Phew! What a scorcher!

What a perfect week to have booked leave!

It was another sweltering day - we didn't go to the plot until the evening. Walking through town was lovely, felt like being abroad with such warm air. Look at the temperature at 7pm, and look at the record-breaking day! The thermometer is hung in the shade so imagine what it would have been in the sun!!



Jamie dug the area in the potato quarter which is where we're going to put the leeks in - they're getting quite big in their modules now so are ready to go really. Far more sensible digging as the sun went down!

I planted the rhubarb, looks a bit pathetic with just its one leaf, but it has a healthy bud and roots so should be ok. I planted it level with the surface. Most websites say to plant below the surface but Terry, who gave us the plant, assured us this is the correct way to dealing with it - hope he's right!

We stayed for a bit of slug-chucking and bat-hunting then went home. We're expecting another hot day tomorrow - so barbecue on standby!

Another blue sky day!

We did a morning a session of weeding and digging then went home for a few hours. By 10:30 the temperature had already reached 26° in the shade, of which there is very little at Marsh Lane. We went back up in the afternoon and by then the temp was 31° phew!
I found a tiny bit of shade behind the runner beans!

I planted the petit pois plants which Jamie had sown in the root trainers - 8 out of 12 germinated. I also transplanted the fennel directly into the herb garden so hopefully it will grow enough for some soup!

Found this little bug - it must be a shield bug but I don't know what sort yet - but still haven't done my butterfly count. The cabbage whites are desperately trying to get at our cabbages, which the slugs are already loving!!

As we were leaving this lone swallow was singing very happily on the overhead cables - there were lots of them sweeping the air today.

Happy Birthday...to me!

What a fantastic day! Blue sky all day long. We had a very lazy time on the plot - barbecue, sangria and beer - work wouldn't have been possible even if we'd wanted to (far too hot).
We started at about 11am, had a wander and a paddle in the river along from the marsh in the afternoon - sad to say I had to escape from the sun for a bit, just too much with no shade - my silly-looking hat didn't help much!

We went home at about 6pm then back up the plot for dusk and bat-detecting. There weren't many around, which was suprising as there were loads of moths on the air. But when we got our torch out we could see slugs and massive snails everywhere!! There were loads of little slugs inside most of our netted areas :-( That's the trouble with netting up to protect; it doesn't let the predators in to clear up... what we need is a pet hedgehog!

New moon

When we walked back under the railway bridge there were more bats than we saw by the plot - they were swooping under the bridge taking the moths that were hanging round the street light. They are lovely to see, but couldn't get any snaps of them.

Uh-oh! Jamie broke our fork!

Jamie is still digging, but snapped the fork! Plot 8 really is proving to be hard work and there's still more to dig...
I put some asters in where Jamie dug compost in today.

It was a fabulous sunny day so I had no intention of digging, but I did do a lot of weeding.
At least now we can leave the weeds to dry out so they don't just replant themselves!

Our shallots are drying out nicely in the warm temperature and there are lots of bees around - but also quite a few butterflies, so they'll start laying eggs soon I expect.

I'm intending to do the big butterfly count - just 15 minutes. Haven't decided whether to do it from our plot or at the top of the allotments where there is tall grass and lots of butterflies - is that cheating??

I chopped back the chives and thyme which had got a bit huge and planted a Greek Oregano which I bought yesterday at the AONB event. I realise I've erred regarding the fennel - I was thinking that I would just be using the leaves.... not sure I'll get a bit fennel output in a pot... well, I'll have another go next year instead and just use the leaves as a bit of flavouring this year.

We got a nice harvest of broad beans to have for dinner along with the last of the potatoes we pulled last week and some chives to have in the melted butter - yum!

Yay! The jetstream has shifted!

At last the jetstream is where it should have been for the last few weeks so the sun was shining and it was lovely and warm! See http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=jetstream%3Bsess%3D

We helped out at Hungerford Town Hall in the morning for the AONB 40th anniversary where HAHA had a stand and then we went to the plot for a few hours. AONB gave Marsh Lane the grant for digging the borehole - actually had to use it today to water the celeriac, that's the first time for a while!

We pulled the shallots as the tops had mostly died back - as the weather is meant to stay lovely and dry for the next week it should be perfect for drying the shallots out prior to pickling. We laid them out on the old fireguard we have on the plot - look at that lot!

There were lots of slugs and slug eggs in amongst the shallots. We've left the area open so hopefully the frog and weather will deal with clearing up - I managed to get this photo of a mother feeding her chick, unfortunately they definitely prefer worms to slugs though :-(

Slugs and eggs

I sowed a double row of broad beans on plot 8 where we'd dug some manure into the ground a couple of weeks ago. Jamie fed the tomato plants and mowed the grass which is growing like mad and looks good but isn't really the best type of path because of the work it generates - also there's only so much grass that you want in your compost bin.

