Dammit

Forbury Gardens, Reading

We’ve had some glorious sunny weather and the wind finally died down so we had a little taste of Summer. Particularly welcome on Saturday when we took the train to Reading and enjoyed an afternoon in the presence of the huge (31 foot) Maiwand Lion in Forbury Gardens. The Reading Vegan Fiesta was really well-attended and a great place for people-watching.. It was so hot we had to seek shade on occasion but it was a fun, if exhausting, day.

It’s so nice to attend events knowing that all the food on offer is suitable for us, as vegetarians. We stuck with our favourite Vegan Street Diner hot dogs - they’re just too tasty to turn down and had the longest queue of all the food stalls!

Showing off my new hat

On Saturday morning I had the latest Covid jab - have lost count now, but it’s still worth having the vaccine even though Covid is no longer in the news. After that I nipped to the allotment to check all was ok. We didn’t zip up the polytunnel because no frost was forecast - uh-oh … our happy tomatoes were no longer happy…

The temperature in the polytunnel had dropped to -3.1°. One of the tiny pepper seedlings had also been frost-burned and the first leaves that we spotted in the potato row had been caught too. I wishfully thought there was a chance that the tomatoes may recover but by the evening….

Oh dear, what a sad affair. They had really suffered so the frost must have hung around for a bit - well it was a sorry lesson, as I used to say a lot at work “it’s only a forecast”. So yesterday we had another trip to Waitrose and déjà vu we potted on the tomatoes in the polytunnel.

These are different varieties from what we originally bought and are grafted plants: Rubylicious, Honeycomb and Crimson Plum. We’ll take more care this time …

Over the last week I dug a second compost-filled hole for  a courgette on Plot7. We sowed butternut squash and courgette seeds under the grow light at home - the Atena Polka yellow courgettes germinated but we’re still waiting for the butternut. The chard and beetroot seedlings are just appearing in their modules in the polytunnel and I sowed the Snowstar leek seeds outside. I sowed the whole packet as any we don’t grow on or give away can be used like spring onions. We’ve also sown some broad beans in pots in the polytunnel for planting out next month, hopefully. 

I potted on the remaining perennials - it seems that the Geum and Coreopsis plants may not have made it, but there are 40 surviving plants so more than enough for us and a future plant sale.

We cleaned out the Bokashi compost bin;  the solid waste was put in the bottom of one of the squash holes and we have a bottle of liquid fertiliser. It smells SO bad it must be good stuff!!

The apple has blossomed - so pretty - I wonder if it will fruit this year 🤔 The pear and cherry now have leaves, I need to check whether there’s any evidence of fruit on them - here’s a nice little video of a pear from flower to fruit, so I know what to look for on the pear tree.

I’m (so far) keeping on top of weeding ‘the orchard’. It’s rather satisfying to clear the clumps of bindweed when it dares to emerge through the mulch.

So now it’s Monday morning again and I’d better get moving to open up the polytunnel. It is very pleasant to visit the plot early (-ish) in the morning and just sit quietly watching the birds.

The apt song title is provided by Blink 182 and obviously refers to our tomato shenanigans.

Long Train Running

It’s been extremely hot again, reaching 30° and there’s still a holiday-feel in Hungerford when the Sun shines. We’ve enjoyed walks to feed the ducks in town and on Sunday went to the monthly Food & Artisan market and had a cake by the canal - lots of canal boats visiting. The allotments are further up the canal in that direction.

On Wednesday I took leave so Jamie and I had a trip to the seaside - Hayling Island, we haven’t been there for years. It was rather cold and windy 🙄 but we did enjoy some terrific thunder and lightning! 

We went on the little train along the beach, well, why wouldn’t you?! 

It was fun trundling along waving at people and we couldn’t have walked it.

We played on coin-push machines, had chips and watched seagulls arguing over some biscuits. Traditional British seaside amusement ☺️

We even had a paddle in the sea - I was panicking that Jamie would fall down, but I’m pleased to say all went well!

