Cuckoo

Yesterday was my last day of freedom - back to work today (it's too early for work at the moment, if you're wondering!!), still full-time from home so that’s not so bad, but I have so enjoyed the last week that I’m sorry it’s over already. Morning and afternoon visits to a warm, often sunny plot - perfect.

Pink, flavoured vinegar in-progress

The weather for the last two days was very warm, but not too much sunshine which (I hate to say) was a good thing otherwise we wouldn’t have achieved as much as we wanted. Like (drumroll please) my 10 squashes are planted. 

They’re being protected under netting, with slug pellets, until they get established, they look so vulnerable at the moment! The cut-off plastic bottles are for ease of watering when the tunnel has become a jungle (fingers crossed).

Regular visitors may remember that I bought celeriac plants because my seedlings were stuck at the ‘cress’ stage for so long. Well, I'm glad we didn't consign them to the compost as they eventually grew and so I made a trench for them on Plot3.

Neal gave us some Early Bird sweetcorn plants so Jamie dug the area on Plot3 where the manure pile was - clearing the many weeds and tree roots and they're protected by bottle cloches for the timebeing. I intend to try some Glass Gem sweetcorn (again) on Plot7 - I'm going to sow them direct one day this week, well that's the plan.

Plot3 is really looking like a worked-plot now!

But Plot 7 (and 8) will always be the favourites because they were our first. The polytunnel has been re-stocked with the following sown into modules or pots yesterday:

• Borlotto Firetongue (dwarf beans)
• Gaia (dwarf soya beans)
• Speedy (dwarf french beans)
• Gigantes (Greek runner beans)

• Purple Sprouting broccoli - these have been brought home under the grow light
• Moreton's Secret mix - "very mixed lettuces" from RealSeeds. I've sowed these in a tray and put them under the enviromesh with the carrots. The polytunnel would be too hot for them

The Scarlet Empire and Borlotto runner beans have a bit more growing to do before we'll plant them outside. And look at that big strawberry. Jamie assures me that if we wait till today we'll have a handful to eat rather than just one...

The flowers are enjoying the sunshine as much as us.

Aquilegia

Geum

The song title is an aide memoire, because I thought this was interesting but forgot to add to my earlier post. We've been hearing the cuckoo for weeks - it's somewhere over the marsh but the sound has been getting louder and closer over the last week.

Not a cuckoo

We commented that we'd never seen a cuckoo, but then last week the cuckoo and its mate were flying overhead across the allotment from North to South. The male was 'cuckoo-ing' all the way across and as it passed over you could see plotholders look up like some sort of mexican wave! It was quite a sight (and sound)! I'd certainly assumed that they only cuckoo when sitting and looking for a mate.

So here is Rising Appalachia to provide the song.

The Prince

Two visits to the plot this weekend. It was quite chilly but no horrible wind and today was one of the brighter days that we've so far had this January so we actually sat down, with a coffee in my pretty flask which I got for Christmas (Thanks Cathy!), to plan and listen to the birds.

Showing off my fancy nail varnish

There are too many robins in our hedge; they're all getting very stroppy with each other - you may not be able to see too well in this photo, but I assure you, three is definitely a crowd!

Yesterday we collected the frame for a new cage that we're having on Plot3 this year. Geoff, our outgoing HAHA chairman, is moving away so kindly offered us the cage at a bargain price. We just need to work out how to put it together now :-) It's about 2mx4m and tall enough that we can walk in it - which should mean that we look after our brassicas a bit better.

Our purple sprouting broccoli have been sprouting for several weeks but the effort of getting access to the plants means that we haven't eaten any yet - what a waste! They are so delicious. Yesterday I chopped back the flowering tips so they should produce some more tasty buds for us to actually eat this time.

It was a very wet day yesterday and the ground was so soggy we didn't hang round for long, but the walk back home was quite pleasant, as all the catkins and snowdrops are out and are so pretty.

Today we've planned a few things and I cleared a few bits and put green/brown waste into the compost bins. There's masses to do, but when the sky is blue and the birds are singing their little hearts out sometimes you just have to sit and listen - the ash tree by our plot was alive with song (I think it was goldfinches).

