It's Wet; It's January

Looking back over the blog, I see that 2012 started with a drenching and last year wasn't much better, and I'm happy that we're mostly just planning at the moment. However, we had a quick visit to the plot to see if the robin was about - there were two, but, so far, not friendly ones like last year :(

This photo shows two things 1) We've had a lot of rainfall 2) We should have cleaned our pots, tidied and sealed them away like good allotmenteers - groan, what a mess, but it'll wait a while longer!

The River Shalbourne, that we cross on the way to the site, was looking rather full but I was pleased to see the giant puddle under the railway bridge wasn't there, so that saved our feet getting a soaking. The river was at 0.26m, just 4cm above average high and way off the record high of 1.08m.

Marsh Lane has surprisingly good drainage and, although soggy in places, isn't a quagmire or underwater like some other allotment blogs have shown recently - my sympathies are with those plotholders. 

We wish we'd protected the manure from the rain, though I guess it's still acting as a weed suppressant and the blackbirds are having a field day with all the worms escaping the waterlogged piles.

I'm looking forward to having some more leeks and sprouts plus there may be a couple of cabbages that are still edible, but yesterday wasn't a day for hanging around!

Welcome to 2014!

I thought I'd add a quick New Years message to my blog. As we haven't really got any news from the plot I thought I'd find a nice picture on line... so...

Best wishes for a happy, healthy and veggie-filled
 new year!

A rather odd-looking spud I think you'd agree - but we've all grown one of them :-)

From http://www.scrapalbum.com/xmasp13.htm

And, this one obviously attracted the eye because of the beetle, and brings me to another fave subject - astronomy...

From http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/collections/local-history/social-history-images/19646817by

The Quadrantids meteor shower should be at its peak over the next two nights. So, if the rain holds off we may just be lucky... This sentence in particular is of interest....

"Early viewing on the evening of 3rd January therefore might just bag you a spectacular haul of shooting stars"

Post-Christmas Visit

What a lovely, lazy Christmas holiday we've had so far. We had some torrential rain but nothing like what other areas of the country have seen.

We had a soggy walk in the sunshine along the canal to see what's been happening on the allotments in our absence.

View back to town

I was pleased to see that the garlic on our plot has sprouted! It's the Garlic Vayo that I planted at the beginning of December. Apart from all the rain the weather has been very mild; just a couple of days over the last couple of weeks that there's been any frosted windscreens so obviously the garlic's been happy with that.

 

I forgot to check whether the Elephant garlic has sprouted on the HAHA plot. We didn't hang round too long. Far to wet to do anything, though, as usual there's plenty that needs to be done - mostly tidying up the mess we didn't clear in October!

There was a robin by our plot, so he's welcome to take over where our original little Robbie left off last year. Time to start bringing edible treats to the plot again.
We walked back home through town and spotted this grey squirrel dashing back to his little hidey-hole in a tree high above the pavement.



Merry Christmas Everyone!

This year our Christmas meal will mainly contain leeks, carrots and sprouts.

Merry Christmas!

Belinda

Chain Mail Article 3

This year I've been contributing to the Hungerford quarterly newsletter, Chain Mail. 

The latest one is here, in the Christmas edition, under the title 'Digging HAHA?'

The aim of the articles are to highlight the positives one can take from having an allotment - as an individual and as a community. 

Being on private land means that our site will always be at risk, particularly with the current housing plans being discussed. Of course, as plot holders we understand that more houses mean a larger requirement for allotments but unfortunately not all planners see it this way.

Although Hungerford is a rural town surrounded by green fields we are always being told that there is nowhere to have a permanent allotment site. So I, and fellow plotholders, need to keep raising the awareness of Marsh Lane Allotments which are often boasted as an asset but do not currently have a long-term future.

Looking at Hungerford on Google maps would make anyone think there must be some land available - unfortunately housing developers seem to have claims on every spot though..

No space for allotments?!
The highlighted field is the Marsh Lane site

Plotholders, in the guise of HAHA (Hungerford Allotment Holders Association), manage the site for the Council, so there's very little input required. We just need to find some available land.

KEEP FLYING THE FLAG for a permanent allotment site for Hungerford!

