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!
It was a cold weekend - very cold nights with the temperature falling to -6.8° on Saturday night. We got up early (well, not that early but it felt it!) and walked up to the allotment to open the polytunnel door.
It's always nice walking through Hungerford on a sunny morning as everyone says "Good morning!" to each other.
And it was so pleasant when we got to site that we just sat by the wildlife plot listening to the birds for a while. The little pond had ice on it on Sunday morning so I'm not surprised the tadpoles stayed low in the pond until the water started to warm up.
Of course, each evening we have to go back to the plot to shut the polytunnel down for the night. Rain threatened, but I'm pleased to say we didn't get a soaking. The site is nicely active at the moment with new and returning plotholders trying to get everything prepared for sowing.
The Delikata mangetout have all germinated. I'll let them grow quite a lot taller before planting them outside, otherwise the pigeons will decimate them - like they do every year. I really need to fix up some better protection but that can make it difficult to pick the pods - oh, decisions, decisions! Some of the PSB and brussels sprouts have also germinated, but sadly some of the tagetes got frostbite even inside the inner polytunnel.
On Sunday I managed to clear and dig the old seating area which had rotten wooden decking over weed suppressant - and a lot of weed growth. It looks like such a small area, but honestly, it was exhausting! That's where I'm putting the three lovely (bearded?) irises that Ivan gave us. They should spread well, he got 23 plants from his one original! They need (something like) 7 hours of sunshine on their rhizomes so mustn't be planted deep, which is why they will have pride of place at the front of the plot.
And today's post is remembering 5th April 2008 - a date when someone else's kindness provided me with a new lease of life. This daily cocktail of pills helps to keep my transplant working and my heart healthy so I can get plenty more years from my donated kidney.
Thankyou to all the donors and relatives of donors who choose to opt-in so that their body can help others should the worst happen.The song is provided by Guns n Roses
I was amazed to see how quickly the frogspawn have developed. The frilly bits aren’t legs yet though, they’re external gills. The tadpoles look much more black in real life and are very small. I recorded their arrival on the Pondnet Spawn Survey.
Most of the hatched tadpoles were huddled together eating the remaining spawn jelly. I retrieved some more tadpoles from a puddle before it dried out in the hot March sunshine and put it in the newly- created pond in the bog garden on the HAHA Wildlife plot. It'll look better once there's a bit of growth round the outside and I'll probably buy a plant for in the pond.
When I pointed out the ‘pond’ to a new plotholder he said “I drink my morning cocoa from a mug bigger than that”. Haha, you’ve got to laugh! It may be tiny, but it’s a life saver to some residents at the moment. I’ve put a flat stone in it so the birds may like it too, but I hope they don’t eat the froglets!
We've had a beautiful few days and I was on leave so enjoyed a sunny 4-day weekend. On Friday we visited the Inkpen Crocus Field again - we visited 3 years ago in February and there were more crocuses then, perhaps due to our recent wet and windy weather - the ground was soggy, even at the top of the hill.
It's so pretty and natural with the crocuses tending to grow individually rather than in clumps, it's quite fascinating and the origin is unknown; I prefer to think of them as from 12th Century crusaders rather than garden escapees.
We walked more than 6km that day; my working-from-home legs aren't used to it! And then for the rest of the weekend we were working on the allotment - quite exhausting, but so lovely to be out in the sunshine.
I showed a couple of new plotholders around and there were lots of people gardening on site. Along with many butterflies (comma, brimstone, tortoiseshell and whites) and bees enjoying the grape hyacinths and the few other flowers that are showing.
Let's hope they do their work on our broad bean flowers which have started to appear. Our bean plants are a really sickly bunch, so small after all the battering by the wind and frost, but we should get a few handfuls of beans eventually.
I spent most of the time working on the area by our pond where the mammoth sage had taken over with a tree-like root. Eventually managed to pull the remaining roots along with the couch grass, raspberry and various other roots - in fact I still have a tiny strip to do. The soil looks quite good, but I'm mostly clearing it for our new seating area.
We've actually sown a few seeds, including mangetout. They're in the polytunnel at the moment. On a couple of the sunny mornings this week I've popped up to the allotment first thing to open up the door. The temperature in the polytunnel has fluctuated between 30° and -3° over the last week! Jamie's been closing up at the end of the day. The mornings are so beautiful up there, it's hard to pull myself away to sit back at my desk, but it is a lovely benefit of home-working.
