A Sunny Bank Holiday!

Such a lovely May Day holiday - there were a lot of other plot holders around making the most of the sunshine and amazing temperature. We had a barbecue but escaped early afternoon as it was too hot (my resolution not to moan when the sun shines is officially broken!). We'll go back to close the greenhouse down a bit later.

From Plot 7

Look how dry the ground appears, but a couple of inches down there is some moisture; In the morning there is dew so it's not quite as dry as it looks. Still no sign of parsnips or the broad beans we sowed a couple of weeks ago.
We've moved the flowers and beets which have germinated under the green mesh cloche, in the raised bed, which is cooler than the greenhouse.
Today I sowed these seeds in modules and they're in the greenhouse:

• Scarlet Empire runner beans
• White flowered runner beans - we don't know their name but they are apparently self-pollinating

I also sowed 4 small rows of Rondo F1 Florence Fennel. I sowed 3 seeds per 'station' and spread the stations out as each plant should be spaced about 15cm apart.
I also sowed a row of PeaWee 65 petit pois and Carouby de Moussane mangetout. Jamie repaired the pea frame which had gone rather wobbly since I moved it from the other quarter...
More potatoes have burst through!

From Plot 8

 

Seedy Sunday

We managed to get most of our seeds sown this afternoon. It was warm and bright and the wind had dropped since yesterday - Thank Goodness.
Our potatoes have started to appear. This is the most advanced in the second row - it appears to be a Red Duke of York which fits in with the plan, so that's a good start!

These are two rows of Paris Silverskin onions, for pickling, and one row of Apache red salad onions. I'll hopefully succession sow a few more rows of salad onions in here too. As ever, my rows aren't straight, but they're labelled and topped with seed compost so whatever :-)

This is Jamie, very neatly, sowing our carrots, Sugarsnax F1. Three rows under the enviromesh cover. He used a wooden pole to make the straight drills - wish I'd done that for the onions!

We also sowed the following and they've gone into the greenhouse:

• Tom Thumb lettuce (half a tray)
• Lambs Lettuce (corn salad) Cavallo (half a tray)
• Swiss Chard Bright Lights (I've sown these in modules so I can keep the most colourful ones)
• Celeriac Asterix F1 (in modules)
• Brussels Nelson F1 (in pots)
• Cabbages Minicole F1 (in pots)

The squashes are sown 3 per pot (apart from the Cornells Bush Delicata). I really only want one of each type but I'm sure the others will find homes if they germinate and grow.

• Winter Squash Cornells Bush Delicata (in pots)
• Winter Squash Uchiki Kuri (in pots)
• Courgette Ambassador (normal green type) (in pots)
• Courgette Floridor F1 (round yellow type) (in pots)

These were sown into the raised bed:

• Turnip Oasis
• Radish French Breakfast 3
• Radish Chinese Dragon

 

And night scented stock have been sown around the grape hyacinths so they'll produce a lovely evening fragrance when we're sitting on our bench.



Flowering and Germinating

Various visits to the plot this week - Jamie's been digging during the day (back permitting) and then we went up each evening to shut the greenhouse down. The temperature is ranging from -2° to 20° out in the open and between 2° and 38° in the greenhouse!
The seeds have appreciated it - the marigolds have all germinated but no sign of the beetroot yet.
The strawberries are flowering - this one looks a bit frost-bitten so probably won't fruit.

And the broad beans have real flowers now :-)

And look how much the hedge has grown - so pretty!

Rotten Start to the Day

Of course, it was only rotten because it was an all-too-quick visit to the allotment before going to work! And what a beautiful morning it was; the birds were singing and there was no-one else around.

Look at that lovely blue sky!

I only nipped up to do a couple of things:

1. Open the greenhouse: The temperature gets up to nearly 40° in the sunshine - just a bit too hot for our little seeds! Overnight the temperature was 2° outside and 3.4° in the greenhouse, so it doesn't make that much different but may prevent some damage if there is a bad frost maybe...
2. Water the grass path that we sowed at the weekend.
3. Give Robbie a few mealworms - he was there waiting for me on his usual fence post.

The radish seedlings are up - I just sowed a little row in front of our broad beans, which have quite a few flowers now. There are loads of bees and other flying insects around so hopefully we'll get some beans fairly soon.

And that was it, time for work :-(
Then a quick visit after work to seal the greenhouse from another cold night ahead...

More Seed Sowing

We had a good afternoon on the plot even though the cold wind was horrible. The sun didn't shine but at least it stayed dry and there were loads of plotholders on site.

Jamie and I put up our little green house for germinating seeds. We've piled bricks all round it as it was trying to take off in the wind already. We've put perspex under the seed trays to help warm the ground underneath as that's where we'll be planting some flowers once the greenhouse is moved on. We're hoping the perspex will encourage weed growth so we can pull them before we put wildflowers in - otherwise we won't know what's what!

We sowed the grass path between the two newly aligned plots - hope somebody wants to lease them soon so they don't stay unloved too long!

I did the meet and greet of a new couple (welcome to Andrew & Gill). They arrived armed with tools and had planted a row of donated potatoes within a couple of hours of setting foot on site!

We left after we had sowed some beetroot (Moneta - monogerm variety), calendula (Daisy Mix) and french marigolds (Oranges and Lemons). They're all in the greenhouse.

  

 

Well, it is still April, what did we expect?!

