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!
Thankyou for bringing us some proper rain - real torrential showers. We were happy to avoid puddles, admire rain pouring from leaking gutters and water hammering out of down pipes.
We’ve been very happy to see the earth on the allotment looking a rich brown colour instead of pale and dusty. The plants say “thankyou” too.
I was very happy to be able to make holes that didn’t fill up with dusty soil as soon as they were dug (using a bulb planter). Thanks to Neal for the baby leeks, we now have 27 planted.
Just one thing, Clouds…. Did you need to have the biggest cloudburst just as the Hungerford Carnival parade was setting off and then disperse leaving sunshine as the parade finished?! Terrible timing! Most of the remaining crowd were sheltering under the railway bridge.
The Town and Manor cows 😀
Anyway, the rain saved us from a lot of watering for a couple of days which was a welcome break. I’m on holiday this week so I’m glad that it’s still warm, not sweltering, and we seem to have a few more dry days lined up for plot-days. And, we’ve picked our first tomatoes.
The beans are getting there, although we only see one(!) tiny bean so far on the Scarlet Empire runners…
Ahead of the rain, I pulled the shallots. They’re now trimmed and drying in the roof of the polytunnel before they’ll be pickled. They’ve done well this year - mostly due to the lack of slugs, I think.
Some of the small ones went home along with a potato harvest - the contents of one bag and two from the ground. They appear to be Nicola and Kestrel but who knows? Not me and I planted them!
Some of the potatoes and shallots have been used in several meals already. Roasted vegetables with paneer also included peppers, but mostly home-grown ingredients.
The raised bed, where the shallots were, has been topped up with soil from the potato bags and topped with Apsley Farms mulch. We’ve sown a row of radish and we’re going to sow some pak choi for over-Wintering.
The zinnia are flowering now and I’m dead-heading regularly to encourage more bushiness - such a pretty flower. And, as you can see with that tiny hoverfly visitor, they are good for pollinators.
The nasturtium on the other hand have proved irresistible to flea beetle this year - the heat has helped their numbers and they are being very destructive. Some plants on site are black with them and when you get close they all ping off in different directions. Nasturtiums are often used as sacrificial plants, but I was hoping to enjoy some leaves myself! The tiny beetles are also enjoying the radish, which are finally going to seed. I hope I can still pick some pods for a spicy snack.
The Sun is just breaking through the cloud now so we shall head for the plot for a bit of pottering, sitting, watching and thinking. The Housemartins provide the lovely song title, aah.
I got up early and left Jamie sleeping this morning. I got to the plot at about 7am and it was already warm but not sweltering.
The plants still had dew on their leaves and I noticed that one of the melons has begun to send out stems in three directions.
The plant in the polytunnel has grown faster and is beginning to climb its framework. I’ve moved the aubergine so both plants are in the sunny doorway now. They both have flowers and quite a few buds. Manoeuvring in the polytunnel is getting a little awkward!
I was hoping to prepare the bed for leeks, but the ground was too dry so I did some clearing instead. Terrible bindweed and so much Nigella which has seeded everywhere - they look lovely but are a bit of a pest and the bindweed clings on all over it. The weed pile is full of life; crickets, ladybirds and other wee beasties so I’m leaving it on the plot to dry off and the insects can move on.
Hmm, well it looks better and we can see the pond again but that bindweed will be back for me to fight another day. The little bed in front of the raised bed needs tackling too, but that can wait!
The raised bed has chard and salad leaf as well as the herbs. There are only a couple of small rows of mixed leaf, but it’s cut-and-come-again so perfect for salad and sandwiches.
The Baby cucumber is growing quickly and some tiny cucumbers are hopefully a sign of things to come. We haven’t tried Baby before as we usually grow Rocky.
The tomatoes are always a bit slower to ripen than we’d like, but there are some great looking trusses on their way on the Black moon plant in the polytunnel…
The courgettes have started regular production so the creative cooking needs to start - or perhaps they’ll just be fried up with garlic, which is good enough for me.
The broad beans are still going, but they won’t be part of many more meals; once there’s evidence of the broad bean seed larvae we stop eating them 😖 This was a tasty satay Raman noodle meal I enjoyed the other night. Very quick and easy.
