They're He-ere...

No, not these little potato chitting dolls 'Sprouting tuber mimics by Karly Perez', Aren't they sweet? Although they are rather sad in this photo as they haven't got hair or clothes yet!

Here's the real thing. This is the Salad Blue.

And these are the Athlete, much more hairy! We were trying to work out whether the hairs are roots or whether they let the potato that it's buried and time to grow properly (Jamie's theory). I couldn't find the definitive answer, but now we reckon they are the beginning of roots.

It's worth zooming into the photo a bit more if you can...

It's a rainy day (of course) so we stayed in this morning and ordered lots of seeds online from Thompson & Morgan. We used our Tescos Clubcard vouchers so got all the seeds for a third of the price and T&M had a deal too, so we added a few more flower seed packets to the basket. I included purple honesty; the flowers are so pretty and, of course, the seed heads are too. My mother always has lots in her garden (I should have collected some seeds in the Autumn).

In the afternoon we went to the plot to feed the birds. There were couple of robins and we also saw thrushes and a tiny wren. Brrr, it was cold. Some of our leeks aren't looking that healthy, but they should be tasty - we intend to have some for dinner tomorrow.

In fact, the whole plot looks a real mess, but there's plenty of time yet...

Across the Marsh

It's extremely windy and very wet today but we thought we'd wander up the allotment via Freemans Marsh. The River Dun was running fast and the paths are muddy and slippery.

There wasn't much wildlife to be seen, just a few pigeons and crows letting the wind take them where it wanted. The moles have been busy though! Look at that lovely soil, it always looks good after the moles have worked it :-)

I noticed that our greenhouse is visible across the marsh, through the leafless hedge. The canal is between the marsh and the allotment site. You can tell it's our greenhouse because that's our ash tree (in the centre of the pic).

It was a blustery walk, not too cold though and, not surprisingly, we were the only ones on site. There's so much to be done, but today was not the day to be doing it!

Lots of the grape hyacinths are in flower, but the colour is a bit washed out - perhaps because of the weather? There are certainly more flowers than there were at this time last year though.

Our new pot raspberry bush has some lovely shiny, hairy new leaves growing, which must be a good sign.

And the rhubarb plants are just beginning to reveal new growth under all the dead remains of last year.

One Potato, Two Potato,...

So many potatoes to choose from...

We opted for a few different varieties and bought 24 tubers in total:

• Annabelle - First Early
• Kestrel - Second Early
• Athlete - Second Early
• Orla - Early Maincrop
• Chopin - Early Maincrop
• Salad Blue - Maincrop

They only had big bags of Anya, so we didn't bother with them. It's so much better being able to buy the individual tubers.
I'm very pleased with my choice of Salad Blue. I'm looking forward to blue baked potatoes!! I hope they're as successful as our Purple Congo were in 2011, which produced some amazing purple mash.

We're mostly going to be growing in bags this year, hopefully to avoid some slug damage... Hmm, we'll see..
Charlton Park Garden Centre has a good setup, with information to hand and catalogues from the Potato Days they attend at Whitchurch

There they are, all ready to start chitting under their grow lamp in the cool hallway. And a photo opportunity to show off my green fingers (Joanne!)

Oh, and I bought the garlic. I got 1 bulb of Solent Wight (softneck) and 3 bulbs of French garlic Favor (hardneck) - I doubt I'll plant all of those. We didn't eat half of last years cloves, though this year I really do intend to pickle or store some in oil...

Now That's a Turnip!

I have recently heard at least three people say they get confused between parsnips and turnips. I have a solution, this book cover can now be in your mind's eye whenever a turnip (or parsnip) is mentioned!

An enormous parsnip would be more difficult to pull, even for the whole family :-)

Forgive the unusual post, but it came to mind after reading this Brown Envelope Seeds blogpost today. I've been inside most of the day reading blogs and sorting out our seeds for this year. We have a few more to buy. Hopefully we'll get our seed potatoes bought from Charlton Park Garden Centre in Wantage this week. They do a large selection of varieties and it's possible to buy individual tubers rather than huge bagfuls. It does mean the potatoes will be chitting for a long time, but it should mean we get the varieties we actually want!

Strange Birds

I was pleased to see the sun was due to shine this afternoon, so got prepared for an hour of birdwatching while Jamie went off to clear some old raspberry plants from Plot3.
I had my logbook (haha, funny, huh?), our new monocular, my fancy camera and hot liquorice & blackcurrant drink (so delicious).

I turned the bench round so I had a better view of the hedge. Our robin, looking stunning in the sunshine, arrived for the worms we put out. Good start...

And, then another robin. Lovely, always nice to see robins.

Jamie saw a chaffinch, but it was flying over so I didn't count that..
And that was it, for 25 minutes. I decided to move along the hedge to another location and start a new hour of counting.
It wasn't so comfy; (I didn't like to sit on Tui & Glen's bench), I sat on the ground, but at least I was a bit protected from the chill wind and it's nice seeing the site from a different viewpoint.

