That was 2024

Well 2024 passed by in a whirl - a rather wet & windy whirl... I’m pleased to say we enjoyed two weddings, no funerals, a Euros football final, a happy general election plus a lot of working, gardening, reading and picnics. Here’s a quick-ish summary, with my reading list at the end.

January

We had a few frosty days, with temperatures down to -9° but mostly just wet. Oh dear it was very wet, with severe floods in nearby towns and rivers bursting their banks. The allotment was very soggy so not workable but we managed to harvest leeks and parsnips.

February

Another wet, grey and windy month but we got some digging done and planted our ‘orchard’ - 3 tiny fruit trees. And we had a HAHA workday. Plotholders happy to actually get outside to do something constructive - clearing Ivan’s communal fruitcage.

Nice to see the return of old friends 😉

March

Rain persisted but there was some sunshine. The ground was still too wet to achieve much so we hand-weeded to avoid compacting the soil. Hard work but always satisfying to see ground ready and waiting.

April

At last, some clear skies and sunshine! That’s what we like to see; fresh new growth and there were tadpoles in our little pond plus our first blossom on the cherry tree.

Brrr, it was really cold though. There had been a couple of frosts so we kept the fleece on hand to protect the strawberry flowers and anything else that didn’t appreciate the biting wind!

May

Days began to feel a bit warmer. Broad beans were being harvested and sowing and planting was well underway. The frequent torrential downpours kept the slugs and snails happy and they were the bane of many a plotholder; seedlings disappeared soon after emerging or being planted out. But what joy to enjoy some warmer Sunday picnics,  though we still had to wrap up warm as soon as the Sun disappeared.

And May provided our first wedding of the year - and an overnight change of scene. What a fabulously fun wedding it was! Congratulations to Sarah and Dan 😘

June

Our second wedding of the year and another night away, in a shepherd’s hut in torrential rain. This wedding was tremendous fun too - another non-traditional excellent event. Congratulations to Joe and Soulla 😍

Initially still cold enough for fleece protection we did manage to enjoy a mini-heatwave in the middle of the month.  Harvests were beginning to get interesting and some plants were very slowly beginning to grow, but the soaking soil soon solidified under the sweltering Sun causing more problem growing conditions. (6 months in, you can see it was a rather trying year!)

Flowers were finally showing themselves but everything was a bit sluggish - hoho, see what I did there🐌

July

Fabulous sunshine, torrential rain - that should have been great growing weather but sorry to say that molluscs seemed to eat faster than the plants could grow.

Having cleared all the broad beans there was mostly only salad leaf and turnips in the trug. There were some great times in July: England were in the Euros Final (just beaten by Spain), the general election (an end to 14 years of tories), Sunday picnics and the verbena bonariensis began to put on a beautiful display for months providing much needed nectar to the bees, butterflies and other insects.

And we were very excited to catch sight of the visiting fox on the wildlife camera! There had been evidence and we think he was after the pheasants that had bred on the site.

The last few days of July provided a few 30° days which were extremely welcome.

August

Summer stayed for a while. We even appreciated the rain when it arrived. 

Picnics were plenty and harvests were more varied: courgettes, cucumbers, potatoes, beans, tomatoes and better salads. The zinnia eventually began to flower, but not quite the show I was hoping for. And the night camera showed we had a regular hedgehog visitor as well as a group of sparrows enjoying dust baths in the polytunnel.

September

Our first sweetcorn were picked - they were slow to arrive, short-stemmed and germination was poor but what we had was worth waiting for.

It was a thundery month with occasional flashes of lightning in more torrential rainstorms. And to add to the climate chaos we had our first frost - on the 15th September, not a welcome record after the slow start to the growing season 😒

But when the crazy weather wasn’t being thrown at us there was some lovely sunshine and excellent harvests of beans, carrots, peppers, courgette, garlic, Cavolo Nero and tomatoes.

October

Another very wet month but we had some lovely picnics by the warmth of the chimenea, watching bats and enjoying the wonders of the nightsky including satellites and a fab Super moon.

I stepped down from the HAHA committee after 14 years and I think it was good timing. It should give us more time to look after our own plots and still enjoy the friendly, social aspects of our lovely site.

We had a delivery of Apsley Farms mulch to slow some of the weed growth. Further frosts and sub-zero temperatures prevented any plans for digging and clearing. I’d protected my few squashes with fleece over the last two months, but picked them all in October. The festival squash was tastier than the butternut at this stage, but a bit of storage time increased the sugars in the butternut over time.

November

The phrase ‘cyclonic gloom’ entered our vocabulary - weeks of dull cloud-covered nothing. Probably the driest stretch of the year, but no chance for the squelching ground to recover as Storm Bert arrived. However at least one mild Sunday gave us the opportunity for another picnic. The cat joined us and provided a dead rat for entertainment…

Later we had some proper frosts and even a brief snow flurry - temperatures dipped to -4° so that was the end of the any remaining non-hardy plants.

December

So here we are with more wind, rain and frosts but not so unexpected in this month. I ate the last of the stored butternuts.

Christmas has been, and continues to be full of relaxation and fun. We only made it to the allotment once so far to pick some sprouts.

We’ve got signs of life for the year ahead with broad beans, garlic and leeks. Still hopeful that the PSB will provide some tasty heads in the next couple of months and I really do want some roasted sprouts.

2024 Books

I’ve read a lot this year, 28 books, probably because the weather made us stay inside more. These have been my favourites - see GoodReads.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hoping 2025 brings a bit more warmth and sunshine, a bit less wind and rain but just as many HAPPY TIMES. 

