One Swallow does not a Summer Make, nor One Fine Day

It definitely seemed like Summer; my post title is just being smart, because actually we saw more than one swallow and we've had several fine days over the last week :-)

We actually got to the plot reasonably early this morning, well, it was still morning. The sun was shining most of the time and we were treated to temperatures of 24°

All the potatoes in the bags have emerged over the last week and 12 of the 13 plants in the row on Plot3 have also broken through the surface.

Jamie's been working on Plot3 for several days in the last week and I've been meeting him up there after work. It's so lovely to spend an hour or so before coming home to have dinner. And we've picked rhubarb to have for our dessert a few times now. Today we've picked the thinner red stems from the Raspberry Red plant for the first time this year.

We walked home at lunchtime just as the clouds gathered and there were a few spots of rain. It didn't make much difference to the plot when we returned after 3pm. It was a bit cooler but still very warm and the birds were in full song.

The broad bean leaves are being nibbled along the edges by the bean weevils as usual. I shook the plants, hoed between them and then watered them to try to shake off the critters. But they were back and attempting to reproduce when I looked later in the afternoon. The plants are probably (hopefully) strong enough to withstand the onslaught now though...

The trouble with tulips is they look a bit sad when they die back, though the colour of this with the sun shining through is still rather beautiful I think.

The Flavor garlic bulbs have much bigger stems that the Solent Wight which are at the front of this photo. I expect they'll catch up.

When the Wind Blows...

...in the right direction we can hear Hungerford Town Football Club from the allotment. I rather like hearing the occasional whoop, whistle and boo! Our Marsh Lane site was the location of the first football ground for Hungerford - those poor players with all our stones! Here's a map from 1898 - from the excellent http://maps.nls.uk/index.html

Today we heard cheers and when we got home we saw that Hungerford had won the play-off and as a result are promoted to the Southern League South, just 5 steps away from the Premier League :) CONGRATULATIONS!!

We actually got to the plot before the rain arrived and Jamie spent time adding lime to Plot3, where the cabbages are going to be grown this year. It may help against the horsetail.. We'll see...

Mangetout seedlings

Then we both ended up sheltering from the rain and gales in the greenhouse. 

The following have now been sowed:

  Radish Rats Tails 

  Apache spring onions

  Little Gem lettuce

  Salad leaf

  Calendula

  Asparagus Pea

  Paris Silverskin onions

  Common Valerian

  Benchmaster runner beans

So that's a mix of flowers and veg. Some are in the greenhouse, some are in raised beds and some are at home under the grow-lamp.

We left in pouring rain. Perhaps May isn't quite as bright as I thought yesterday! But, it is bluebell time! Hooray!

A Little Bit of This... A Little Bit of That

Hooray! It's May! And it's been a bright, warm(-ish) day on the allotment with lots of other plotholders on the site. Jamie spent the whole time digging Plot3 but I couldn't face that, so I did lots of different jobs...mostly involving the compost. Not a very interesting picture...

But look at the animated version! The bins are alive with woodlice and worms - both very welcome in the compost to help breakdown the plant material. You have to be quick to see them though, they scatter as soon as the lid is opened.

I pulled up and composted last year's Brussels Sprouts plants. They've been re-growing so I chopped the new growth up but the stalks were too thick so they'll go in the green bin at home. I added some dried out weeds, a wheelbarrow of manure and a pile of shredded household bills - that's the best place for them, if not in the potato trench!

I potted on the petunias. They'll appreciate the extra-growing power from that multi-purpose compost. Their next move will be into tubs and baskets.

I even managed to sow a row of radish into our protected little raised bed on Plot3. (Hungerford Town and Manor have taken away lots of the stones to shore-up the river. Hopefully lots of slugs were taken away too!)

And finally I helped Jamie with a bit of digging, but I did an easy bit with no horrible grass and roots.

Aah, I like May Day.

All about the Colours

The last day of April and I wonder if it'll be the last day of this crazy weather. Sun, snow, hail, thunder and everything else in between - it's been rather exciting!

