In the Morning

Early morning visits are the norm now. We have a pleasant hour on sunny mornings, enjoying the wildlife, removing covers in the polytunnel, watering all the seedlings then back home to log in to work. The temperatures have been in low single digits in the early hours but warm up quickly during the day and the polytunnel gets really hot, so we go back in the evening to cover the seedlings up for the night.

Hawthorn - before and after pollination

The hawthorn in the hedgerow has bloomed over the last week and the scent is quite over-whelming. So beautiful especially with the blue sky and sunshine we had this weekend. It was windy so we were being continually showered with confetti.

Jamie mowed the paths while I stared at the tadpoles; there's at least one frog in the pond too, but it's laying low at the moment except for the occasional splosh. Jamie's sown our Lark sweetcorn and we're pleased that the Jack Be Little pumpkins germinated in the week - the plan is for them to trail around/over the sweetcorn plants. The Baby cucumbers, Bush Delicata squash and Mangomel melon are also in that tray. They need to grow at least another pair of leaves before we plant them outside.

I’ve transplanted the Radish Rats Tails and some of the larger of the Asparagus Pea seedlings. The six biggest plants I’ve actually planted out, but I’ve given them some cloche protection as they’re tiny and looked too vulnerable out in the big wide world!

Talking of the big wide World, we went to Newbury for the Vegan Food Market on Sunday. It made a nice change to be out for something other than the allotment or an appointment!

What a treat, people-watching in the lovely warm sunshine. And look at the plant-based hot dog I had - the Colorado Mountain - so delicious, makes me wish I was growing gherkins again as it was stocked up with them and other amazing fillings with a plant-based sausage in there somewhere!

The rest of the weekend was allotment-based and we got a lot of tidying done. Trying to keep our edges neat so the snails have fewer places to hide. I found about 20 giant snails in my 3 chive plants during the week!! I flung them over the hedge (the snails, that is) and they haven’t returned…yet.

The chive flowers are so pretty. I usually start making chive flower vinegar at this time but I’ll let the bees enjoy them for a while because there aren’t many other flowers available on our plot at the moment. (Note the neat edging).

 

We do have a few flowers but these aquilegia are by the polytunnel so aren't very noticeable - it's another area that could do with a tidy and improved edging.

 

All the potatoes have burst through - the ones in the bags have the same amount of growth as these in the ground. We did top them with a bit of soil the other night because we thought there may be a frost, but it was ok. The temperature at Marsh Lane is about 3° lower than in the town so we're keeping a close eye on the forecasts.

I sowed all our beans into root trainers yesterday. Eight of each variety: Yin Yang dwarf beans (home-saved), Scarlet Empire Runner Beans, Blue Lake Climbing French Beans and Firetongue Climbing Borlotti Beans. Hopefully they’ll germinate in the polytunnel and then the climbers will be planted to grow up the old polytunnel frame (previously the squash tunnel).

That was a most enjoyable weekend but now it's time for work. Have a good week all and happy growing! Here are The Coral.

Vote for Me

The clock is ticking on my holiday. Final day today 😩 What a shame, I have enjoyed our allotment days and some have been very warm and sunny; others have been wet - great growing weather. The dandelions have done very well and have timed their seed dispersal with wet days perfectly! The swifts have joined the swallows, sweeping low across the site and over the marsh we’ve now heard the cuckoo.

We finished weeding and digging Plot7 and tidied up the edges, where there are masses of ants nests - red and black ants. There are also loads of snails. We’ve been throwing them into the hedge whenever we find them, but they know the way back. There is evidence of something eating them - probably thrushes, magpies and mice. Also, three big snails have fallen into the pond and our tadpoles have been tucking in, so they’re carnivorous now and will soon grow their back legs.

To be honest, we don’t help ourselves where slugs and snails are concerned. We have too many cosy spots for them to hide during the day and emerge under cover of night to nibble our seedlings. These pots amongst the self-seeded Nigella are a perfect hiding place that really needs tidying up. I’ve sown some pot marigolds in that swathe in the hope of having a colourful blue and orange area. Unfortunately there’s also a lot of bindweed growing there…

Here’s another snail haven behind the polytunnel, but I’ve done some tidying there this week and removed a lot of couch grass. I’ve planted the horseradish in the corner which may take over so I’ll need to keep it under control, but surely it’s better than couch… Some of those pots have Spring bulbs in them, but others are just weeds. That’s another job for the list!

I’ve planted out the mangetout and sowed a row the other side of the wire to achieve a longer harvest period. I put the twigs as protection but decided that it was worth using netting to protect the fresh growth from pigeons who can’t resist pea shoots.

I’m hoping the plants follow the plan and attach to the wire mesh rather than the black netting, otherwise picking can be tricksy. 

We’ve got plenty more sowing done. Chinese Dragon radish in the raised bed. Autumn King and Chantenay carrots in their environmesh tunnel next to the parsnips, with coriander sowed in between.

I’ve sown Florence fennel, nasturtium and various lettuce in trays/pots in the polytunnel, where I’m pleased to see that germination is pretty good for most of the seeds we sowed last week. We’re removing their lids and opening the polytunnel each day to prevent them over-heating and keeping them moist with a mist sprayer. Night time temperatures have stayed above 5° over the last week.