Woodpeckers have been seen in that skeleton of a tree in the centre of the photo. I saw a flock of pigeons fly out of one of the trees and I could hear a lot of birdsong. It was very pleasant, but the birds didn't want to show themselves, apart from these:

• 5 Wood Pigeons
• 1 Chaffinch
• 1 Blackbird
• 2 Robins

I don't think they were the same two robins that were by our plot!

Where were all the long-tailed tits that we usually see? Where was the bullfinch? Even the magpies and pheasants stayed away!

Chaffinch

Tut, strange birds!

Courtesy of http://culturainquieta.com/es/arte-digital/item/3834-extranos-pajaros.html

Squelch Squelch!

Last night was Burns Night. We aren't Scottish, but any excuse for a little celebration! So, we had a lovely Stahly's vegetarian haggis with our neeps (swede) and tatties (potatoes). And enjoyed tasting 5 varieties of Scottish whisky. I, sensibly, had pre-booked today off work, but it wasn't really a day to spend on the allotment!

The ground is sodden but we needed some sprouts so just a quick visit.

Plenty more sprouts to pick...

And plenty of work to be done before any sowing, if it stops raining for long enough!

Chop Chop!

Sometimes it helps to be slow. We had a lazy morning and didn't make it to the plot till 2:30 but then the sun was finally managing to break through. We had a pleasant 2½ hours with a temperature of about 9° listening to the red kite calling overhead and the terns (Oops! See comment below) screeching over the canal.
A less welcome sound was of shooting in the distance, but some people do seem to hate deer and pheasants :( It upsets me, but perhaps they were clay pigeon shooting ...

We had our plans for what to do today; Jamie potted on the raspberry bush ('Ruby Beauty' from Thompson & Morgan). It claims to produce lots of fruit even in its first year and we intend to net it so we get to eat more than the birds!
My aim was to clear the two raised beds. The big salad bed was full of weeds and grass so at least now there is an area of clear earth showing! We should cover that until it's time to start sowing otherwise the weeds will take over again quite quickly.

The smaller raised bed still had beets in it... It seems wasteful, but at least the uneaten veggies are perfectly recycled as compost.

Lessons learned: don't grow Cylindra beets in a raised bed and don't leave them to get too big... Look at those prize-winning funny-shaped vegetables! I'm sticking to Boltardy beets this year.

I got chopped out of the photo...but chopping the beets up in a bucket was pleasing and warmed me up so even I took my coat off.

The resulting purple mess was layered in the compost bin with dry waste, like the the dried-out tops of the wildflowers. That should rot down nicely and fairly quickly - though may also prove irresistible to mice!

Another vegetable destined for the compost bin - the swedes. We didn't get to eat any of them - they all bolted :-( Shop-bought neeps and tatties for the Burns Night meal on Monday I'm afraid!

Frozen Sprouts and Skittles

The weather has gone really cold over the last few nights with some proper frost which stays put all day in the shade. The temperature has been down to at least -5°. The skies have remained clear with beautiful blue skies during the day and fabulous starry nights with a bright waxing (e.g. newish) moon. Jamie visited the plot yesterday to feed our ever-present robin and pick some (frozen) Brussels sprouts for our evening meal.

We had a lovely cheesy, sprouts and Quorn lardons bake - delicious, but wish we'd had some mixed chopped nuts to add to the top to make it extra crunchy. It was a very tasty way to eat the sprouts.

I think the frost had done its job of making the sprouts a bit more flavoursome.

Last Saturday night we had our HAHA skittles evening at the Royal British Legion in Hungerford. It was a great night, really good fun. There were at least 24 people on each side (HAHA versus RBL) which was such a brilliant turnout we're sure to hold another event later in the year I'm sure. Anyway, the RBL need another chance to beat us ;-)

As Cold As Ice

Finally we've had some frosty nights this winter, so we went to see the plot this afternoon but not to do any work - too frozen. I mostly played with the ice while Jamie fed and watched the birds.

I think this looks rather galactic, but actually it's just our rain gauge...

 

This looks like a PhotoShop effect...

But it's the real world though the ice from a bucket...

And the birds were very lively. Starting with a beautiful male bullfinch, but he didn't hang round for long enough to get a photo with my small camera. So, it's mostly robin photos but I did also manage to snap this long-tailed tit - such pretty little bids.

Now, bring on the robins...

There were 3 trying to get at the food Jamie put out at one point. These two had an argument and flew off across the site.

Leaving just one to eat the worms!

Last Sunday a few of us from the HAHA committee enjoyed a lovely New Year's lunch with the Curridge Horticultural Society - very pleasant at the Newbury & Crookham Golf Club.

Then on Monday we had the HAHA general meeting. Lots of plotholders turned up to hear what the committee are trying to achieve and what possibilities may be available for us. The District Councillor, Mayor and Newbury Weekly News journalist were also in attendance.

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/hungerford/17015/Allotment-holders--resent-being-.html

And tonight we have a HAHA versus Royal British Legion skittles evening! What fun!