I keep stroking the pollen on the sweetcorn to encourage it onto the silky tassels. Some are going brown, but they aren’t ready yet. Waiting, waiting!
Today we pulled one of the potatoes - thought it was a Duke of York, but appears to be Kestrel. A bit better than the potato bag that had one potato in it!! Potatoes really don’t like such dry weather.
So, with a final hollyhocks photo - what a beauty - I’ll say goodnight.
The song title is provided by Prince and as we’re into our third heatwave of the year it seems appropriate. Phew, stay cool all.
We’re mid-heatwave at the moment - it’s extremely hot (high 20s) but I must say I’m loving it, especially working my part-time hours. We go to the allotment for lunch and stay until we’re flaking out.
There’s so much to water now that we’ve pretty much planted all that’s going in … well, there may be some additions if the mood takes me. My row of Jacob’s Cattle drying beans have all germinated and we’ve potted up the polytunnel. Jamie can help with a lot, but needs to sit down even more than me these days, but the allotment is definitely his happy place 😊
In the polytunnel we have: Aubergine - Graffiti Aubergine - Meatball Melon - Alvaro Tomato - Redcurrant Tomato - Black Moon
I’ve grown one of the Redcurrant tomatoes and three of the Alvaro melons outside too - just with holes dug through this weed suppressant - hopefully the melon growth will cover that entirely. It was only after I’d planted them that Jamie piped up “why didn’t you plant them in the middle?”. Hmm, good point, of course I’m wanting them to grow towards the centre of our plot but they’re bound to head the other way 🙄
We’ve planted a Cocktail Crush tomato and a Baby cucumber plant on Plot3. We’re expecting that just one cucumber plant will suffice, rather than swamp us with cucumbers this year! I’ve sown some celtuce, a Chinese salad veg into the raised bed. The radish, mangetout and salad leaves are providing me with some small lunch additions. I’ve used the garlic scapes in various meals and have used a couple of bunches of shallots (picked before fully mature) as I’ve given up with salad onions.
I have pulled one garlic but it needs more drying. I’ll probably wait another week before pulling the rest. And that is our first courgette of the year - we based our whole fajita meal round that tiny specimen ðŸ¤
I’m pleased to see the verbena bonariensis has started to put on its show amongst the feverfew flowers, just as the valerian oficinalis is going over. Zinnia and pot marigolds are on their way too and I hope to have some hollyhocks photos very soon…
I’m also happy to see more ladybirds arrive with the heat. I’ve been collecting them from our stinging nettle pot (it started out as a raspberry pot) and placing them on my Gigantes beans which are climbing well, but the blackfly have found them.
So, today is the longest day and it’s meant to be the hottest. I expect we’ll be doing a lot of watering, a lot of bindweed pulling and a lot of sitting for much of the 16hours and 37minutes of daylight. Enjoy the song by David Kushner.
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!
The last couple of weeks we’ve had a mix of hot sunny days, frosty nights and more recently strong winds. We had a couple of showers but not enough rain to make much difference to the dry soil.
I’ve had a lingering cold and had my Covid booster so haven’t felt like working or plotting, but perhaps I’ll manage some today before rain is due this afternoon and I have a week off work after Easter so I hope there are some reasonable days for catching up. On a couple of quick visits we managed to hastily sow a row of parsnips - if they germinate I have a feeling there may be some wonky veg growing there!
And I dug a small plot and sowed mangetout. They’re usually one of our first harvests, but I’ve been a bit slow this year. I’ve put some protection round now they’ve popped up or the pigeons will clear the lot. The shallots in the raised bed have all got healthy looking green shoots now.
The purple sprouting broccoli has been producing lovely shoots - so delicious.
I’ve sown some asparagus pea and chard in modules in the polytunnel. I’ll choose the coloured chard stems to plant out, once an area has been dug.
The seedlings are growing quite slowly because of the fluctuating temperature but that is suiting our slower pace of life at the moment. Jamie’s walking without a stick most of the time, but the fatigue still makes things difficult, but slowly, slowly…
The broad bean gap-fillers that we sowed last month have sprouted and I’m hoping the blossom will be out in our ‘orchard’ when I go up in a bit - shame the sky isn’t this lovely blue today.
Blog title provided by Paul McCartney. Because it is…early days.
