Long Train Running

It’s been extremely hot again, reaching 30° and there’s still a holiday-feel in Hungerford when the Sun shines. We’ve enjoyed walks to feed the ducks in town and on Sunday went to the monthly Food & Artisan market and had a cake by the canal - lots of canal boats visiting. The allotments are further up the canal in that direction.

On Wednesday I took leave so Jamie and I had a trip to the seaside - Hayling Island, we haven’t been there for years. It was rather cold and windy 🙄 but we did enjoy some terrific thunder and lightning! 

We went on the little train along the beach, well, why wouldn’t you?! 

It was fun trundling along waving at people and we couldn’t have walked it.

We played on coin-push machines, had chips and watched seagulls arguing over some biscuits. Traditional British seaside amusement ☺️

We even had a paddle in the sea - I was panicking that Jamie would fall down, but I’m pleased to say all went well!

I’m leaning rather than the horizon - I was paddling at the time

So, no matter what the weather we had a fab, exhausting, day. Of course, the next day I had to work and it was really hot again - we were too tired to even visit the plot so it had another day without water - the plants, especially the flowers and sunflowers really didn’t appreciate it and were completely flagging by Friday but have cheered up again now. 

The amaranthus (Love lies bleeding) was transplanted when it popped up having self-seeded amongst the potatoes so I’m pleased that survived. And I think I sowed the cerinth last year (or maybe it was this year) and there’s a nice little cluster of those interesting flowers in the flowerbed.

Many veg plants are going over now though, seems like a short season. The Baby cucumber has burned itself out and I’ve started removing some of the dried bean pods from the Gigantes with the Borlotti following soon. But the melons are trying hard to produce something…. This is in the polytunnel and the outdoor plants have a few fruits too.

And the squashes on the tunnel are beginning to flower and fruit - this is the so-called rampant Shark’s Fin melon squash. Well, perhaps not rampant for us this year… or perhaps there’s still time.

I’m pleased that the earlier-sown radishes have produced their seed pods now which I enjoy snacking on and the flower is quite pretty too.

The aubergines are bulking up and more tomatoes are ripening - even a few of the tiny redcurrant tomatoes so there’s still more to enjoy - but I’m glad I didn’t sign-up to put anything in the Horticultural Show!

The Doobie Brothers provide the excellent song title - enjoy ☺️ 

This is the Day

Look at that! A month has passed. It’s been a busy month with lots of sowing, a bit of digging and some planting. The weather has been extremely dry and mostly sunny but a northerly wind has consistently caused irritation. Jamie has been walking a lot with regular allotment and shopping trips

We planted our potatoes in April - Kestrel and Duke of York in the ground, with a couple of Nicola in bags. They’ve been earthed up now, managed to avoid a couple of frosts earlier this month. They’re in front of these salsify plants - the flowers open in the morning, but close by lunchtime.

The hedgerow is full of life and we’re peppered with confetti whenever we sit on the bench as the May blossom is just going over, it’s been a good year for blossom, even with the wind.

We sowed our climbing beans (Scarlet Empire runners, borlotti and Gigantes) on 2nd May but only the Gigantes successfully germinated, so they’ve now been planted in a wigwam. We’ll re-sow the others.

The sweetcorn finally got planted out, I meant to do a block, but planted in two rows instead for ease of protection from frost. Lots of the parsnips germinated and I thinned them out this week. It’s so dry the watering is quite a chore, but essential at this time. We’re expecting some broad beans to be ready for harvesting soon, so keep them well-watered. We’ve sown carrots into a green crate and beets, lettuce and radish are sown. Chard and nasturtium are in the raised bed along with parsley, which was a supermarket-bought plant and divided into four.

The plots aren’t looking very tidy but things are growing and that’s the best we can achieve during this difficult year. The weeds are going to love that bare earth when the rain does arrive 😒 I’m fighting the bindweed in the orchard; the mulched ground makes it easy to spot the bindweed, but it just keeps coming back and our little apple and cherry trees got aphid attacked this year.

As long as we harvest a few crops, grow some pretty flowers and get time to sit in the sunshine amongst it I’ll be happy. Sadly, Jamie’s not really enjoying it at the moment, understandably, as he’s still so worn out and not feeling sociable but I hope that will improve along with his health.

