Hungerford allotment blog - grow your own, harvesting and vegetarian cooking. Enjoying allotment wildlife, weather and other things that catch my attention.
Enjoying time on the Marsh Lane Allotment site in Hungerford, Berkshire.
A record of successes, failures and a handy reminder for me.
From 2017 each post title brings a song to add a little extra music to the world - enjoy!
The huge amounts of rain that the island experienced in Spring - as did we - has clearly been appreciated by the plants. Here are just a few of the lovely, unusual and colourful plants we came across - some along pathways, some in the Puerto de la Cruz Botanic Garden and others in the Sitio Litre Orchid Garden.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen flowers this amazing turquoise colour before. It was a really impressive plant and so tall that I couldn’t get a close-up.
Turquoise Puya flowers
These dazzling rubbery flowers were growing as ground cover between the trees in the botanic garden.
Billbergia pyramidalis
This beautiful shrub was scrambling over the wall from a private garden but the large shrubs are planted in communal parks too. Covered in multi-coloured blooms.
Lantana Camara
This spike was over 6 feet tall growing from the centre of some sort of bromeliad that we're more used to seeing as houseplants in Britain. The Botanic Garden really is like a land of the giants!
There was a whole forest of them surrounding the impossibly huge alien of a tree - a type of fig, but it looks like a monstrous rubber plant.
Ficus Macrophylla
This is such a beautiful colour, creeping over fences and walls around the town.
Thunbergia
And this is another stunner in the Botanic Gardens.
Mexican Butterfly Weed
The Orchid Garden is a peaceful little garden near our apartments. It’s the garden of a beautiful colonial style house where Agatha Christie stayed whilst in Puerto de la Cruz. The orchid displays are very pretty and the general gardens are lovely to stroll or sit.
Plus there’s a nice little cafe, koi pond and two friendly cats 😊
We arrived in Tenerife for the Canarias Day celebrations - a fun evening listening to a Canarian folk band and seeing the locals in their traditional dress. Then walking back to the apartment through the lively night-time streets.
After so many years we finally visited Loro Parque, where we spent the day for Jamie's birthday.
Tourists
It was a good day though the areas for the larger animals (especially the gorillas) were a bit sad. We didn't attend any of the animal 'shows' but enjoyed seeing the penguins, fish, coral and giant tortoises as well as the cute golden tamarins.
When we returned to the apartment we enjoyed a free birthday bottle of Cava at the bar.
Cheers!
Our lovely holiday is almost over and we're leaving the day the Pope arrives - he’s not having our apartment 🤠he’s visiting La Laguna which is a nearby town before going to the capital.
We bought this interesting tea - it's very nice; haven't found a bindweed tea yet though! We’re looking forward to seeing what else is growing on the allotment - wondering if our sweetcorn and sunflowers have emerged yet. It seems there has been a lot of rain at home but looks like the weather may cheer up for our return - yay!
Oh, I know I’ve moaned a lot about the weather over the last 6 months or so; too cold, too wet, too windy but the last 3 days really have been too hot! Even for me, a Sun worshipper. The early mornings are so beautiful and not too exhausting to carry watering cans around.
A few of us had an early-ish session on the roundabout on Sunday morning, before it got too sweltering.
It’s just about complete now, though Nia wants to fill a few spots. There are two outside rings of seed - calendula and cornflower. We’re away for a couple of weeks soon so I hope when we return it’ll be a mass of flowers… it would be helpful to have a few downpours.
We waited for storms yesterday; we could hear thunder nearby but it seems that a fierce storm emptied all the rain over Wiltshire and didn’t reach Berkshire, at least not Hungerford - shame, but the building clouds were impressive.
Watering is an unavoidable chore at the moment, the tomatoes are happy in the polytunnel but germination of our beans seems slow (nearly 2 weeks, though we’ve now seen that some have germinated but not appeared above ground yet). We decided to buy some dwarf bean and runner bean plants yesterday. If the sowed beans also grow then that’ll be a bonus. It feels like there’s too much bare earth showing at the moment, but it is only May so I think I’m being impatient.