Seems like I'll be working from home for a while yet, as covid cases are increasing again - not suprising as people don't need to isolate. It seems that a 5th vaccination will be on the cards for immuno-suppressed people... ho hum.. Anway, less of that depressing news... the song title is provided by an extremely young Depeche Mode. Feel free to bop 😉
Here’s a colourful and tasty meal we had in the week - at home (we haven’t decided to join the throngs in freezing pub gardens!). Lovely fried gnocchi with Vivera ‘bacon’ and veg. Delicious.
I look forward to eating home-grown again but this year seems to be taking a long time getting started. This weekend has been beautiful weather, with blue sky, hot days but the nights are still dropping below zero. We woke up to these Altocumulus undulatus clouds this morning, rather impressive, aren’t they?
They burnt off quite quickly and we spent several hours on the plot. I planted out the Shiraz mangetout and dug a hole filled with manure for a courgette in a few weeks time.
Our pepper plants were delivered this week: Denver, Milena and Chelsea. We potted them on and they look much happier. They’ll stay at home for a while until they’re a bit bigger.
We also received the plants for the bog garden which I planted up today.
Some look a bit dead, but I hope they recover and grow in the HAHA wildlife plot bog garden. We intend to sow the wildflower seeds over the rest of the plot in the next week or two, we really want it to rain but it’s been in very short supply so far this Spring. Attempting a bog garden in a dry year - that would be typical wouldn’t it? 🙄
Another delivery this week, and the reason for this blog title, was this lovely card from my cousin Jen. So nice to get something unexpected and interesting in the post!
And, the card is even more interesting, because look what’s on the back! What a fab gift. A collection of seeds for the wildlife plot. So thoughtful - thanks so much Jen! I’ve mentioned Jen before, she’s a very creative lady - visit her Freshwinds Garden blog here.
Aah, how lovely it is to be back on the allotment. We’ve had a few lunchtimes there just to sit in the sun. We’ve seen swifts/swallows/martens (not necessarily all three of those), Canada geese and a heron as well as the usual red kites and buzzards flying overhead. There were also lots of Brimstone, Peacock and Orange Tip butterflies today - I didn’t manage to photograph any of that! But I did photograph Diane’s lovely selection of tulips and a few daffs.
Such a windy few days! I’ve been busy all week with work, but have enjoyed looking out at sunshine, rather than needing to brave the wind. I have a decoupage project that I’m working on so have been cutting pictures out of the seed catalogues but it has been making me want to buy more. I’m sure you know what it’s like!
We had a few hours on the plot this afternoon but it was still horribly windy and rather cold. Our plots gained some pots and compost bins but luckily the only damage was to a table; the glass tabletop landed in the manure pile so didn’t smash 😆. I was pleased to see that our polytunnel is still intact and most of my mangetout have germinated as have the marigolds.
We’ve set up an old fire guard as shelving for more seeds in the polytunnel. And have sown the celeriac seeds at home. I was amazed to see how tiny the seeds are!
I sowed all 40, as they can be tricky to germinate. I could have sowed them in a tray but I was keen to use these cut-off milk bottles. They’re under a cover in Jamie’s foil-coated windowsill germinators. And we have some more marigolds germinating at home too. They make such a great display and bees like them.
Meanwhile more buds are appearing everywhere you look and the birds are pairing up. It seems so Spring-like, until the wind cuts you in half! I wouldn’t want to be a seedling out there right now... just need to hang on a bit longer...
We left the site just as it started to rain, having achieved little, but at least it was a bit of time spent outside. Look at it, just waiting...
To be honest, I would have sowed something outside if it had been a bright sunny weekend. Instead, I’ll hold on.. What a great song, provided by KT Tunstall.
We had a lovely afternoon on the plot - we were so pleased (and surprised) when we got there and found that most of the broad beans had recovered from their frosty battering last week. We were ready to pull them up and re-sow. Instead, Jamie added a sprinkling of lime to encourage growth and alkaline the soil.