We may have been thinking that it's been a slow year, but April is proving to be just as we'd expect - full of April showers.

Time to go!

Jamie was digging plot 8B yesterday and got caught in hail and snow showers and today we didn't do any better! In between there was some lovely sunshine but it felt chilly (8°) and the nights are still cold, 0° last night.
Our plants are enjoying the weather though. The onions have green shoots and the salad seeds sown last week have germinated.

We're really pleased with the rhubarb, this is the original Victoria which we were concerned about in February - it's certainly made up for it over the last couple of weeks; it seems to grow before our eyes!

Today we were doing HAHA work; changing a couple of empty plots and making a path between them. We'll seed the path tomorrow and then we can get back to our plots. We need to get our little greenhouse up so we can get some more seeds sown.
 

The Other Side of the Hedge

It was such a lovely day that we walked up to the allotment after work - just to check that our new plantings/sowings weren't drying out too much. Well, they were rather, so we gave things a water and then walked back via the canal which was looking especially beautiful as the hedgerows are beginning to spring into life.

I took the above photo from the Kennet and Avon Canal side of the Marsh Lane Allotments' hedge. It's directly under 'our' Ash tree. We could hear our little robin but couldn't see him from this side of the hedge - he was probably still eating the worms we had taken up for him :-)

We forgot to put the St George's flag on our bean pole this year, so here's a photo of the flag flying on Hungerford's St Lawrence church.
Look at that lovely blue sky!
 

Blasted Wind!

A short opportunity to get to the plot today meant that we got a few more seeds sown - but the wind was howling so it wasn't lovely and warm like at the weekend. I think I managed to keep hold of the parsnip seed so they were sown where we wanted them rather than broadcast across the whole plot though :-)

'Tender and True' Parsnips

We've sown 3 seeds to each cloche, which is providing a little protection from wind and the additional warmth will hopefully aid germination. We only want one parsnip to grow from each 'station' so if more germinate we'll have to snip them off - which always seems a shame, but they'd be too close to grow properly if we left them.
We prefer to sow seeds this way, rather than sowing a whole row and then having to thin them out. Parsnips don't really appreciate being transplanted hence sowing direct into the ground (on a little seed compost).

Look how dry the earth looks! It really doesn't take long to dry out, but there is still moisture when you go a couple of centimetres down and it's looking like it may rain later on.

We also sowed our Oarsman leeks - two trays which we've protected from leek moth in their own little enviromesh cloche. The leek moth is rife on our allotment site so we're careful to protect these. The mesh is sealed all the way round as the caterpillars can crawl in under open sides - sneaky!

 

Aaah, Sunshine and Warmth!

What a fabulous day! We knew it was going too be sunny but didn't expect 18°! So welcome! It meant there were lots of plotholders and wildlife (bees and butterflies) on site - the most we've seen for months.


We really must learn to do straight lines!

We're so pleased that we managed to get our two rows of Kestrels (20 potatoes) planted.

We planted in trenches lined with shredded paper and grass clippings to aid water retention, with some manure and a little 6X fertiliser for good measure.

Marsh Lane soil separates the seed potatoes from the manure.

We got some seeds sown; a couple of trays of lettuce (Red Fire and Little Gem), which I'll plant out when they're big enough. They're under a plastic lid under the bench which will hopefully protect them from full sun and the cold nights - it was 0° last night so still too early for a lot of sowings.

We also sowed some Suttons broad beans, to follow on from our Aqua Dulce beans, which have definitely developed a couple of tiny flowers now. We've taken the enviromesh cover off the over-wintered beans and hopefully they'll get pollinated!

The newly sown Suttons are protected under bottle cloches. We've found in previous years that this can protect the newly-sprouted beans from mouse damage.

I also sowed a small row of Sparkler 3 radish because a fellow plotholder had some unwanted seeds. If they're ready at the same time as the lettuce that'll be perfect :-)
Another plotholder had left a tray of surplus lettuce seedlings (Butterhead) on the HAHA spares table so I planted a few of them out too - I've been missing my salad lunches for too long  :-) They look very feeble but they usually cheer up from looking like this.. let's hope so!!

So, at last we have a growing allotment this year!

Wildlife blog updated, but sadly no photos of the Brimstone or lovely peacock butterflies we saw.

Finding Treasure!

Jamie was at the plot for most of the day digging plot 8B and finding more huge chunks of concrete, which is why he's aching beside me right now. Not sure where the concrete is from. Possibly a result of the canal dredging which was apparently done in the 1970s or 80s. He found this 1886 penny coin, which although not particularly rare, is rather exciting and in good condition.

Queen Victoria

Britannia

We did find an older coin on the site a couple of years ago  - it was another penny from 1797(!) with George III on it - such poor condition I couldn't get a photo of it though.

I joined Jamie in the afternoon but didn't do a lot of work, just a little digging but mostly socialising and taking pics. It's lovely to see that the hedge is now beginning to go green and these are blackthorn flowers - which will turn into sloes later in the year. Tiny little flowers.

Very pleased too to see that both our rhubarb plants are looking really healthy and have a substantial growth spurt over the last week - the April showers and sun have really done the trick!

Also, as expected the chives have all sprouted up. You can see it's separating already.

And, the garlic is looking happier with the added Growmore giving it a helping hand...

Lastly, the chives have gone a bit crazy over the last week and they've got flower buds - this is also a gratuitous picture of the grape hyacinths which keep getting a mention because they're such a pretty colour!