The lobelia have germinated - look how ridiculously small they are! It appears that I didn’t sow them very evenly across the modules 🙄

Some seeds have been less successful, including the direct-sowed beetroot so I cheated and bought a tray of beet seedlings - cheaper than buying a new packet of seeds at this point. You never know, perhaps my seeds will emerge later. We also bought a courgette plant which we’re growing in a pot in the polytunnel initially, to hopefully get some early harvests.

Aiming to grow our own reasonable leeks this year, we’ve copied plot neighbour Neal’s method of sowing his leeks. They’re direct-sown quite thickly in two rows and we’ll just plant on what we want later in the year. Our variety this year is Blue Green Autumn Neptune.

We’ve got some of Neal’s for dinner tonight as part of this pasta and Quorn lardons meal - this is before the cheese sauce was added, yummm.

The purple sprouting broccoli has provided its last meal of the year and now provides a bunch of flowers - I didn’t take them home though 😁

It’s rainy today so we didn’t stay long on the plot. We’ve potted on the pepper plants and re-sowed a Zucchini courgette, Jack-be-Little pumpkin and patty pan squash which haven’t germinated after a couple of weeks at home. Second time lucky 🤞

We weren’t involved in any of the coronation shenanigans but did enjoy the local election results last Thursday. Sadly Hungerford didn’t vote in the Green candidate who is a plotholder, but we do have two Liberal Democrats to replace two tories so that’s good. The Specials provide the song title. Aah, so sorry to have lost Terry Hall this year.

No Rain

April’s a tease; making us think it’s sowing time, or even Summer-time, then going cold and windy.

We had a few hours on the plot last Saturday and Sunday. Lovely in the sunshine; chilly in the easterly breeze.

Hairy legged bee (female) on Dead Nettle

The wildlife plot is a year old this week. The bog garden plants have spread well and the cowslips will definitely need dividing for next year. There are seedlings popping up, along with a few more flowers, though mostly dandelions which we try to clear before they seed but the bees do love them.

The radish seeds sown last week have germinated and something is already enjoying them 🙄

We sowed some more sunflowers and rainbow chard - into modules so that I can plant on the coloured ones rather than the green leafed plants. Also, our grafted tomato plants have been delivered - Crimson Plum. We’ve potted them on and they’ll stay home until the weather behaves or the plants get too straggly.

Look at my Loves Lies Bleeding seedlings! They’re so tiny, like cress at the moment. I'm wondering whether I shouldn't have sown them in clumps.

Jamie put his new toy composter together. It’s a rotator and is meant to produce compost in 3-4 weeks! It doesn't hold very much, but if it's successful we could try a larger model.

Beside the composter there is a pot of snowdrops. I planted those snowdrops about 20 years ago at home and they've never produced a flower or divided! I'm hoping it was their position rather than the actual plant. We'll find out next year...

And I did a bit of digging on Plot3. Trying to keep up with our new neighbours 😀

The strawberries are flowering around the site. The night-time temperatures are close to freezing at the moment though so those flowers may not make it into fruits - as happens most years. These plants are in the polytunnel so may get away with it, as the temperature is held up by about 1°

The song title is brought to you by Blind Melon (although we did have a tiny shower on Monday, you get the gist!)

Cheat

No, it’s not cress. That, believe it or not, is a celeriac seedling.

There are 3 or 4 like that. I'm not convinced they'll survive to planting stage but will keep them going, even though we nipped to a garden centre and they had these. Now they look a bit healthier and will be planted rather earlier than our home-germinated plants. Don't they look lovely and healthy?

Talking of healthy, our site is now 100% leased, with most plots looking prepped and ready for the year ahead - a bit different from this time in 2010, when the land developer had withdrawn the idea for allotments on Marsh Lane after 1 year of being set up. Thank goodness the Council were able to negotiate a 4-year lease for us - and that was 11 years ago :-)

We were on the site at the weekend. In between snow showers the sun would come out and it was really hot - as my boss pointed out, the sun is as high now as it is at the end of August! We sowed some teasel seeds on the wildflower plot and I'm pleased to say that our bog plants from Bakker are on their way so it'll be good to get them planted out. I moved the drainpipe of mangetout seedlings outside to a cold frame as I'll (hopefully) plant them out next weekend. The weather is still far more wintry than we want in April - look what we woke up to yesterday - snowy rooftops!

I thought it was going to feel like a soup week, so I soaked some of my home-grown dried beans - I added celery seeds to the water which smelled lovely.

To the stock, I added the few leaves of Cavolo Nero, that we'd grown, plus a few carrots and tomato puree, as per Shaheen's recent soup recipe. I have to admit that my soup doesn't look very pretty, but it tastes good. I wish I had mushed up some of the gigantes beans separately rather than blitzing the whole soup, though there are some whole beans at the bottom of the cup.

Remember our broad beans that got severely hit by the frost in February? They unexpectedly revitalised and now look! I hope the frosts we're having at the moment don't take them out at this stage in the game...

I have to start work now, but just one last thing... You must watch the BBC4 programme: A Year in an English Garden: Flicker & Pulse. It's so beautiful, with time-lapse and other fancy effects and just a little bit of talking - I really enjoyed it, in fact I may have to watch it again (and copy some of their ideas).

The song title is provided by The Clash and is because of buying seedlings from a shop. But, as I said to Forbes on site, "It's not cheating. It's common sense" ;-)