Now we're home and I'm cooking soup - with about a quarter of the Crown Prince squash that's been stored in the greenhouse all Winter.

I'll have to take some excess chunks to work but I am intending to have roast squash for dinner tomorrow. It's flavoured with leek, a little chilli, garlic powder and multi-coloured peppercorns from Tenerife.

I left it cooking long enough so that the squash completely softened, no need to blitz it - I just squashed the squash. I made too much, what a shame, I've had to eat a bowl of it now - yum yum :-) I've just remembered how I had to throw away my last Crown Prince soup - I roasted it that time. This time it really is delicious.

The song is by Madness and obviously is about the squash. I haven't decided if I'm growing big squash again this year...we'll see.

Things Can Only Get Better

There have been a few light frosts in the last week - I had to scrape ice from the windscreen on Monday so we knew that the plot would have been hit by it. I'm pleased that the two Crown Prince squashes both look ok, but I couldn't risk leaving them on the plant any longer.

The site doesn't look too bad - mostly flowers looking sad around the place, but not these lovely dwarf chrysanthemums, which are such a pretty colour. I'm glad I bought the tiny plant at our Plant Sale earlier in the year.

Luckily the greenhouse just managed to stay above freezing (0.5°!) and the peppers are still looking healthy - especially as they're so close to being ready now. The big question is, do we eat the orange ones or leave them for the Food Festival? Decisions, decisions... we'll be so disappointed if they go over or get frosted before next Sunday morning.

Jamie sowed some over-Wintering broad beans Aquadulce and we weeded lots of areas of the plots so things are looking reasonably tidy (in places). I re-attached the purple-sprouting broccoli onto their stakes - only one of the four plants grew up straight. There were masses of whitefly - I hope we have some proper cold weather to kill them off over the Winter.

It looks like we'll get a couple of swede this year - not quite so successful as last year.

I've just made some squash soup. I used one of the not-so-good Festival and a Honeyboat, that was a bit small. I roasted the squash first - the Festival tasted much nicer than the Honeyboat. I added some pretty spices (Paprika, Turmeric and Parsley with garlic) and plenty of salt and pepper to the stock.

The soup is very thick and, to be honest, not very tasty. I'm hoping it will improve overnight..

So the song title is for the soup...! Thanks to D:Ream... try getting this one out of your head :-)

The Number of the Beast

Ah, you don't know how long I've waited for my 666th blogpost so that I could use this song title! The closest I got to a photo of a beast is these tiny hedgehogs that Richard found on his plot. We're hoping that the mother was somewhere close-by.

It was a very windy day on the site and not very warm, but we got plenty done. Jamie's prepared the way for sowing our carrots. We're only growing Eskimo this year, no earlies. I planted out a Goldmine  courgette on Plot46A - I filled a big hole with manure and drenched it before I put the plant in. The salad bed on 46A is growing well, even after a mole made its way through the bed.

The purple sprouting brocolli plants (bought at the plant sale) are in - secured against well hammered-in metal poles. That should keep them upright, unlike last year. And I planted the two celeriac plants in an old recycling bin. I'll need to keep them well watered and need to remember to earth them up as they bulb up.

We didn't have time to plant out the two types of sweetcorn, but I planted out the second sowing of Borlotti and Edamame (soya) beans. We need to re-sow our dwarf french beans as only one germinated.

And the Winter squashes can wait a little longer too - I won't be planting them all, probably just one of each type. Plus I have some flowers to plant up. Oh, so much to do!

We were pleased to see the lovely flowers have appeared on two of the aubergine plants.

And here's a better harvest photo - even a few mangetout are ready - that's a couple of lunches sorted.

So here they are, Iron Maiden with 666 - the number of the beast. Sing along!

One Week

A lot can happen in a week in the Spring. We've had sweltering sunshine, tremendous thunder and lightning (sadly, I managed to sleep through it), torrential rain and now back to a little chill in the wind.

We've started harvesting our rhubarb and this is our 2nd harvest of purple sprouting broccoli. It is delicious but we definitely need to look after the plants more this year - the straighter stalks are more productive than the ones which fell over, so staking is going to be required. Especially as Marsh Lane is such a windy site.