The runner bean plants we bought are Painted Lady which are a red and white flowered variety. As it happens we’ve just started seeing Painted Lady butterflies on site, they’re very pretty and quite large but I haven’t managed to get a photo yet. I did capture this lovely Small Copper butterfly that was in the polytunnel. Wasps will eat them if they stay in there so we always release them.
And this impressive male thick-legged flower beetle was on one of the perennial pot plants - it eats pollen so doesn’t cause any damage. No points for guessing how he got his name!
There are masses of bees and other flying insects about. They really love the purple thyme flowers but this bumblebee was determined to get something from this pretty poppy.
We’ve been waiting to see the great tits fledge - the parents have been so attentive. Taking turns to take grubs and caterpillars back to their nest in that storage area. They’ve not minded us working around them. The great tit is in that photo.
Here’s a little video where the parent flapping its wings seems to be encouraging the young to exit but then the other parent takes some food down to the nest. When we went back in the afternoon there was no sight of them so it seems we missed the little ones actually fledging, but it’s been nice watching the parents over the last few weeks.The flower plot is looking pretty with pink verbascum, white valerian, blue Nigella and red poppies providing scent and colour.
These wild poppies are so delicate and pretty but the flowers don’t last a day. Other seedlings are emerging but no flowers yet.
We were amazed to see that the remains of the tagetes Frenchmarigolds which were completely frosted and brown have actually re-grown! Good job I was lazy and didn’t bother pulling them! I definitely thought they were dead.
Monday was incredibly hot - the hottest May Day on record, it was certainly about 32/33° on the plot and Jamie and I had a barbecue <phew>. We did start quite late in the afternoon and stayed till the Sun was about to set. It was so lovely, mostly staying in the shade and just enjoying the lovely warmth in between cooking.
I lay on the grass at one point, it was quite nice and cooling and provides a different view of the world, although it was rather itchy. Aah, just look at that beautiful blue sky.
My next post will probably be about Tenerife, unless something dramatic happens during our final plot visits this week….
The song title is thanks to The Glass Animals as the heatwave continues.
We had such a lovely day in Oxford on Wednesday. We specifically went to see the Anglo-Saxon Alfred jewel, which Jamie’s wanted to see for a couple of years. Made in the 9th century with the inscription ‘Alfred ordered for me to be made’ it’s a very special item with amazingly intricate gold work surrounding enamel work and a rock crystal. It was ploughed up in the 17th century - imagine finding that!
We enjoyed wandering through the galleries seeing some incredible works of art and historic artefacts. Here are a few which I particularly liked (and I got a half decent photo of). Where possible I’ve added a link where you’ll be able to see better images than I managed, but even better, why not go and visit the Ashmolean- it really is worth visiting more than once.
I love the little satyr on the right who meets your eye.
The lighting in this painting is so stunning - just incredible what a few well-placed brush strokes can produce. Unbelievable to think it was painted over 350 years ago. I was raving about this to my sister and she said “Haven’t you ever seen a painting before?!” 😂
I could have spent hours staring at some of the art whereas a glimpse at others was enough to know it wasn’t my cup of tea. The still life works are amazing but are a bit samey - and there are a lot of them, this is just a small portion.
Apart from the Alfred Jewel this article caught Jamie’s eye. Not the most beautiful in the building 😊 but, you know, we all have our preferences.
The Martin Brothers 1898
This interesting tapestry of Oxfordshire and surrounding counties from 1660 fills a whole wall - it’s undergone quite a lot of restoration unsurprisingly.
Oxfordshire tapestry 1660
As you’d expect, Hungerford is there and Littlecote, that I posted about last week, but I’m surprised to see ‘Charnham Street’, which is our main road into the town, listed as a separate settlement. I’m hoping someone local can shed some light on that.
Anyway this fella with a garlic on his head 🤠reminds me that this used to be an allotment blog..!