And...hooray! Our first courgette is showing - shouldn't be long before I'm getting rid of the glut at work :-)

Good Housekeeping Magazine

About a month ago I was emailed out of the blue by the Assistant Features Editor of Good Housekeeping! What a surprise that was - I'm not a subscriber, though of course I've read the magazine in waiting rooms over the years!
Anyway, she wondered whether she could interview me about our allotment for a feature about happiness - well our plots certainly do make us happy (most of the time!)  :-)

So, yesterday I went to Studio G at Snap UK in Hackney, London for my photo shoot! I'd had to give them my clothes/shoe size so was expecting to be togged in some sort of Laura Ashley dress and wellingtons or possibly dungarees and a straw hat! In fact they wanted a more elegant style...

I tried on 6 or 7 different outfits and then had my hair done and make up applied by people from HMS Creative so I barely recognised myself! Then I went through to the studio for the photos to be taken by Colin Bell. He took a lot of photos with me wearing two of the chosen outfits - really quite embarrassing with about 7 people looking on! My smile was beginning to break and posing doesn't come naturally but apparently they got some shots they were happy with.

So, now it's just a case of waiting for the November issue of Good Housekeeping to come out - can't wait, but I think I'll leave the modelling to other people in future!!

First full trug of goodies this year

Very pleased to have taken this trugful of food home today - our first broad beans of the year. At last! I can only just remember how tasty they are!!

We pulled two potato plants - 800grams of Belana and just over 1kg of Orla - we're going to bake some of the larger ones tomorrow. All the other salady bits will be perfect for my lunch over the next couple of days. Now this is the bonus of having an allotment that I love :-)
Unfortunately the little turnips were brown inside so they went straight into the compost and one of the radishes didn't make it out of the kitchen as I couldn't resist - phew! - it was a little hot!!

Tiny tomatoes

Our first (very) little tomatoes are showing on the plants and we have beans on our dwarf french - should be ready for next weekend I reckon along with the beetroot which are bulbing up nicely now.

Jamie sowed Peewee 65 petit pois in the root trainer modules last week (7th July) and they're just peeping through the soil now. They're waiting in our net cloche along with the leeks - which still aren't 'pencil width' but are getting quite big... We've just about pulled all the potatoes to make room for them on the potato quarter now, so weather-permitting we'll get them puddled in over the next couple of weeks.

Peas & leeks in waiting

Slugs, Weeds and a Frog

Jamie found this frog beside our brassica cage! Lovely - I love frogs :-) I popped it in a nearby pond, but hopefully it'll keep visiting our plot - there's certainly plenty for it to eat!

Little froggy!

Slugs have even developed an appetite for potato leaves this year - and look at our poor pepper! That was the one I took the photo of at the end of June :-(

The weeds have had a field day! They aren't very tall but they're everywhere.

Unweeded row (on the right!)

At least you can see where we've been and after taking this pic the other row of celeriac was also cleared. I found this information about celeriac before I bought our plants so surely it should be the perfect year for it!!

"Water it like mad. If you’re flooded, and the fire brigade evacuate you, sneak back during the
night to water your celeriac, even if it is under a foot of water. It will never have too
much water. Then water it again."

The onions are looking good, hopefully the mildew resistance is working as we've seen it elsewhere on site. We watered the spring onions with some epson salts as the leaves are yellowing a bit - they need the extra magnesium. Whereas the shallots are yellowing and dying back so they'll be ready to pull soon and then we need to find somewhere to dry them off prior to pickling..

Silverskins

There is a distinct lack of insect life on the plot, hardly  a butterfly in sight. These are the first black fly we've seen this year - these are being farmed by the ants! Still undecided as to whether the ants are going to help reduce or cause more blackfly to breed. We'll wait and see - slightly ashamed to say that they're not on our beans so not our problem at present :-)

Red Ants and Blackfly

We pulled the sickly potato (it's a kestrel), there were just 3 tiny tubers. It's the only kestrel plant that's in trouble, the others have very healthy haulms.

Sickly Kestrel

Healthy Kestrels

The runner beans have finally reached the top of the canes and there are a few flowers. There were a couple of bees working them today when the rain stayed off for a bit so hopefully we'll get some beans.

Colourful chard

We had a couple of visits to the plot in the last couple of days. The rain stopped so Jamie spent the afternoon digging manure and compost into Plot 8 for the rhubarb. We're going to let the worms work the patch a bit before we plant the rhubarb.

Even the chard has started to cheer up now and the raspberries are reddening up! There are quite a few wasps and bees around the raspberries but there are very few insects around because of the bad weather. There are some more flowers on the runner beans but concern all over site that the rain will knock the flowers off before any bees are able to get out to pollinate :-(

Rainbow chard

We took a little trug of goodies home. Jamie didn't dig for all the potatoes from the belana plant he pulled - just enough for our dinner that evening. There's a bit of salad, another handful of mange tout and our first salad onions too.

Fringe comes to Marsh Lane

As part of the Hungerford and District Community Arts Festival (HADCAF) we had a visit from the Nutshell Theatre (Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Winner 2011) performing The Allotment.

The only shed allowed on our allotment site - it's only a prop!

The rain held off, at least for the 3pm performance, which I attended and hopefully it stayed dry-ish for the two later performances. I enjoyed it, though it's not the sort of thing I usually would go along to. It was a fun way to spend a different hour at the allotment!