Sunny Afternoon

We had another sweltering day for Open Day yesterday (Sunday).

Committee members were on site from 10:00 setting up games, bunting, sun umbrellas (lots of them) and picking flowers to decorate the tables. We had two gazebos: one that we bought with the Tesco Bags of Help grant money and the other on loan from someone in Hungerford.

About 30 minutes before the start time (2pm) we risked putting food out - lovely donated cakes, delicious sweet and savoury scones, squashes, home-made elderflower cordial with sparkling spring water and tea and coffee for those who could bear to have a hot drink in 30° sunshine!

The barbecue was surprisingly popular on such a hot day - well done to Richard, Neale and Jane who worked with that additional heat.

The tombola was a huge success as usual, with so many lovely donated prizes to try and win. Children were happy with their party bags if they won a bottle of alcohol!

The stone painting was really popular with the children - they've done it at school and love it. As part of #HungerfordRocks people place the stones around the town (country or further afield) and if you find one you should post a photo to Facebook with the hashtag and then re-hide it for someone else to find. I hope some of ours turn up online. The little ladybird won't though, because I painted that and it's on our plot!

People had tours around the site, peeping into greenhouses and checking how we grow different vegetables before seeking out the shade under the umbrellas or anywhere else they could find it. I even showed someone around for a new plot - that's what Open Days are for, just perfect!

Kate, enjoying the stone painting as much as the children :-)

Then at 5:00 the last of the visitors had gone. Phew, time for the volunteers to have a bit of relaxation.

And we crowned Neal with his Peoples Choice award for receiving the largest number of public votes for his plot - well done Neal, sorry you only got a round of applause!

So, at about 9:00 we left the site and wobbled home through warm streets and placed a few HAHA Rocks around the town as we went...
So, what better song than The Kinks? Though yesterday wasn't an afternoon for lazing...

Rock On

We've had some lovely sunny and hot days, with not a drop of rain so we've been watering every evening between World Cup football matches. One evening we found these in our greenhouse.

They're from neighbouring plotholder, Kate, and I'm now really looking forward to our 'HAHA Rocks' stone-painting stall at our Open Day next month. The '<Town Name> Rocks' craze has been going for a while now all over the country. We have lots of stones on site that could be improved with  decoration and we're happy for them to be taken away to spread joy round the country!!

You can see how dry the earth is, but everything is growing well and that bare earth should be quite well hidden by lush growth soon...

Like our potato plot is - the flowers are out on most of the plants now.

And the tomato plants in the greenhouse have the promise of future tasty toms.

Peppers are just beginning to form on the pepper plant nearest the door.

I spent time today planting flowers into tubs for prettying up the site for the Open Day. I hope three weeks is long enough to get some blooms...

I also sowed a few seeds - another row of beetroot and a row divided between black-skinned radish and some pink/purple fleshed ones - I think they're larger than normal salad radish, which have grown particularly well this year.

The trailling squash are finally planted - one each of: Festival, Boston Giant, Autumn Crown and Honeyboat. I still haven't worked out how to build the trellis, but I'm thinking about it...

We planted 14 of each sweetcorn plants during the week and will leave them protected in their bottle cloches for a while.

And today I pulled the garlic as the stems had yellowed-off completely, they should dry out nicely in this weather (cue the rain!). All those from one french garlic bought at the Hungerford Food Festival last year.

So, now it's back to footie - but just time to listen to the oh-so-dreamy David Essex for the title track

Earth Song

It's Earth Day - a day to celebrate our amazing planet and encourage people to be more environmentally friendly. Making compost with food scraps and waste paper/card has got to be up there as one of the most satisfying and environmentally friendly things we can all do.

I mixed up the contents of our bins today. Mostly because there was a hole under one and we were worried that there would be a rat nesting in there - I'm pleased there wasn't! Our compost seems a bit wet, but the worms love it and it always turns out good in the end.

There it is, earth in the making!

It was an unexpectedly beautiful day, with pretty much full sunshine all afternoon while we were on the plot. This is our valerian, with its lush greenery - looking tropical in the afternoon sunshine.

The flowers are forming but the stems are hollow so don't seem like they'll be frost tolerant...is there really a snow/frost risk for us next week??

I sowed some more seeds: Red Brussels sprouts, Nelson Brussels sprouts, Minicole cabbages, Victoria Florence fennel - all in modules and under cover in the greenhouse.

The Toledo leeks have germinated but the other year-old leek seeds haven't. I love the way leek and other onion seedlings always start bent double like this.

