees) and if you're in the area you should take a look.

And we saw a couple of deer while we were there - always a pleasure to spot these shy animals.

Male Roe Deer

Female Roe Deer

After that little jaunt we were working on the plot today. We cleared the patch where we had left potatoes in the ground. None suitable for eating, not surprisingly after all these months! Jamie gave it a good dig over once we'd cleared all the spuds - that looks better!

I planted up two pots for a Summer display - intended to pretty up the communal area during our Open Day in July/August (we haven't agreed a date yet). I added a small Rudbeckia plant to the Leucocoryne pot, as they are only meant to flower in June/July, whereas the Crocosmia should flower 'all Summer long'.

I chopped back all the snow-damaged broad bean plants - it hasn't left much growth! But we have plans to sow some more beans in modules, so if we manage to get even a few early ones from these plants we'll be happy.

And here's an impressive beetle I found. Looking gorgeous in the sunshine - A violet oil beetle, given away by lovely violet tinges on its sides and legs.

The title song by Crowded House is of course referring to the Inkpen Crocus Field.