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 temperature last week dipped to -9.2° in the polytunnel. Brrr certainly not gardening weather but bright enough to tempt me out for a brisk early morning walk to see the Sun.
As well as frosty walk weather it’s soup weather so I’m glad I pulled leeks and parsnips last weekend before the ground solidified!
I made this delicious curried leek & parsnip soup - flavoured with garam masala and a bit of curry powder. Hmmm, spicy but not hot - just how I like it and it served me for three lunches. That little bowl was just a taster.
Yesterday we went to the plot but it was far too cold to hang around. The leeks have taken a battering from the cold snap but we expect them to recover now that the temperature has - though Storm Isha is now blasting them with strong winds and more rain 😒 Lucky I puddled them in quite deep.
I did have to check the ice that had formed in the buckets, of course. I should have been more creative but my hands were too cold!
The robin didn’t appear at our visit yesterday, poor little chap out in the cold! The swans don’t seem to mind, but I did wish I’d taken some food for them when I saw them the other morning.
This photo was taken on one of the frostiest mornings last week; idyllic though it looks I think I’d only be good as a Summer boat dweller (and maybe not in Britain ðŸ¤)
And those canal photos have given me the opportunity to use this excellent song by Ocean Colour Scene from 1996 (28 years ago - whaaaat?!). Batten down the hatches everyone!
We had two visits to the allotment this cold weekend and yesterday (Sunday) everything was looking beautiful encrusted in frost.
The likelihood of pretty frost was mainly what dragged me outside. It's so easy to just remain indoors but of course, once out and surrounded by birdsong on the allotment I was glad I shifted myself.
The frost on this dandelion was just starting to thaw as the temperature edged above freezing when the Wintry sun emerged. The macro shots bring out the lovely ice features which I certainly couldn't see with the naked eye.
The temperature has been sub-zero for a few nights with day temperatures staying low. Some parts of the site haven’t had a chance to defrost at all as the low Sun doesn't reach all areas.
The ground and all the water collection points are frozen solid. I took the thick round slabs out of our buckets because I am rather fascinated by ice even though I hate, hate, HATE the cold.
You can see how thickly it's formed in this photo - I stood them up in the raised bed. I hope the pond ice isn't as thick as that smallest bucket. Male frogs apparently tend to stay in ponds, at the bottom, over Winter (females hibernate underground usually) but the ice can deprive them of oxygen if it stays for too long. I wonder why we found that dead frog last week - it was by the pond, but shouldn't have been out and about...
The houseleeks couldn’t avoid getting a frosting but they won’t mind. They're hardy little plants.
And I’m sure this moss won’t be adversely affected either. Look how sparkly it is, just starting to thaw.
The birds seemed to be enjoying the sunshine on Saturday. I think this was a flock (a charm) of goldfinches but it’s difficult to see from this angle. The robin was happy to see us with his mealworms and we saw (probably) a buzzard land in a nearby tree. So huge compared to the tiny blue tits, wrens and long-tailed tits that were flitting about.
The main reason we visited the plot on Saturday was because I need to saw some dehydrated coir compost block for making up a seed compost. Believe it or not, I had to remove my coat as I got so hot exerting myself - first time since about September ðŸ¤
The coir block is rehydrated with warm water and then we add some vermiculite.
It worked ok as a peat alternative last year, but I'm rather concerned about the
sustainability of using coir. We’re not actually going to start most of our seeds yet, but it’s exciting as they’ve been arriving in the post all week. A few different flowers this year.
January has certainly provided some beautiful skies in the mornings and evenings - this was a morning photo. You can just about see the sprinkling of snow on the dormer windows from a thick, but quick, snow shower we had in the early hours.
The jackdaws have secured their spot for another year. They pair up and stick together with a lifespan of about 5 years. We look forward to watching these two rear their young on the chimneys opposite.
And these two photos are my excuse for sharing this song by Turin Brakes. I liked the original in Mary Poppins (well, Dick van Dyke was always a favourite, even with that accent) but this version is so beautiful and the video makes me think I should stop whinging about the cold as I sit in relative comfort.
Coo, that’s chilly! I’ve never seen such spiky frost. Apparently it’s called Rime Ice and the freezing fog will have helped cause it, along with the arctic blast. It’s rather stunning, I hope you agree as here are a few more examples.
Frosted (not barbed) wire
All the wire on site was significantly thicker than usual.
And netting looked hairy.
The teasels were extra spiny.
Especially the stems!
The coreopsis flowerwas still just about recognisable.
And the chard… well!
Even the brassicas didn’t seem too happy, it may have been a bit too icy - even though they’re meant to taste even better after a frost (hmm, I wonder if the whitefly survived).
