Blue Monday

Aah, the sky was blue this morning and the sun was shining - that made a welcome change. There are many fewer planes flying nowadays but the contrails were in full view this morning which shows the air was cold up there, but not so cold at ground level as it has been recently.

I was looking forward to being outside after pretty much sitting still all week inside. We drove to the allotment and were the only people on site for a while. I weeded the garlic in the raised bed.

Jamie took the covers off the broad beans and weeded that area and I dug the area behind, though I didn’t manage it all. It was nice to be outside and digging. Several of our plot neighbours arrived but we were all well socially distanced. We were pleased to hear that Ivan has had his first COVID-19 vaccination - I’m expecting mine in February if all goes to plan.

Jamie cleared the rhubarb and surrounded the huge plant with a ring of manure to give it a boost after it was left to its own devices last year. We really need to divide the plant later in the year.

The larger birds were active today mostly gulls from over the Marsh, magpies and buzzards being quite noisy overhead. We saw a couple of robins but they weren’t as busy or inquisitive as they usually are.

We left as the sunshine had gone and it started to get chilly. We’re expecting a lot of rain this week. The plot was already very wet. So the question is... do I read a book or carry on practising crochet before I embark on extending the sleeves of my beautiful cardigan..? Or maybe I’ll make some onion soup as Ivan gave us these lovely veg as we left the site. The onion is huge, it weighs 472grams!

The song is by New Order - I used to hate this song, but quite like it now. Tomorrow is known as ‘blue Monday’, but try not to feel blue - we’re moving closer to Spring and vaccination so it’s best to stay positive. Take care and stay safe x

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!

Weve Only Just Begun

Mmm, this week's soup is a good one, unlike last week. Swede with carrots, parsnips, leek, a bit of garlic and a hint of chilli from the oil I that I cooked the leeks in - lovely. This won't be going down the sink, which is why I couldn't resist a small bowl of it before dinner last night - well, it's a starter, isn't it?

On Saturday we only had a quick visit to pull some - you guessed it - leeks and carrots, to add to a cottage pie and it was a completely rainy day so we couldn't do much on the plot if we had wanted to.

We didn't want to, because we went to the Charlton Park Garden Centre in Wantage to buy our seed potatoes.

From the huge choice we were very restrained and only bought these:
  4 x Orla
  2 x Nicola
  3 x Pentland Javelin (because Jazzy were only available in bagfuls)
  1 x Foremost
  4 x Catriona (because there weren't any Kestrels left)

I find it hard not to buy masses of potatoes, especially when they're 16p per tuber, but on Sunday we threw away so many of last year's that were rotting away in the ground so it's only sensible. Here's Jamie digging through last year's potato plot, where we want to plant the shallots quite soon.

It was a very cold day yesterday, especially when the wind blew, but we did see a little bit of sunshine and were actually properly working so it wasn't too dreadful.

I cleared up the purple sprouting broccoli cage - all the plants have fallen sideways so I've staked them up. There were three tiny florets which I snipped off as (apparently) that should really help the plants to produce more.

While Jamie was clearing and digging I hand-weeded this patch, where our onions were last year. It was a bit painful but worth it. I added some coffee grounds that we've been collecting, as we're putting the potatoes here this year - they should appreciate the added bit of acidity.

After last week's slightly disappointing bird count we were inundated with robins this weekend. And this little chap was very friendly, bribed with mealworms.

He was particularly keen because we were doing some digging and providing him with fresh worms for a change.

We left yesterday as the temperature was falling and the clouds clearing for a frosty night ahead..

And here's our haul of veg. Look at that colossal parsnip! Unfortunately I put the fork through it, but there's still plenty for my soup and more than half left over - Jamie's going to add that to bubble and squeak.

So the song title for this post was a tricky one, but I chose this Carpenters song as it's pretty and we have only just begun really - at least we now have some clear earth.

 

Just

"It's just a cold" - I hate that phrase, I hate colds. I have a cold. It's hanging around and now Jamie's got it. But we thought we needed to venture out today, even though there had been a frost and it didn't look inviting..

Of course, we walked up to the allotment, it was cold, but not quite as awful as I'd expected because the sun was out and the wind wasn't very strong. It was 7° and Ivan was the only other person on the site. Our plots still look unloved, but there is food there, if you know where to look :-)
The leeks are looking good and when we have the inclination I'm sure we'll be having a tasty carrot and leek bake. There are also some good looking swede on Plot 46 which should be tasty.

Future promise in the form of the purple sprouting brocolli.

And some green Brussels sprouts, but the red ones have failed - the mole caused the plant to fall over and Brussels really hate that!

The parsnips are hopefully okay under the ground. The foliage on our plants very often dies back earlier than we see on other plots, but we've had some good ones (fingers crossed for no canker).
And the transplanted strawberries look very happy, we hope they produce fruits as tasty as the parent plants were.

So that was a very quick visit to the plot. We hope to be at the workday/BBQ tomorrow - well, it's just a cold... Great video by Radiohead

White Rabbit

Do you say "White Rabbit! White Rabbit! White Rabbit" on the first of the month? I don't, I say "Pinch, punch 1st of the month" but maybe that's because I was the youngest of 5 children and it's more fun to pinch and punch :-) Anyway, it's May and a bank holiday for May Day is always welcome. The sun even shone for us (some of the time).

The May blossom is just beginning to open up on our hedge and the dark clouds provided us with a huge downpour in the afternoon, so the earth looks a much healthier colour now.

I was mostly washing up old pots today. We (HAHA) have a plant sale on 3rd June so I transplanted the chard seedlings to sell there; there are far too many for our plot. They should look a bit bushier and colourful than this in a month's time.

I also did some sowing: Parsley, 3 Speedy french beans (as a special early sowing) and Early purple sprouting broccoli - this seems to do so well with other plotholders and it'll be nice to have something else to harvest early in the year. Something else other than rhubarb that is...

Our giant rhubarb plant has a flower on it - it has gone to seed like this in other years but doesn't seem to upset the plant particularly. I chopped it off, at ground level, and popped a pot over the cut stem to avoid it filling with rainwater and rotting the plant. Jamie says this is a myth, but it seems reasonable to me.

While I was fiddling about with these various things Jamie was digging the area on Plot3 where the broccoli will go. We won't need many plants as it seems to get pretty huge. That should mean that there are a few spare plants of that to go to the plant sale too - I'm hoping it will have germinated and grown a bit by then.

Those plastic cloches are covering the parsnip seeds

So, I'm sure you can guess the title is courtesy of Jefferson Airplane.