Chain Mail Article (March-June 2015 edition)

It's tricky writing these articles about 2 months in advance, especially in February thinking about the lovely months of March to June. So I opted for a hints and tips article and a bit of encouragement for any newcomers to the site. I'm pleased to say we've had at least three people added to the waiting list as a result of them reading Chain, so I'll carry on doing the articles.

Anyway, here's a link to the article if you haven't seen it already.

We're still in need of new plotholders as we have empty plots and no waiting list to speak of. Hopefully now that Gardener's World is back on TV we'll get a few more sign-ups. And the weather is cheering up which is also a nudge for people to get outside and do something - let's hope so!

And here's a photo of a fossil we found on our plot ages ago, because every blog post needs a pic :-)

Work Day #1 2015

This picture sums up our work day yesterday!

It's a shame it got so wet as I didn't manage to get a photo of all the lovely volunteers standing round chatting and eating at one of the tea breaks. We had some fabulous home-made sweet and savoury snacks and guess who took the bottle of Tenerife Honey Rum (Ron Miel) along?!

We did lots of tidying and hedge-cutting and left the site very wet, tired and dirty! 

HahaWell done all, thanks for helping keep our site looking lovely!

A Bit of Sowing!

A couple of days off work and too slow to get to Oxford for our intended anniversary meal meant, well, guess what we did!

The weather recently has literally flipped daily between grey and sunny, so we had a mostly grey day yesterday but a sunny one today.

We sowed two rows of broad beans today. We used a bulb planter and replaced the earth with seed compost.

Then covered them with bottle cloches. This has previously helped against mouse damage but one they've grown a bit we're going to surround with mesh to (hopefully) protect from the pheasants on site.

I risked sowing short rows of salad leaf, spring onions and radishes in the raised bed. I hope the Perspex surround I put up will offer some protection and extra warmth. Though it did get down to -2° last night.
Oh yes! And the rest of the garlic is up - pretty sure it's the bulbs I bought from Wilkinsons, not the ones I originally planted from the Garden Centre..

I dramatically trimmed back the sage and did a bit of weeding... Nearly March! Yay! Soon we'll risk putting our 'big cloche' up!

A Soaking Sunday

We should be used to english weather at our age, but brrrr, after yesterday's lovely sunshine!

A very quick visit to put a sign up, feed the birds and pick a cabbage. A soaking walk and glad to get back home for a cuppa!

Hope you can join us for our first workday of the year!

We have some colour - Blue Sky!

And it was so lovely to be out in the sunshine!

Jamie wheeled a few more barrow-loads of manure down to our site from the HAHA winter delivery, the pile is rather small now, but it's good stuff - very well-rotted so it's a shame to not use it.

I got an additional barrow-load, just to show willling and to make the cost up to £2. It was tiring, even on a cold day! We really should have taken our flask with us. It was nice recuperating with the sun on my face though!

I did some more weeding, clearing the area where we had wildflowers last year. I wasn't sure whether the rosettes were from flowers or weeds but I weeded them all as we may not have the flowers there this year. I still need to do a bit more planning for that half of plot 8, we're waiting for a blueberry to be delivered which is likely to go there, near the raspberry canes (which were rubbish last year). There's also our massive sage plant which keeps spreading and I haven't used sage for about 2 years! I need to look up what to do with it; cooking but also probably to get rid of most of it and put a few plants in pots for sharing.
Look, tiny signs of edible life...

A garlic sprout!

Rhubarb, at last!

And, here's the surprising little songster who was serenading us today - a little dunnock!

Mostly Brown and Grey

The last week has been dull and grey with today being no exception. However, it was mild (8°) with no chill wind so was unexpectedly pleasant on Marsh Lane. It was good to see fellow plotholders and to see worked plots all around - obviously spring is on its way.

Jamie had dug the manure into the onion plot during the week. His work is so neat and tidy! Here's his handiwork. Ready and waiting for a bit of onion fertiliser and the Hylander onions to be delivered by Thompson & Morgan.

And there's the potato plot that he's given a further dig over today.

And here's what I achieved... I haven't dug it, just cleared the weeds and the paths.

I just can't rake! I didn't intend it to be dead flat but it felt flatter than that when I was dealing with it! Where does all the extra earth come from?! It's a treat to be digging and weeding again - funny how much you miss it over the winter months!

This is the quarter where the 'large cloche' (remember, it's not a polytunnel!) is going. Would love to get going with it, but we'll need to wait till March at the earliest...I'm glad February is a short month!

Here's a little video capturing the sound of the allotment - lots of birds and Jamie digging. It's not very good, I only had my mobile with me. Not quite true, I remembered to take my big camera but hadn't charged the stupid battery - duh!