The song title, provided by The The, is to mark my change to part-time working. Hopefully more free-time will help with everything!

Give Me Just a Little More Time

Mmm, look at those little jewels against the blue sky - beautiful! Uh-oh, I see a snail got in the picture to confirm it’s 2024! Jamie made a sauce with the redcurrants from Ivan’s communal fruit cage.

Luckily Ivan is a regular visitor to maintain the fruit bushes as the HAHA ‘community’ element hasn’t gone quite as well as we’d hoped. Perhaps we’ll have a more time later in the year to manage it a bit better. With the weather, work and even our social life slowing our progress we are just about now catching up with things. Not that work and socials have been unwelcome! We enjoyed our second wedding of the year last weekend in the beautiful Shropshire countryside.

What a fun event, interesting slant on the traditional with guests including Darth Vader and Robocop 😀. Our night in the Shepherd’s hut was cosy as the rain poured down but the Sun shone when it needed to on the day, although it was very cold - pity the poor Cypriots who had come over for a Summer wedding and the campers! Great food, company and entertainment kept us cheerful though 🙂

Since being home we’re still enjoying broad beans and strawberries and I’ve included garlic scapes in a couple of meals as a tasty mild garlic addition.

We’ve planted out our beans to grow up both sides of the tunnel frame again: runner beans, French beans and the two borlotti that actually germinated. That’s the valerian in the background, still producing a lovely scent.

The Lark sweetcorn are planted out too - they’re so small we’re leaving their little protective cloches on for a while. And we have two Festival squashes planted in that section to clamber and provide some tasty Winter squash hopefully. The Halloween Orange peppers are planted in the polytunnel and the mini cucumbers are planted in pots on Plot3. So things are progressing at last.

Signs of things to come on the yellow courgette that’s growing in a pot, but not much movement on the ones planted into the ground. We have leek, carrots and beetroot seedlings but I’ll have to get a magnifying glass to see any evidence of salsify or parsnips 😖

We’re mostly doing pre-work visits for watering but last Thursday was the start of a ‘heatwave’ so we enjoyed our lunch sitting in the sunshine for a while. So beautiful as the bare earth is beginning to show signs of planned growth all around. I finally started clearing the unplanned growth on the last quarter on Plot7 today but the earth is like concrete. I cleared the front of weeds and sowed a row of chard and a row of radish, with the intention that some will go to seed to produce the peppery pods.

I was attempting to clear some other weedy areas on Plot8, but there are so many, with bindweed being the worst by far. These two varieties (double or single-flowered) of feverfew arrived naturally and put on a great show each year.

These pretty flowers are spreading on the wildlife plot, they’re so bright and cheerful plus they have a great name ‘Fox and Cubs’ aka Pilosella aurantiaca.

The teasels have almost taken over (we were warned) but they are so impressive and the bees love the flowers then the birds love the seeds.

One more week of June - all going a bit fast, isn’t it?! Leading me to the title song by Chairmen of the Board.

Sorrow

I’ve been offline for a few weeks and the season moved from some sweltering late Summer days to rainy Autumn ones, although it’s a dazzling blue sky this morning.

In the mornings and evenings it definitely feels like Autumn.

Harvests have been plentiful and colourful. 

The French and runner beans have been feeding us well. We were late with the runners so they’re not stringy yet. I may pod some of the French beans for drying, but I probably have enough dried beans…

Most of the Borlotti and Yin Yang are being dried. I move them from the polytunnel roof drying mesh before the pods pop open.

Flowers are beginning to die back, but the Scabiosa Stellata are now in their prime - their seedheads are only small, but so pretty.

The Spanish Flag began to show flowers at about the same time as Spain beat England in the Women’s World Cup final, but September put on a full show.

The calendula have been stunning, but really need deadheading daily.

The two courgette plants just keep producing. We’ve had to share or compost some giants but they keep on coming!

And sweetcorn is now on the menu, for lunch most days. A few of the stalks had been blown down (or dragged down by the weight of the mini pumpkins), but the cobs are excellent; Incredible are not as sweet as our normal Lark variety, but are delicious.