Clearing, Tidying and Planting

It was quite mild but cloudy throughout the day - certainly didn't feel like the 1st of December. We had a couple hours at the allotment this afternoon.
I planted the garlic on the HAHA plot:

 6 x Elephant Garlic (not actually garlic, but apparently a type of leek)

 11 x Garlic Vayo (a hardneck, pink-veined variety)

Hmm, which ones the Elephant clove?

Jamie prepared an area and I planted the other Vayo cloves on our plot near the leeks, which were in such a weedy state... That was my next job...

That's better!

We did a lot of clearing up. Our potatoes have been pretty bad this year; so full of slugs, and something has been digging them up and eating even more holes in them. We threw a lot away - straight to the Council green bin, not to our compost.

Nice to leave the plot looking a bit tidier, but now our two Dalek compost bins are full so we left with a trug of veggies and aching bones. Ah, it's good to be back :-)

Literally SSDD!

Here's the remains of our sweetcorn - looking very picturesque against the late Autumn sky  (should that be Winter?).

Such a pretty picture I put it at the top of this post, but the stems really need clearing and composting along with most of what's left on our plots!

 

Another 10 wheelbarrows of manure shifted today. Half to the HAHA plot and half to ours lucky one huge pile was dumped right beside our plot - very handy!

"Same sh*t; different day".

I'm pleased with the squash trellis we had this year. I'm surprised that the heavy fruits are still suspended even though the foliage has died back completely. That squash isn't actually tied to the trellis or rope at all. It was a real space-saver rather than growing this trailing monster across the plot.

The sun is so low at this time of year that it was getting dark and chilly by 4:00pm so we cleaned the tools off and walked home on the last day of November.

 

HAHA Plot - it's no joke!

Ugh! That's what happens when you neglect your allotment for most of October. Not a happy looking plot, so I left Jamie to it(!) and worked on the HAHA plot for a couple of hours.

Jamie dug some manure into the planned brassica quarter and has stored some paving slabs on the area where the sprouts will go next year.
Talking of sprouts, ours aren't looking too bad now Jamie's removed all the dead leaves - though they're all leaning in opposite directions, we should get plenty to eat from the four plants. The leaning shows that the earth was looser than it should have been. We may resort to staking the plants a bit earlier next year.

The HAHA plot also looked abandoned, but at least now it has a small corner where I can plant the  Elephant garlic and Vayo garlic which I ordered from Suttons this morning. I dug the area, pulled weeds and stones and then spread some chicken manure pellets.

It wasn't a bad day actually, though the glimpses of blue sky didn't stay for long. There were quite a few birds around including the kestrel and, unusually for Marsh Lane, some pied wagtails. No sign of our little robin though :-(
We found a couple of pupae which I need to identify before posting to the Wildlife blog.

We've still got Network Rail working on the Marsh Lane railway bridge. I was a bit disappointed to have missed them doing the work; it sounded quite interesting. They've now put the four new strengthening pins in - they go all the way from one side to the other of a two-track railway bridge! No wonder they needed to re-inforce some parts of the arch while they were drilling!

That's Better...well, it should be soon!

Just another excuse as to why our allotment must be feeling neglected! Yep, I'm playing the kidney card.

Photographed on Tuesday

Some of you will know that we missed our holiday last year because my AV fistula failed.

If I hadn't received my transplant and still needed dialysis the hospital would have worked on the fistula to get it working again - some kidney patients have enormous problems with their fistulas but I was lucky with mine all the while I needed it.

Last November it swelled up and hurt a lot but within a few months the swelling, lumps and bumps just dissolved back into my arm - amazing really, I thought I'd have a lumpy arm for the rest of my days!
Actually, one lump didn't go... This aneurysm clearly wasn't going to disappear of its own accord.

Photographed on Sunday

It's not been that painful; just the occasional twinge but sore if it got knocked so it always felt vulnerable. So the Churchill Hospital said it should be removed and that was done on Monday.

In a couple of weeks I think I'll have no excuse for getting up the plot and dealing with that manure!!

Pumpkins are not just for Halloween...

The Jack-be-Little pumpkins produced lots of fruits for carving and we've got plenty left to eat. I just have to get round to making it!

Colds and cold weather have kept me away from the blog for a bit, but it'll be back in action soon...