Too Wet to Work so more Birding

That's a bit of an excuse, as we didn't really want to work anyway! We took so much mud home on Saturday that we decided to just feed and watch the birds instead on Sunday.

It was beautiful in the sunshine and the hedgerow and ash tree were alive with birds. We were watching some tiny little grey ones flitting about and picking the (many) gnats from the air. We're sure they were Chiffchaffs, which we could also hear further along in the hedge. I really must take my better camera up so that I can zoom in on the small birds. I sort of managed to zoom in on the gnats which are hanging round all the manure around the plots - I had to 'bold-up' the photo to see the gnats better in the sunlight.

We also saw some pretty goldcrests and the usual blue tits, great tits and long-tailed tits. I did manage to photograph this rather bigger visitor. We're always seeing buzzards fly overhead with their distinctive cry but this one sat in the tree before flying off towards the marsh.

We were pleased to see that Robson appears to have a mate, but we're not too sure.  The two robins we were watching were singing away beautifully but they started getting a bit aggressive. The two birds were stretching their necks out and appeared to be flaunting their red breasts at each other. We decided to leave them to it when a third robin appeared on the scene and we thought it was really going to turn nasty!!

 

Hopefully this blog will soon be a bit more allotment-based, but its all looking a bit dull and damp at present... Not long to go though ..

Brrr, Wind Chills but Signs of Spring

Look! The first flower on the plot! It seems very early; the other grape hyacinths haven't even got buds that I could see. Lovely to see signs of spring on their way.

Brrr, it's been chilly though the thermometer only shows it's been down to 0° in the last week, the wind chill has made it horrible. Plus having another cold - Jamie and I are taking it in turns this year, so just a quick visit to the plot to feed the birds. It was 5° while we were there so really didn't want to stay long!

Mrs B waiting for her tea

We were pleased to see a little (tiny) weasel - or possibly stoat, the jury's still out - frolicking on the site. It really looked like one of those toys they sell on invisible string - very sweet, but from what I've read, not if you're a mouse or baby rabbit!

More pics on my wildlife blog

The mole has also been very busy over the last week! Not sure if it's going to or from the manure, but it certainly leaves its mark. Moles aren't bad for allotments; they show your soil is well dug and has plenty of worms, but I know some of the plotholders get upset when they emerge amongst their beans and salad veg!

Molehills marking the route

Counting Birds and Planting Garlic (again)

The temperature over the last week has been a bit up and down, but the coldest of the very frosty nights sank to -5°. It felt chillier than the reported 7° today, especially when the wind blew, but we spent a couple of hours on the plot. I wanted to get the counting done for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch and started counting for an hour from about 1:10 with the following results:

(Robson)

 

• 2 x Robins
• 1 x Blackbird (Mrs B)
• 2 x Long-tailed tits (such pretty little birds!)
• 6 x Terns (they were flying around from across the canal)
• 2 x Pigeons (surprisingly low numbers)
• 1 x Blue Tit
• 2 x Mallard Ducks (flying across from the canal)
• 2 x Chaffinch
• 2 x Magpies
• 3 x Crows
• 1 x Pheasant (just the one female showed herself today)

Of course, at about 2:30, when the sun shone for about 20 minutes a whole host of birds arrived - several long-tailed tits, a pair of blue tits, a great tit and at least one wren.

I tried to photograph a lot of the birds but didn't do too well. 

 

So, apart from Mrs B and Robson I only managed to snap the blue tit - they are very nippy and rather shy of us at the moment, so didn't pose or let me get close enough for a good shot.

Jamie dug an area to put some broad beans in - we didn't get any last year as the pheasants took a fancy to them. This year we'll protect them with a surround of sturdy mesh. We're hoping to warm the ground a bit before the beans go in - in early February.

Apart from counting and chasing birds with my camera I put some more garlic in. The cloves I planted haven't sprouted and I only found the remains of one when I furtled around in the raised bed.
I bought a packet of 2 Germidour bulbs from Wilkos - I've seen contradictory reports of how good their veg is, but the packet only cost £2 so figure it is worth a go... I planted the cloves quite close together. It's a softneck variety.

Then Jamie found this in last year's garlic bed! A clove had grown into a bulb and now each clove on that has sprouted! I stuck that in the raised bed - as a clump, so will see what happens to that - it's meant to produce smaller bulbs quickly. We'll see...

Here come the chives! They're on their way - roll on Springtime :-)

Now we're going to have a haggis (vegetarian of course) for dinner - first time ever - with a few carrots and shop-bought tatties. We're going Scottish for Burn's Night...