I think today was the first dry day we’ve had in weeks and the Sun even tried to make an appearance. We avoided treading on the soil as it’s still really wet, though nowhere near as bad as some parts of the country. The air was warm and positively Spring-like so, although I shared this to the Marsh Lane Allotments Facebook page last week.....
Well, as the saying goes, don’t do as I do, do as I say... I sowed a row of Boltardy beetroot and perpetual spinach into the raised bed with the garlic. I retrieved our old cold frame, which was rather abandoned and harbouring loads of snails, slugs and a mouse nest, to give the seeds a bit of protection, as I’m sure we’ve not seen the last of the cold weather! That section of the raised bed was under cardboard for the last few months so was weed-free and, maybe, a little warmer than uncovered soil.
Jamie sowed some marigold seeds and put them in a bag in the polytunnel. I sowed some Shiraz mangetout into a piece of guttering, they can stay in the polytunnel to germinate and grow a bit. If successful, and the mice don’t find them, they should produce pods early enough to avoid pea moth larvae. 🤞
Jamie planted 24 Mikor shallots on Plot3. We haven’t netted them, so the birds may disturb some of them, but they normally survive being pushed back into the ground if that happens. The blue tit and robins were singing happily today, another sign of Spring being on its way.
And our wallflowers are full of buds.
Aah, nearly March, not really Spring but time is moving on. I got another letter from the Government advising me to continue shielding until 31st March, but getting a bit of exercise is ok and visiting the allotment is so welcome. It’s good to see a few fellow plotholders, particularly as Ivan gave us some lovely fresh leeks. It seems that there will be some reduction in lockdown rules quite soon, so we may be able to start leasing plots again - our waiting list is looking healthy, which helps our cause for keeping the site.
The song title is, of course, referring to the broad beans and is by Soul II Soul. Nice.
July has arrived! A lot has happened since my last blogpost but I've been too busy to post. Lunches have got more interesting, with radishes, broad beans and mangetout joining the salad leaves.
We've had lots of visits to the plot, with too much to do, but we have managed to get a lot done and watering each day. Finally we've managed to plant up (most of) the remaining courgettes and squashes and the Double Red and Glass Gem sweetcorn, which germinated within a week of sowing in the hot greenhouse.
We pulled out all the poppies and dug holes, filled with manure, for the squashes - pretty sure that won't be the last we've seen of those poppies!
I planted out the globe artichoke and I've protected that, plus the squashes, from slugs with coffee grounds. Not sure whether they work or whether the dry weather has helped keep the slugs at bay, plus our resident frogs.
Our Kestrel potatoes have their first flower.
We've had some lovely sunshine and very high temperatures - too high to work on a couple of days, but we planted out our HAHA competition sunflowers. They look a bit weedy compared to other people's!
We've watched a robin parent feeding its young and now the baby is feeding itself, but it hasn't got a red breast yet.
Jamie's planted the Lark sweetecorn on Plot3.
These mullein moth caterpillars are enjoying the ragwort on Min's plot - they are stunning to see, especially the big ones.
All the different beans (Yard Long, Gigantes, Speedy, Pickwick) have been planted out and seem quite happy. The Pickwick (dwarf runners) are in flower.
The pak choi and rocket plants went to seed a while ago, so I've filled the gap by sowing more beetroot and salad onions.
The carrots are happily growing under their enviromesh cloche - they've got a while to go before we're going to be able to eat the thinnings.
The strawberries continue to be delicious. Certain areas of the site are full of the scent of them - fabulous!
Our raspberries are on their way - though the birds are happy to eat them before they're red enough for us - we really need to get them under netting.
We have some gorgeous blooms on show.
But our french marigold and snapdragon seedlings are too small to produce a show for the Hungerford in Bloom allotment judging on Saturday! They'll be beautiful in a couple of weeks though - just too late for the judging and the fete :-(
All involved are busy preparing for our fete (have I mentioned the fete? This Sunday?) and I enjoyed a little break from that preparation, work and life-in-general by making a pretty tea light holder, for the allotment, at a craft session as part of the Hungerford Summer Festival - pretty and so easy to do.
The song refers to how my life is feeling at the moment. Luckily I have Friday off and then Saturday to finalise everything for THE FETE! And the sun is going to shine and England Ladies won't be in the final for the Women's Football World Cup, which I'm not pleased about ...but...