I chopped all those chives to add onion-y flavour to the celery soup I decided to make (I had to buy the celery, but for 49p I think it was worth it). And the soup is so delicious and will provide me with at least two days of lunch - though I must admit I had to add a pinch of MSG and some mustard powder to enhance the flavour.

The seedlings, sown one week ago, have loved the heat in the greenhouse - at the front you can see our next batch of broad beans which have sprouted so are nearly ready to go out. Then there are our trays of marigolds (Durango Bee and Honeycomb). Some of these will be planted on our plots but the rest will be sold at the HAHA plant sale in June - we're holding it on the Town Hall steps in the centre of town, so we hope to get even more passersby than we saw last year.

The cauliflower (Amazing) have germinated - they look like cress at the moment. I hope they survive - we've never grown cauliflower before. The mangetout (Shiraz and Golden Sweet, in the drainpipe have just popped through the compost. They're now at their most vulnerable to mice who love the tasty new shoots. I have lots of twigs to protect them from (mostly) pheasants once they're planted out.

 

That was yesterday (Sunday). Today is St George's Day but we forgot to put our flag up - see here's a gif from our plot last year. It seems that it was better weather than we have today - we've returned to grey clouds and a fresh wind :-(

And the song title is provided by Barenaked Ladies - enjoy and have it in your head for the rest of the day!

My Favourite Game

Well, it's Spring now and it was quite a pleasant day but the ground is so wet we didn't do any digging. I tidied up the purple sprouting broccoli plants and picked our first ever harvest of them. I'm hoping there's still time to get a few more sproutings from them - it seems they're late to sprout for many gardeners this year.

I picked a few more leeks for dinner tomorrow night, they were spare plants that I planted in a cluster rather than composting them and they've grown pretty well. A few good-sized ones and some tiddlers. The french garlic is looking happy considering it's been crushed under snow twice this month! It shouldn't get too used to this milder weather as we may have further snow by next weekend...

We had great fun last night at the HAHA Skittles Evening. With 36 people attending it was a perfect amount and there were a few non-plotholders.I was in charge of the scoring but as you can see from the photo below I had a little help from our Chairman :-)

The marigold seeds we brought home during the coldest weather are liking it a bit too much inside - they've nearly all germinated and we don't dare return them to the plot just yet...

And the potatoes are chitting away but we're not going to risk planting them out for a few weeks yet - even if it is traditional to plant them on Good Friday - just a week away.

We threw a couple of seed potatoes away as they had strange white growths on them - though it didn't really look like mould. We hope it hasn't spread to these other ones...
So, the blog title is based on the skittles evening - maybe not my favourite game but for an off-site plot holder gathering it's a great one! And so is this song from The Cardigans...

Black and White Town

The freezing weather returned! And we have even more snow than we had at the beginning of March.

Modified photo of icicles from the roof of our composting toilet

On Friday evening we retrieved our recently-sown marigold seeds and wrapped fleece round the shelving where our broad beans are trying to germinate. The fleece and four litre bottles of water are keeping the temperature at about 1° higher than the non-protected thermometer, but will it be enough? Perhaps we'll have to sow a third lot of beans this year...

Look at our pots...

And our chives...

And the site!

There were lots of tracks in the snow - nothing very interesting but we rather liked this meandering trail - bird or mouse?

We saved a panicking thrush from a brassica cage and then checked ours. We cleared the snow to stop it ripping the netting and, hooray, our purple sprouting broccoli is doing something at last, but it was too cold to stay and harvest anything today.

You may have noticed that my camera decided to use macro for the photo above and focused on the netting - now, if I was trying to do that you know it wouldn't work! I tried photographing some of the freshly fallen snowflakes on Friday and nearly caught them, but I need a bit more practise.

It was a very chilly walk back home. The thermometer in the greenhouse showed 3.3° but when the wind blew and whooshed snow about - BRRR! And we may be due more snow tonight - we're not used to this in Berkshire!!

The Doves provide the title track. The pure white snow and black roads made me choose this song.

Also, if you're in the area on Saturday....