Hung Up

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…

Here’s Madonna, it’s a singalong- enjoy!

This is the Day

Look at that! A month has passed. It’s been a busy month with lots of sowing, a bit of digging and some planting. The weather has been extremely dry and mostly sunny but a northerly wind has consistently caused irritation. Jamie has been walking a lot with regular allotment and shopping trips

We planted our potatoes in April - Kestrel and Duke of York in the ground, with a couple of Nicola in bags. They’ve been earthed up now, managed to avoid a couple of frosts earlier this month. They’re in front of these salsify plants - the flowers open in the morning, but close by lunchtime.

The hedgerow is full of life and we’re peppered with confetti whenever we sit on the bench as the May blossom is just going over, it’s been a good year for blossom, even with the wind.

We sowed our climbing beans (Scarlet Empire runners, borlotti and Gigantes) on 2nd May but only the Gigantes successfully germinated, so they’ve now been planted in a wigwam. We’ll re-sow the others.

The sweetcorn finally got planted out, I meant to do a block, but planted in two rows instead for ease of protection from frost. Lots of the parsnips germinated and I thinned them out this week. It’s so dry the watering is quite a chore, but essential at this time. We’re expecting some broad beans to be ready for harvesting soon, so keep them well-watered. We’ve sown carrots into a green crate and beets, lettuce and radish are sown. Chard and nasturtium are in the raised bed along with parsley, which was a supermarket-bought plant and divided into four.

The plots aren’t looking very tidy but things are growing and that’s the best we can achieve during this difficult year. The weeds are going to love that bare earth when the rain does arrive 😒 I’m fighting the bindweed in the orchard; the mulched ground makes it easy to spot the bindweed, but it just keeps coming back and our little apple and cherry trees got aphid attacked this year.

As long as we harvest a few crops, grow some pretty flowers and get time to sit in the sunshine amongst it I’ll be happy. Sadly, Jamie’s not really enjoying it at the moment, understandably, as he’s still so worn out and not feeling sociable but I hope that will improve along with his health.

The song title, provided by The The, is to mark my change to part-time working. Hopefully more free-time will help with everything!

Love is in the Air

I had a lovely week off and Sunday was a perfect Summer’s day ending with wine and snacks as the Sun disappeared over the hedge.

Those neat poles are plot-neighbour, Neal’s, in the evening sunshine. House martins were swooping low over them but they were too quick for me and my camera. I'm pleased to say that our plots are looking a bit tidier and active now that seeds have been sown under various protective covers. This area has carrots (Purple Dragon and Autumn King), coriander, Gladiator parsnips and Mammoth salsify.

Jamie’s earthed-up the potatoes (everyone thinks he’s buried someone under there!) and I’ve sown another row of beetroot as the first row didn’t appear or the seedlings were chomped by slugs as soon as they emerged. Yin Yang and Borlotti beans are sown at home and the Scarlet Empire runner beans and Blue Lake french beans will be planted out next weekend.

I wish slugs and snails would concentrate on weeds rather than preferring our plants of choice! This mullein caterpillar is more welcome - looking amazing and choosing to eat a figwort, as no mullein is available. The square stem of the figwort is pretty amazing too isn't it?

The raised bed is weed-free at last and yesterday I sowed rows of lettuce, spicey salad leaves, asparagus pea and nasturtiums - I think they may end up as snail-food, but thought I’d risk it - otherwise we’ll definitely not have anything growing. I've also planted some thyme at the herb end - just need to get a parsley plant to grow in there again as last year's went to seed.

It’s all rather brown at the moment so here’s a spot of colour - beautiful self-seeded snap dragons which have formed a large clump. Bumble bees love going in through the trap door.

And the bees and hoverflies are loving the Nigella and valerian flowers.

These two hoverflies were loving each other(!) in Linda’s shoe(!!) while we were picnicking - the male was flapping his wings as if in flight and there was very loud buzzing. I discovered later that they are Narcissus Bulb hoverflies and the female will go on to lay her eggs in soil so the larva can destroy a flower bulb 🙄 Tut, oh well it was interesting to see..

The hedgerow is full of robins feeding their young at the moment. It’s the first year that we’ve seen males actually sharing rather than fighting for territory/food. We’ve had to add an additional piece of netting after a sparrow hawk (probably) dive-bombed the feeding post in a lightning attack just a couple of metres from where Jamie was sitting. We think the robin managed to avoid being taken - phew!

The whole packet of Musselborough leeks have been sown into 3 short rows on Plot3. We'll transplant them where the broad beans are currently - that'll be in another couple of months.

