Raining Again

This was such an amazing rainbow! It was so bright and huge, much more impressive than this photo shows but it’s the best I could get. So beautiful, I stood and stared for a while.

Sunshine and showers definitely sums up the weather over the last couple of weeks/months. I’ve got a few days off for Easter, but the hoped-for plot-days haven’t worked out yet…

We’ve had plot visits and have even done a bit of weeding but it’s hard work having to do it by hand because the ground is too wet to walk on let alone to dig.

Well, that’s the leeks patch cleared to make way for root crops. It’ll need better digging than that to grow some straight carrots!

The leeks were good this year. It’s worth planting them nice and deep to get plenty of white stalk.

The blackthorn has flowered in the hedge but the lovely flowers didn’t last long. The wind, rain, hail didn’t help, but hopefully they were pollinated.

We’ve seen bees enjoying the dandelions, dead nettle and grape hyacinths as well as the other Spring bulbs that are popping up here and there.

I was pleased to see some tadpoles in our little pond although I haven’t seen them since. I have seen a couple of frogs recently though and there’s some frogspawn appeared in the pond on the HAHA wildlife plot.

The teasels on the wildlife plot in a rainstorm yesterday (Good Friday). The sky went black but no thunder like we had on Thursday when the hail was apocalyptic.

Here’s Jamie fighting against the wind and rain while we were trying to secure a honeysuckle trellis which had collapsed on the wildlife plot.

We have achieved some tasks in the last couple of weeks. I’ve managed to weed and feed the garlic bed and Jamie’s cleared the bean tunnel.

And we’ve collected some of the manure for future use - it’s in a compost bin for now. £1.50 a barrow-load from HAHA - what a bargain 😊

Talking of HAHA. We have a fully tenanted site again - it’s great to see the newcomers joining us old-timers 👨‍🌾 And on the sunny breaks it has been a lovely busy site with lots of chat and catching up with plot-buddies. Aah, we do love our allotment and we really should get out there while the Sun is shining because it looks like today may be dry…. with just a small threat of showers… Moby provides the song title.

Just a Little Bit Longer

It may be meteorological spring but brrrr it’s been a cold weekend with temperatures of about 5° and no sunshine both days. Needs must though so we got a few hours of plotting done both days.

There are signs of Spring, with these pretty primula and grape hyacinths giving a little colour in the dullness. The hedgerow is full of song from the robins, tits and finches and this weekend the first signs of new growth on the hawthorn (or possibly blackthorn). I had to use the macro, they’re very tiny buds.

My tiny hazel tree is also in bud. I know the bud isn’t in focus, but the stem is rather interesting especially compared to the smooth hawthorn.

The perennial flowers are beginning to emerge. Poor little things; it’s due to go much colder with possible snow this week. This is a lovely silvery delphinium that Aimee let us take from her plot last year.

I cleared our iris bed and the stems will need a bit more trimming after the cold snap is passed. They’ll also appreciate a bit of potato fertiliser.

We’ve been pulling lots of grass from the beds and have buried it deep in the bottom of holes that we’ve dug and manured. One is for a Jack-be-Little pumpkin and the other for a green bush courgette on Plot7. We have our planting plan worked out now and just a few more seeds to buy…

Not quite as fancy as some of my plans from previous years, but it serves its purpose 🙂 Of course, I fully expect to diverge from this as other plotholder’s spare become available - it’s so hard to resist!

There’s a lot of clearing and prepping happening all over site and we’re at that point where we just want to get sowing, but we’ll wait… just a little bit longer.. Thanks to Maxi Priest for the song title. (I know what you’re thinking, but I’ve used the Jackson Browne song before)

New Life

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 😉

Spring, Spring, Spring

Spring is here, the clocks have changed, we're on our way out of lockdown and we found this bowl of a clay pipe on the allotment. We haven't found anything for 'the allotment museum' for ages (in fact, I need to re-find the museum!). It's probably late 19th/early 20th century so not that old but still interesting.

And here's a classic Spring sight on our plot. Lovely grape hyacinths.