I’m leaning rather than the horizon - I was paddling at the time

So, no matter what the weather we had a fab, exhausting, day. Of course, the next day I had to work and it was really hot again - we were too tired to even visit the plot so it had another day without water - the plants, especially the flowers and sunflowers really didn’t appreciate it and were completely flagging by Friday but have cheered up again now. 

The amaranthus (Love lies bleeding) was transplanted when it popped up having self-seeded amongst the potatoes so I’m pleased that survived. And I think I sowed the cerinth last year (or maybe it was this year) and there’s a nice little cluster of those interesting flowers in the flowerbed.

Many veg plants are going over now though, seems like a short season. The Baby cucumber has burned itself out and I’ve started removing some of the dried bean pods from the Gigantes with the Borlotti following soon. But the melons are trying hard to produce something…. This is in the polytunnel and the outdoor plants have a few fruits too.

And the squashes on the tunnel are beginning to flower and fruit - this is the so-called rampant Shark’s Fin melon squash. Well, perhaps not rampant for us this year… or perhaps there’s still time.

I’m pleased that the earlier-sown radishes have produced their seed pods now which I enjoy snacking on and the flower is quite pretty too.

The aubergines are bulking up and more tomatoes are ripening - even a few of the tiny redcurrant tomatoes so there’s still more to enjoy - but I’m glad I didn’t sign-up to put anything in the Horticultural Show!

The Doobie Brothers provide the excellent song title - enjoy ☺️ 

What Ive Done

On Thursday I sowed some Tigerella tomato seeds in a tray - they're on my windowsill at work because it's such a light window without full sun. And, as an aside, that lovely orchid has been in flower since the Christmas holidays!

Yesterday we spent 6 hours on the plot - exhausting work, but great to have cleared and dug such a large area of Plot3. This is how it looked initially...

And, after Jamie dug a huge trench and we added three of last years spent tomato bags plus 3 bags of lovely home-made compost...

We could then rake it over and it now it looks like this.

And to stop the annoying weeds returning before we've even planted the broad and runner beans, we've covered the whole lot in weed fabric.

Today I sowed 25 sweet peas in the greenhouse - protected by 'giant crumpet' packages, which happen to be a perfect fit for those pots!

Surprisingly we managed to miss any rain all weekend - though today certainly threatened.

Another thing I missed (pretty much) was the steam train that went past while we were working yesterday...

Today's song is by Linkin Park - such a great song and video. It should be 'what we've done' of course!

A Day out from Hungerford

A little off topic, but as this is an allotment blog, here's how our site looked from the train yesterday.

You can see our greenhouse under the tree at the back in the middle

We took the 7 minute train trip to Great Bedwyn just so that I could get that photo - we see so many trains going past while we're sitting on the bench I wanted to see it from the other perspective. It wasn't quite as successful as I'd hoped; my favourite little Olympus camera is playing up :-(

Great Bedwyn is along the Kennet and Avon canal West of Hungerford but we've never quite managed the 8km walk there. So, from the station at Great Bedwyn we walked the 3km to Crofton Beam Engines along the canal. It was reasonably warm and bright so good for walking.

We didn't go to see the beam engines as we went earlier in the year and they weren't 'in steam' yesterday so we walked on to find the Wilton Windmill which was signposted from the Crofton lock.We stopped for a little picnic at Wilton Water where we saw this cormorant (we think that's what it is).

and a heron along with masses of kites and buzzards.

We found the windmill after walking through the very pretty village of Wilton.

It was a bit further than we thought, but definitely worth the walk and the sun came out while we were sitting in the windmill field.

As it was a weekday the windmill wasn't open but it was lovely sitting looking up at it and the fabulous views beyond.

A walk back through the fields and we were on our way back along the canal to our train trip home.

A total of 15km walked was plenty and made for a lovely birthday.

It's raining today, so no allotment today either - well, maybe just a quick visit...