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).

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.

Holiday

What a beautiful Easter weekend! Lots of sunshine and warm temperatures every day. Those clouds just started to get darker on Monday afternoon - good timing!

We spent hours on the allotment over the lovely 4-day weekend. I dug through the area in front of the bench. Lots of couch and hedge roots to remove from the area which has been under weed-suppressant for a few years. 

One particularly large root took a lot of tugging; when it gave, I discovered that it was a (the?) tap-root of the Lovage plant DOH! So I'm quite expecting part of that lovely plant to die off soon... The wet patches are where I've sown some chrysanthemums - I want that area to be a beautiful flower bed... we'll see!

Jamie was working on the carrot trench and it's environmesh cage then sowed two rows of carrots (Eskimo and Early Nantes 5). We really hope they do better than last year when we hardly had any carrots to eat. We're being more generous with our sowings this year, where previously we've been a bit tight; we've decided to sow lots and plan on thinning more than we usually do.

I've been more liberal with my beetroot, parsnip, radish, spring onion and lettuce seeds that went in on Sunday too. 

The watering regime has started. As you can see the ground is very dry, but there may be a few showers this week.

I cleared some weeds and some of the masses of nigella seedlings near the pond. I transplanted a couple of houseleek and hope that they'll spread across the area.

The pots next to the bench will be moved when I plan to have Love Lies Bleeding growing there. The seeds, along with some more sunflowers, are sown into pots and in the polytunnel so I'm hoping the night temperatures don't dip too low. 

The pots are full of various flowers and bulbs including the tulips that my nephew, George, gave us for Christmas which are just developing. Also the bay laurel from my sister, but the cold winds hit it when it was in a different position and some of the leaves went brown. I'm hoping it'll be happier in that more protected spot.

Meanwhile the wallflowers are providing a lovely scent, even though they're beginning to go over now. They come back every year and are messy but so pretty. My mum always insisted on pulling them up each year and then I'd go searching for new plants each spring.

We managed another PSB harvest along with some leeks. Much of the Purple Sprouting Brocolli is covered in yellow flowers now, but I wouldn't be surprised to see another lot of shoots now that I've chopped these off.

I've made leek and chestnut soup, with turmeric, for my lunches. I had to have a taster - delish.

And lastly, we have a frog in the pond on the wildlife plot! I'm not sure if he found his own way there. He may have arrived with a lot of duckweed, which I think the tadpoles will appreciate as protection.

The song title is provided by Weezer - it may have only been 4 days but it felt like a holiday. Bliss!

Making a Fire

The clocks have moved forward an hour, so now we’re in British Summer Time. The blackthorn thinks it’s May already. So beautiful against the blue sky.

It felt really summery on Saturday, I even wore cropped trousers while we had several hours on the plot, with a trip home for lunch. It was nice again Sunday afternoon when the Sun emerged through the mist. We had a bonfire so that kept us toasty for a while. We used the new HAHA incinerator; it's not so shiny now.

And that bonfire spelt the end of the sage plant. I finished clearing the area Saturday so we flattened and levelled it down and Jamie edged it with a plank.

And now our seating area is in its new place; we're going to get some decking or something to put over the weed fabric. So now we can sit watching our own plot growing. I’ve moved the bulb tubs next to the seat, they're mostly grape hyacinth at the moment, but tulips and iris are on their way. Eventually that area will be a flowerbed and I think the area in front, next to the pond, will be for herbs (in pots, so they don't take over the world again!)

Directly in front of the bench is a lovage plant. It’s not been looked after for the last couple of years but it struggles on. I’m hoping it’ll grow tall this year; it can grow to 2m apparently. It has a celery scent, which I love and it can be used in salads, soups and stews.

I used fresh chives for the first time this year. They added a bit of extra colour to this harissa-flavoured What-the-Cluck and peppers meal, served with spinach-coloured noodles. I really like the plant-based chicken-style cluck, but Jamie finds the texture too close to chicken for his liking. He likes the Beyond Meat burger, but for me that is too much like beef.

I had the rest of the What-the-Cluck and peppers with rice and a leek from the allotment - just a bit of garlic salt and pepper was added as flavouring for this meal. Both really tasty and quick meals. I hope we manage to have more home-grown peppers this year.

The birds are full of song at the moment. The robins have paired up and we've seen blackbirds, blue tits, wrens and pied wagtails squabbling meanwhile the kites soar overhead and just keep an eye on what's happening below. We saw a tiny goldcrest the other day (far too nippy to get a photo) and Jamie saw a greenfinch, which is good news as I've not seen one for a few years. The wildlife plot is greening up nicely but there aren't many flowers yet; just the cowslips, some grape hyacinths and a couple of these particularly large-headed daisies. They must have been included in a seed mix.

So that's nearly the end of March and I need to logon to work on this foggy morning - I'm glad I don't have to drive in that. The title song is provided by The Foo Fighters, sorry to have seen that the drummer died at the weekend, but at least he seemed to enjoy his life.

March March

Everyone agreed that Sunday was too cold. As one plotholder said “it’s a lazy wind; it doesn’t go round you”! The wind was bitter. With the hedge offering us some protection on our plots we did manage to stay for a few hours and as the sun began to make a show it felt a little warmer, until the wind blew again - brrr!

I finished clearing the plot for the potatoes. It'll have another dig over when the potato fertilizer is added but it's nice to see some clear soil with all the annoying grass and weeds removed. You'll notice the canes topped with plastic bottles. I still think these could be something of a mole deterrent - they don't like vibrations caused by the rattling. 

We'll see; there are certainly a lots of worms if the mole does visit us. Last week the HAHA committee decided (thank goodness) not to kill the moles. The general concensus, apart from the cruelty aspect, is that it's too expensive and wouldn't solve the problem anyway - I don't consider them a problem; they eat slugs. Last year definitely seemed to be a good year for them but who knows what this year will bring.

Jamie was in his cage most of the afternoon GiggleCl Clearing all the weeds under the brassica netting. He pulled a lot of these, which appear to be poppies - not too sure where they blew in from but we hope there are some outside of the cage too, particularly on the Wildlife Plot.

I'm having a beanfeast this week - a Tuscan Bean stew made following this recipe. I went a bit over the top and soaked too many beans then couldn't resist cooking them all.

I should have frozen a couple of meals worth, but I've only just thought of that. I ate it last night with tortilla wraps; tonight I'm going to add purple sprouting brocolli as we intend to nip up the plot at lunchtime.

It's very tasty. One thing I thought was going to be needed was fresh bay leaves, but I must have seen that on another recipe. I have two bay trees now, but you can see that their leaves are quite different. They both claim to be Laurus Nobilis so should be edible but I'm not sure whether they both are... Any advice?

The song title by The Chicks, it was more appropriate if I'd posted this yesterday for International Womens Day, but actually in this sad world at the moment we have quite a lot to march for - or more likely against - but covid cases are rising again so I'll stay put... and now I really must login to work!