Jamie and I started a new project last week. I had Thursday off work, so we started work on the HAHA Wildlife Plot

In normal times it would have been a fun job for a work party. There's still a lot more to be cleared but not bad for two long days of work. We wouldn't have wanted the sun out but it may have been less exhausting if it wasn't blowing a gale on both days - oh, and if I hadn't been mainly sitting on my butt for the last year!!

Much as we'd like the site to have a pond, it's better for individual plots to have small ponds at the moment due to the ever-present lease which doesn't allow us to have a pond plot. There was also the concern of accidents and covering it with a strong enough grill detracts from the appeal somewhat.

So we decided to convert the pond into a bog garden and the rest of that plot will be a wildlife plot - with wildflowers and other wildlife-friendly plants. It already has the bug hotel, which needs to be refurbished and now it has a compost bin and stone piles for solitary bees.

We've re-planted a few plants that were already there, like this Jacobs Ladder, cowslips,  forget-me-nots and a couple of iris. 

Plus one of the buddleja that I grew from a cutting ("a cutting from my sister" I was going to say, that doesn't sound right!!) and some Snakes Head Fritillary that were reduced in the Garden Centre. We also have some bog plants on order from Bakker.

Now, I hope you'll agree that the empty plot, which is prone to horsetail, looks better though rather empty at the moment. However, what we didn't bank on was the number of frogs in that pond. There must have been 50 or more quite small frogs. There was no frogspawn so we thought we had timed it ok but we're not so sure now. Anyway, the 4 little ponds around the site now have new residents but we hope the bog garden works and the frogs should appreciate that damp area to at least visit...

Our own plots are just waiting a little longer before we get down to some proper planting. But we're happy to see the shallots on Plot3 have sprouted. And the celeriac at home have germinated - though they are the weakest little things at the moment; too small even for my macro camera to focus on.

So, this week we're expecting two hot days - yay! I've booked two 2-hour lunches :-) And then, over Easter, the weather is going to turn Wintry again :-( Well, that's disappointing but not so surprising, it's what British weather does after all... But the hedgerow is coming to life and the path nearest the hedge is covered in wild white violets (they may well be Common Dog Violets as there is no scent at all) which look very pretty.

And the wallflowers are in full colour on our plot - so glad I stuck them in the ground a couple of years ago, rather than disposing of them.

The song title is from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - what a wholly inappropriate film for the 21st Century! Well, I guess it was acceptable in the '50s..!

33 Crows

OK, I'll admit it may not be quite 33 but there was a big flock ('murder') of crows in the tree opposite our flat. They just kept flying in, a pair at a time. Then something spooked them and...off they went.

As you can see we had a nice blue-sky weekend. We should have spent longer on the allotment, but we didn't get there till late on Saturday afternoon. We did sow a packet of Bonita french marigolds, Suttons broad beans and some salad veg though, so at least we achieved something.

The Blackthorn in the allotment hedge has flowered and it is was a proper Spring weekend.

The moss is looking rather stunning too - I need to charge the batteries on my macro camera to see these in all their miniature glory.

Our shallots have sprouted - yay! But still no frogspawn in our pond :-(

Last Wednesday I joined Ted, our Chairman, on a stall at the Hungerford Town Council meeting. The room was edged by all the volunteer groups and about 100 people turned up to find out about what we all do for the town. It was quite a good format - and we got interest from a new plotholder.

And on Friday night we had a HAHA versus the Rest of the World Skittles match - it turned out that the 'rest of the world' consisted of Steve and as there wasn't a huge turnout we decided to play as individuals rather than teams. It was a lot of fun and we made about £30 (after paying for the room) for HAHA funds so it was worth arranging this little off-site social gathering.

We didn't make it to the plot yesterday as we went to Newbury and then went for a walk around Bowdown Woods near Greenham Common - it was so beautiful, just a couple of weeks and the whole place will be full of bluebells.

The title is provided by Kula Shaker - great song, if a rather spurious link to this blogpost :-)