We've had some broad beans already and are including them in a few meals this week. The beans closer to the ground are falling foul of slugs and I think the pheasants are enjoying a few pecks too... And we've so far only eaten one strawberry as everytime they go red something eats the delicious fruit before we get there... it is most likely the fat little vole we saw bouncing away from that area yesterday 😕 Hmm, it's been a trying year so far!

But, I'll try not to complain too much. We've had a lovely week with some warm sunny weather and earlier in the week we attended the wedding of the new Mr & Mrs Smith (our niece). A lovely and entertaining wedding with this beautiful young family. Such fun. And we're looking forward to another wedding in a couple of weeks too!

So, now I need to start work, rather a lot of emails to catch up on I'm sure! Enjoy the song by John Paul Young (which I was sad to see has been used in a MacDonalds advert).

Northern Lights

Ohhh, it’s been a busy time at work so I haven’t posted since the early May and now the end of May is almost upon us! 

The good news is that I’m off work for over a week; the bad news is that the weather forecast looks like this…

We have had some lovely early morning plot visits to water seedlings. It’s a lovely start to a working day, but all the slugs and snails are still making their way to their daytime haunts and they are EVERYWHERE 😖.

Turnips have germinated in the ground under that netting, but I think most of the beetroot became slug food, so will need re-sowing. The mangetout is rather thin on the ground too, so that may just be a frame for ipomoea. We’re feeling very slow this year but areas of the plot are gradually being cleared to make way for plantings quite soon…

This plot with our over-Wintered broad beans, will have sweetcorn and a Festival squash. The Lark sweetcorn have started to germinate (several days after sowing in modules at home) and the squash is growing on in the Polytunnel along with several other squashes and courgettes.

You can see that May has provided some beautiful warm blue sky days as well as torrential rain showers. Sunny late Sunday afternoons have been spent enjoying a wine tasting and picnics with Ivan, Linda and other plot friends who have come to join us. 

The birds seem particularly abundant this year, partly because the Merlin app has made us aware of them. We have at least 4 robins vying for the mealworms we take up each visit and I’ve enjoyed hearing cuckoos and song thrushes among many other birds.

I’ve had two lovely meals with dried Borlotti and Yin Yang beans stored from last year. This one with mascarpone and orzo pasta with tomatoes and spinach.

And this one with harissa pesto mixed into the mascarpone and spaghetti with the remaining spinach - so delicious 🤤 

So, you can see it’s been a good month all-in-all! And, how about the song title? How exciting that the northern lights were visible from Hungerford!! And, of course I was aware of them because Jamie had told me and AuroraWatch was flashing red - just one problem… we were tucked up in bed fast asleep so missed the show 🙄 Luckily plot-chum, Kerry, stayed up and got these shots (Thanks Kerry!).

Jamie and I did enjoy looking at the Sunspots through Solar Eclipse glasses, but that wouldn’t photograph so here’s another of Kerry’s great shots.

I wonder when I’ll get another opportunity to use this blast from the past by Renaissance! Enjoy!

Snail

We’ve had lots of rain (though thank goodness, nothing like the catastrophic deluge that Storm Babet brought down on some parts of the UK) and a couple of frosts which have turned the plot into the usual Autumn coloured scene. I had two visits to the plot yesterday. The first just to collect some of the mini pumpkins for the nursery school and to get some for my sister. I gave her some beetroot and parsley too.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the parsley plants had survived the frost but I don't think they'll last much longer. I had 5 plants all taken from one Tescos parsley plant - definitely worth splitting and planting out and easier than sowing seeds. Even the one that the slugs ate down to one stem back in May recovered to produce a bushy plant.

The Love lies bleeding has been properly frost-scorched, as has the courgette (small cheer).

The beans from the tunnel really need clearing, but there are a few flowers left unscathed lower down on the Spanish Flag.

Yesterday we were concentrating on clearing the tomatoes and aubergine from the actual polytunnel. The robin flew in there in the morning because I dared to visit the plot with no mealworms for him - he was quite miffed!

I didn't visit that early but the Sun was so low it was casting a beautiful light over the site. 

The temperature in the polytunnel had fallen to 3.4° overnight but it felt reasonably warm in the sunshine and with my thick jumper on. The scabious stellata seedheads are still looking interesting.

The second trug of the day after Jamie and I spent the afternoon chatting and clearing is for me. I’m making a leek, carrot and parsley soup for lunches. And the pumpkins are going to be in a version of this bean and pumpkin curry; I'm going to use some of my dried borlotti beans.

The carrots are crazy; mostly multi-legged and some monstrous ones! And there are snails absolutely everywhere - loads of tiny baby ones looking for somewhere to over-Winter and then come out in Spring to eat all our seedlings 😖

Song title provided by the Smashing Pumpkins.