Cavolo Nero (top) & purple sprouting broccoli
We enjoyed a few bubbles whilst on site.
You can see the bubble just beginning to freeze in this photo. Looks like craqueleur.
This beautiful one stayed stuck to the pot for ages.
Meanwhile Robbie enjoyed a few mealworms. Aww, poor little chap had to puff up his feathers to keep warm.
Anyway, that was quite enough playing in the cold - look at the thickness of the ice!
We’ve had a long day. We got up extra early to enjoy the Hungerford Christmas lights in a proper frosty, foggy Winter Wonderland at 4:30 this morning (4:30!). Only to find they switch the lights off at some point in the night - doh! But the super-frosted spiders webs everywhere were amazing, so it wasn’t too disappointing.
And a few lights were left on for us to enjoy.
So that was today, as the temperatures slip down again overnight….bbrrr. No snow so far, but maybe in the coming week. The White Stripes provide this perfect song title.
On Friday night we had our Take-2 of Chinese New Year. So now it really is the Year of the Metal Ox. We added some star croutons and Spring onions to the Miso soup starter and had mushroom chow mein for the main.
This weekend we had a plan... to get the shallots planted because the freezing weather of last week is moving on. And I thought I’d risk sowing a few seeds under a cloche - mangetout, beetroot and perpetual spinach, because they should be reasonably hardy.
Well, that plan changed when we got to the plot and found the ground still frozen and then we saw our broad beans 🥺
Oh dear! We’ve never seen such a thing. But it has been extremely cold, with an added windchill taking the temperature even lower than the thermometer recorded.
The globe artichoke looks sad too; I’m sure that will recover, though I’m not convinced that the beans will.
Although it was horribly cold, with some rain, we decided to stick it out for a bit so we tidied and moved some weed suppressant to make space for the potatoes.
Moving the Grow Bags was harder than it seems because they were heavy, wet and frozen. We got muddy and frozen ourselves!
We sat and had a coffee, then wandered round the site but it was too cold to think about doing anything else. Our watering cans full of rain water appear to have completely solidified and look how thick the ice was in a bucket!
I sympathise with the workmen who have recently been working on the site’s water system in the icy weather. Looks good doesn’t it? Better than the pallets which were starting to rot after being leaked onto for a few years.
I actually did a bit of HAHA admin this weekend too - long overdue, but I have enough of spreadsheets (much as I love them) during the working week at the moment. We did have a trip out last week though - to get my first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at Newbury racecourse. What a treat 😄
And I drove Jamie to Hungerford Tesco - all the COVID-precautions have passed me by so I was interested to see the traffic light system on the doors!
We have the 2m distancing signs at the allotment, but social distancing has certainly not been a problem on site so far in 2021!
The song is from the musical, Oliver! and is certainly what we’re doing. Reviewing and waiting...for so many things to get better.
I took a day off work last Tuesday, I’m determined to have at least one day off a month to break the monotony and it’s quite nice having a random mid-week day. We visited the allotment. Too wet to do anything constructive but I did get to play with some ice.
It looks so pure and I love the frozen bubbles.
I found three frozen circles, but my hands were also frozen so this is as creative as I could be 🙄
The thermometer in the polytunnel showed a minimum of -5.2°
We celebrated Burns Night on Monday, which was why I took Tuesday off. It’s a good excuse for eating, drinking, listening to some different music and watching a film (Whisky Galore, 1949). We are increasingly finding that we’re the butt of the very funny Daily Mash articles but..whatever!
It warmed up a bit over the last few days but now it’s just rain, rain, rain and it apparently feels cold so I’m staying indoors. It’s a shame, as I really feel like getting to the plot to do some clearing, but I don’t feel like getting cold, wet and dirty. Our shallots have been delivered; we ordered a long variety, Jermore, but COVID-19 is taking its toll everywhere and so they were unavailable and we’ve been sent these, Mikor.
The allotments lease is unfortunately a newsworthy subject again, but the date we’re ‘safe’ to is actually 31st December 2022 so it’s not quite as bad as it reads, but bad enough. For our amazing site to ever be at risk of development is a disgrace!
And there was a further mention of allotments in this week’s Newbury Weekly News... at a time when Growing Your Own has had a new lease of life. It is appalling that developers can use words to help win a purchase but then simply remove it at planning stage and still be granted permission. We’d rather stay at Marsh Lane (obviously) but permanent allotment provision should have been included in this development. And don’t get me started on the affordable housing aspect...! 😡
Sad... it may seem at times like the world is changing, but in fact it’s not.
Today’s song title is by The Corgis and it’s referring to my crochet plans... it’s a rather slow process, but I’ll get there... I hope.
That is what I achieved in 3 hours, following Bella Coco on YouTube... luckily I have some time on my hands..!