We’ve visited each day to water and check on progress. I was disappointed that something has tucked into our lettuce and emerging row of turnips so I’ve resorted to slug pellets and netted over the top of them. I’ve planted a few of the perennials around the plots to provide a bit of lasting colour, hopefully and tidied up one of the messy areas. I’ve sowed these beans in various locations:
Borlotti Lamon climbing
Greek Gigantes climbing
Jacob’s Cattle dwarf
We should have seen the last of the cold nights now and we’re moving into a mini-heatwave (hooray!). It’s lovely to see a few more flowers emerging and the valerian scent is on the air - beautiful!
The song title has been chosen as a few of us plotholders have been helping Hungerford/Britain in Bloom by weeding/digging and planting up one of the roundabouts as you enter Hungerford - we hope it’ll soon be a lovely mix of colours, rather than just the yellow and green of buttercups! It includes lupin, astilbe, verbena boreansis, golden rod, geranium, cow daisy and borage to name a few.
So here’s the song by Yes - oh dear, it’s the 8-plus minute version! Go and make a cup of tea.
The last week has thrown all kinds of weather at us including frost, gales, rain and even hail. In between the showers, and sheltered from the wind, the Sun has provided some welcome warmth. The English countryside really is looking its best with shiny new green leaves and lush grass.
Nights have gone cold, down to -3° outside the polytunnel so we’ve kept the potatoes covered and the remaining perennials in pots are covered with enviromesh. The pumpkin on Plot3 is also wrapped in fleece and the tomatoes and other seedlings remain protected in the polytunnel.
I did forget to protect 6 French marigolds which I bought at a plant sale - 3 of those caught the frost so I’ll have to plant some other flowers along that front edge - I have calendula seedlings so they should be okay. The leek seedlings have finally appeared and the Oasis turnips germinated within a week. I helped out at the HAHA plant stall at the Hungerford Food & Artisan market last Sunday where I had donated some rudbeckia and other perennials. It was so cold but surprisingly busy and I was pleased to find an aubergine plant to buy.
Luckily Saturday afternoon was warm and dry as Jamie and I attended the Newbury Spring Festival parade. We bought camping chairs as all the benches were occupied and Jamie needed to sit - sitting in chairs in Newbury’s Main Street! Our younger selves would have died of shame, but we’re over that now 😊
It was enjoyable watching all the people and listening to the music waiting for the band mistress to arrive - just look at her!
And apart from daily plot visits we’ve had a couple of trips out into the countryside - a lovely spot for lunch on the ridgeway, Court Hill Centre where we had a clear view of the Oxfordshire countryside around us.
And yesterday we had a marvellous afternoon tea at Littlecote House to celebrate Ivan’s 92nd(!) birthday.
We had a lovely time. Jamie and I haven’t been to Littlecote House for a few years and it’s interesting to be able to wander freely round the 16th century building.
The site has changed a bit since I first visited on a school trip about 50 years ago. It’s been extended to include new buildings as it’s a Warner Holidays hotel - but it seems to have been tastefully done and the grounds are so beautiful.
The weather was sunshine and showers all afternoon - we had to hide at one point as the wind was so strong, and cold.
Apart from the house and hotel, Littlecote is famous for its Roman villa, with an exceptional restored mosaic. It’s really special to see though we only had a quick stop yesterday after a long afternoon of walking and eating.
At home we are noticing a lot of nature in our small courtyard at the moment - sparrows, blue tits and blackbirds have nearby nests and one evening we experienced hedgehogs performing a mating ritual which was surprisingly loud until they were distracted by a bemused cat! And we have a Tree bumblebeenest in our porch - they are very active and it’s interesting watching them go to and fro. The most we’ve seen together is 7. They won’t be causing any damage and will die off in a couple of months.
We’ll go to the allotment later though it’s still rather cold and damp with more rain forecast. I’d like to do some potting on and planting though there’s still a couple more nights at risk from frost.
The song is provided by The Beverley Sisters - a golden oldie, my mum had the single with the Skye Boat Song on the B-side - I do love it. Enjoy ☺️ but it may bring a tear to your eye.