The Aster seeds haven't germinated as well as the marigold seeds have, but hopefully there will be enough for a nice show of flowers.

The mangetout has grown well and I hope to get the frame up for them tomorrow but will probably wait another week before planting them out.

We're living on rhubarb, it's delicious, but the plants will need splitting later in the year. One of the plants isn't so happy; the stems are short and the leaves look a bit yellow.
I broke open this stone - I was hoping to find some crystals inside.

It was full of chalk - interesting, but I would have preferred crystals!

So, for Earth Day, here's Earth Song by Michael Jackson...

Sunday Sunshine

I had things I should have done today, but it would have been mad to stay inside on the second hottest day of the year. It felt hotter because the sun was on full, but the thermometer showed 22° The site was busier than it's been in months, so nice to see.

Here are our potato bags.

We weeded the area behind, where the wildflowers will go, and all round the rhubarb monsters. I potted on the lovely hibiscus syriacus 'Marina'. I really hope it grows and flowers well, it promises to be beautiful! The two blue poppies We were given for Christmas are tricky to grow (from everything I've read) but gorgeous when they work. I put them in a pot because of the uncertain future of the site. One has disappeared but the other is still hanging on in there. (Fingers crossed).

I found a funny shaped stone, so thought I'd share it. How do they get to be that shape?!

Reminds me of the doorbell moose in The Banana Splits (blast from the past!). Now I've found a photo, it doesn't really look that similar!

A Little Bit of This... A Little Bit of That

Hooray! It's May! And it's been a bright, warm(-ish) day on the allotment with lots of other plotholders on the site. Jamie spent the whole time digging Plot3 but I couldn't face that, so I did lots of different jobs...mostly involving the compost. Not a very interesting picture...

But look at the animated version! The bins are alive with woodlice and worms - both very welcome in the compost to help breakdown the plant material. You have to be quick to see them though, they scatter as soon as the lid is opened.

I pulled up and composted last year's Brussels Sprouts plants. They've been re-growing so I chopped the new growth up but the stalks were too thick so they'll go in the green bin at home. I added some dried out weeds, a wheelbarrow of manure and a pile of shredded household bills - that's the best place for them, if not in the potato trench!

I potted on the petunias. They'll appreciate the extra-growing power from that multi-purpose compost. Their next move will be into tubs and baskets.

I even managed to sow a row of radish into our protected little raised bed on Plot3. (Hungerford Town and Manor have taken away lots of the stones to shore-up the river. Hopefully lots of slugs were taken away too!)

And finally I helped Jamie with a bit of digging, but I did an easy bit with no horrible grass and roots.

Aah, I like May Day.

Cuckoo!

We heard one this afternoon! It sounded like it was across the marsh. I love to hear them, though they are very naughty birds!! We also saw two swifts (or maybe house martens) swoop into the carport next door to the allotment site.

As you can see, it was a busy visit to the plot this afternoon :-) We were so surprised to be in lovely warm sunshine we thought it would be a shame not to make the most of it!

This alien-looking thing is one off our tulips... It should be a proper flower very soon...

We shredded lots of paper this morning and de-needled the remainder of the Christmas tree for the potato planting tomorrow. We also sieved some compost and potting compost for the potato bags.

This is another of our finds on Plot3 ...

Man-made or natural?

I can't tell...

Oh, and this is one of our onions. Most of them have sprouted, but you have to get close to see! At least it shows they're alive.

What Katie Did

That was a stormy night! Lashing rain and howling winds. We were expecting destruction on the site, but it was surprisingly unaffected. There isn't much to damage at this time of year. There are a few flowers on plots but this tiny wildflower (the flowerhead is about 5mm) is making its own way along the stone pile.

Common Field Speedwell

Not much for a bee to enjoy but we have seen a few. Today this bumblee was put amongst our grape hyacinths when we found her on the grass.

Wildlife blog has more photos

Jamie was on compost-duty; merging the two bins on Plot3 and moving them away from the potato plot. We always end up moving our bins around the plots and then finding they're still in an inconvenient place!
I was sowing some seeds! I've sown coriander, dill and parsley into biggish pots in the greenhouse. I mixed some manure with potting compost from last years potato and grow bags. It may be a bit early, but plenty more seeds if these ones fail. I also sowed some Boltardy beetroot into modules.

I sprinkled Grow-More in the raised bed and covered it with black plastic so the earth will get nice and warm for sowing in a few weeks time.

Blossom bursting in the hedge

Last job of the day - empty last night's rain from the gauge!

Quite a lot for one night