The radish flowers have been so pretty and the pods have been a tasty, hot, on-site snack and addition to salads/stir fry. So many pods that I pickled some and added nasturtium seeds which are extremely tasty when fresh so I hope they’re good pickled.

The song is provided by David Bowie and reflects the current feeling as we said goodbye to my mum who made it to her 95th birthday but pretty much decided that was plenty and fell asleep. A terrible time for us but doing our best to remember the good times, of which there were many.

What’s Going On?

I’m a bit out of date, I haven’t posted in nearly 3 weeks. Well, it’s been a busy time and I have a rotten cough/throat infection which is hanging round too long. But, apart from that whinge, it’s a great time of year - look, fresh veg for lunches and dinners!

We enjoyed quite a few strawberries, but not as many as we'd hoped. One of the peat-free compost bags was clearly a bit dodgy as the plants were not at all happy.

We’ve been living on broad beans for a while now, so many different ways to enjoy them but they’re just about finished as we’ll be moving on to courgettes. The leeks will go in the ground once the broad bean stalks go to the compost bin.

We had our Open Day on one of the hottest days of the year, it was a great success with plenty of visitors and lots of chit-chat. So exhausting organising and setting up on a sweltering day but there were plenty of volunteers and it’s always fun running the tombola.

Photo courtesy of Forbes

And the after-party was good fun too, with Ivan’s wine followed by a game of horseshoes - definitely need more practice!

The Open Day was the day after the Hungerford in Bloom allotment judging, so the plots were looking their best. Plot7 was included so we had a LOT of weeding to do beforehand. It did look tidier than ever and I even cleared and weeded behind the polytunnel. 

We got 3rd place in our class 😊 mostly I think because there are quite a variety of different items growing on that plot. The plot looks better now after a couple more weeks with some heavy showers between sunshine but still much more growing to do to cover all that bare earth - otherwise a weed will find it! I’ve been filling gaps with lettuce seedlings.

The Incredible sweetcorn that Nia gave us is growing at a pace. I had to stomp the earth around them as they’ve had some really strong winds to contend with. The four tiny plants are the Lark variety that we managed to germinate - they shouldn’t be affected by cross-pollination apparently.

A few more flowers are appearing but our plots are definitely looking mostly green at the moment. The larkspur and nasturtium are the brightest spots for the many hoverflies and bees that have arrived with the warmth. 

And I’m pleased to have noticed a lot of ladybirds over the last week. The HAHA Wildlife plot has plenty of colour for the butterflies that have turned up too.

So, as new veg is emerging, the earlier planted items are giving way. The radish are all eaten, but the radish rats tails provide a spicy addition to salads, along with the delicious peppery nasturtium, which caterpillars haven’t found yet. We ate the scapes from our garlic a couple of weeks ago. They were a very tasty mild-garlic addition to a halloumi meal.

And, I gave the garlic a couple more weeks in the ground but not long enough for the bulbs to properly form into cloves because the foliage was looking so dead and rust- covered. As a result we’ll have to eat it as ‘wet garlic’ and it won’t store for long which is a shame.

Oh, I finished my Best Foot Forward challenge for the National Kidney Federation - Thankyou if you sponsored me! I managed over 176,000 steps in June - a lot of watering was involved in those steps! So much watering!

Alfie very kindly gave us a Bokashi Composting kit. It literally ferments the green waste, rather than composting, and as it ferments we can use the ‘tea’ as a plant food. Seems interesting and all our broad bean waste has been going in there over the last few weeks - the Bokashi bran needs adding for the process to work.

Apart from the lovely plot visits I’ve been working (obviously) and prepping some documents for the BIG HAHA SUMMER SHOW. It’s our first year of running the show ourselves and it’s going to be in the Town Hall, so we really hope there’s a big turnout. I’m not involved in the organisation, but you know me, I do enjoy doing the posters, etc ☺️

Full schedule is available on the website if you’re local. 

So, that’s me caught up. We’re hoping for a thunderstorm this morning then we can go to the plot this afternoon. Song title and sadly relevant question,  provided by Marvin Gaye.