 Happy New Year!

Looking Back

I hope you’ve had an enjoyable Christmas and that 2024 brings you plenty of good times as well as an extra day in February. I’m hoping that 2024 runs a bit slower than recent years, but we’ll see. Thankyou for dropping by occasionally and I hope you enjoy the music, here’s a brief look back over last year, with some fave photos and my book list at the end. Happy to receive any book or music suggestions of course!

January 

The first planting of the year was some Egyptian walking onions. Unfortunately, along with all my spring onions, the slugs enjoyed them. I’ll try again though!

It was a wet start to 2023 (we couldn’t know how wet the year was going to continue!). We had at least one super frost, although no snow. The cold nights gave us some beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

The allotment was providing us with carrots, Cavolo Nero and parsnips.

February 

Clearing and digging began in earnest as the ground dried up. We actually felt we were ahead of the game for a change.

And the Cavolo Nero kept providing - I think I’ll plant it again this year - and purple sprouting broccoli finally started producing the delicious flowerheads. A month later than 2022, but worth the wait.

March

Early March was when we got some snow. We had to get up in the wee hours to enjoy it; it (and we) didn’t hang around long.

Last year’s dried beans made for some tasty meals including these bean burgers, served with steamed purple sprouting broccoli - delish.

April

Finally time to start sowing most of the seeds that we’d ordered. Lots of different flowers for the flower plot were protected in the polytunnel. The chitted potatoes were also planted in the ground and a few in bags.

There was a mix of some warm weather among the wet and chillier days. April is a great allotment month, with lots of busy/chatty plotholders and plenty to catch up on, but thank goodness we have the polytunnel.

Along with the PSB, rhubarb and fresh chive flowers joined the meal plans.

May

Aah May! Still more to sow (including pre-germinated parsnips which were direct-sown) and so much growth with proper colour on the plots. The hedge full of flower and birds infuses a keen-ness to get tiny plants into the ground, but we hold off unless we have back-ups on hand.

It was a mostly sunny month so perfect for growing and working. OK, there was some rain but not altogether unwelcome.

We even started an early courgette in the polytunnel. It kept producing for months; we moved it outside in the Summer.

Delicious leeks were on the menu along with a few early strawberries.

June

It really was a flaming June - it was so sunny and beautiful, we thought it was a sign of a sweltering Summer, like last year, but that didn’t quite work out.

We saw bullfinches, a rosemary beetle and a previously unseen red and black froghopper, but even better were the plotholder gatherings!

And we enjoyed a sunny site Open Day.

Salads were getting more interesting with delicious broad beans, mangetout and radish.

July

Nia provided us with the sweetcorn plants as most of ours had failed to germinate and the watering regime was hard work …initially…

And then the rain came and everyone cheered, but the polytunnel still needed watering…

And the rain carried on for a bit too long, but we all agreed that the plants were certainly enjoying it.

And you can’t have lovely trugfuls and platefuls of veggies without some help with the watering!

August

There was more rain, more sun and more allotment events.

Sadly we said happy 95th birthday to my mum and later in the month said goodbye to her for the last time.

Remembering happy times on holiday and her love of gardening through our own flower patch now.

A bumper bed of leeks were planted as our seedlings had grown well this year.

Harvests continued to include asparagus pea, courgettes, salad, potatoes and beets.

September 

Extreme temperatures arrived along with our late beans. We had to buy runner bean plants as ours refused to germinate, but the borlotti and French beans grew well on the tunnel frame.

Super-harvest month! Most of the borlotti beans and yin-Yang beans were left to dry on the plants and then finished their drying in the polytunnel. The weather was perfect for it.

The Scabiosa Stellata produced their pretty seedheads and other flowers were putting on a fine show of late Summer colour.

Apart from beans, potatoes, salad we had sweetcorn, aubergine and peppers on the menu.

October

A few sunny days encouraged the last of the flowers to bloom ahead of the first frosts and we even had a barbecue! And we managed to sow our broad beans as intended.

As well as frost there was a lot more rain as the first Winter storms arrived. We got off lightly compared to other areas, but still completely drenching. 

Luckily our pumpkins were stored in the polytunnel by then and all the sweetcorn and beans had been harvested.

Sweetcorn, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, leeks and pumpkin were on the menu.

November

Yet another rainy month, so a very soggy plot for occasional visits and manure deliveries. 

Surprisingly we’ grown good parsnips this year; all the rain hasn’t caused canker and although some are multi-legged ones they’re tasty and some are very big. Much better than our attempts in recent years.

Squash, beetroot, parsnips and carrots provided meal ingredients.

December 

So here we are another year has flown by with happy and sad times to reflect on. 

Plans are in progress, with fruit trees waiting in the polytunnel and seed catalogues on hand. The weather is wet but warm so weeds are taking over, but we’ll get to them one dry day quite soon…

The nights are shortening and there are signs of Spring bulbs to look forward to. In the meantime we’ll continue enjoying our Christmas and new year celebrations. 

I have two new ‘My Favourite Books’ as a result of this year’s reading list: 

I realise I’m late to reading ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, after all it’s 85 years old, but it is amazing and sadly poignant in today’s world. Definitely worth a re-read in my opinion. 

And the ‘The Murmur of Bees’ is so beautifully translated from the original Spanish. With a touch of magic I found it totally absorbing and delightful.

Happy new year and thankyou for popping by 🙂

Song title provided by Keane.