Jamie re-potted the grafted bell pepper plants. They're looking good at the moment. Britney, the red one, is in the lead. Orange, Milena, is next with the yellow, Chelsea, not far behind.

The greenhouse is getting interesting. That's the Victorio florence fennel. The mangetout I sowed a couple of weeks ago are just emerging - the yellow-podded are Golden Sweet and the purple-podded are Shiraz. But this is the Boltardy beetroot.

Jamie has sowed the Durango Bee marigolds. They're in the hallway under a grow-light. They'll go to the greenhouse once they've developed. We didn't make it to the plot today (hence the over-dramatised post) because the weather stopped us, but we bought some multi-purpose compost and seed trays so I think a bit more shelf-space will be needed in the greenhouse by the end of the long weekend!

Looking (Straight) Ahead

I've said it before, I don't do straight! These two rows of  'Masterpiece Green Longpod' broad beans (plus 3 spares) weren't meant to be parallel or equally spaced. They'll look fine when the plants bush out a bit.

They were going to be about 20cm apart and some of them are...

They had outgrown their modules and had strong roots. A few leaves had been nibbled by slugs but now they're planted out (on a pile of organic matter - this was dug in after it rotted away over the Winter) and have slug pellet protection and the bed is surrounded by netting to stop birds (and children) eating the plants or pellets.

October 2015

We've had some news about alternative allotment sites which the Council (and allotment association) is looking into. An area of the Triangle Field - a Council-owned piece of land, which is currently used by local clubs including rugby, football and theatre. The second possibility is of a new permanent site being created as part of the new housing development plan at the top of town (actually the South). Both these options sound hopeful as they aren't rented from private landlords, with housing development interest...

Not sure where the £100 figure came from - we have at least 50 unallocated poles currently

Well, decisions need to be made and I'm sure this is going to run on for a good while yet :-( You can see from the map that there are very few green spaces around Hungerford!!

Marsh Lane is marked by the peg at top left of map

St Georges Day Digging

It's our (English) patron saint day - we don't celebrate it. I don't think anyone does - apart from putting the England flag up. At least this year some of us got the day off work (well, it is Saturday!)

We spent the afternoon digging. Plot 3 really is hard work. So much grass and roots to dig through. Most of the time it's a hands-and-knees job, rather than just being able to get a fork into the ground :-(

At least it's looking a bit better now. Our pot raspberry is in position, but it's also going to be caged in, to protect the precious fruit from the birds.

Seedlings are popping up in most of the modules in the greenhouse, but too small to be transplanting them yet. I sowed some purple and some yellow mangetout last weekend - no sign of them yet though.

That's the inside of one of the tulips, so pretty (super-macro unfortunately didn't quite get the stigma in focus). They close up at night and I think they'll be quite short-lived.
And here's a bee tucking into the rosemary nectar. A couple more photos (but no id) on the Wildlife blog - http://plot7wildlife.blogspot.com/2016/04/busy-bee.html

A Meal with Leeks and Lardons

Two huge leeks from a fellow-plotholder (Thanks Neal!) meant a change of plan for dinner, using ingredients we had available.

So I was cooking - I don't cook very often (hence the blogpost!) and I don't like anything with too much timing/accuracy involved as I always forget to keep track of time (Jamie would say, that it doesn't help when I'm taking a photo every few minutes, but there you go!)

Chopped leeks, with black pepper, were fried until soft-ish and then added to the fried Quorn lardons (vegetarian bacon-style bits) to keep warm while the gnocchi was cooked.

The gnocchi was boiled for ~5 minutes, then drained and fried until golden brown in the leek pan, adding a little flavour.

Tomatoes were added for effect and voila! That's what we had for tea last night - yum!

Potato Day Again

Potato Day is always a rather similar (dull) blogpost, but it's a useful record for us to keep track of what and when we planted - so stop reading now if you don't care what we planted! And here's a picture of a carrion crow to raise interest :-)

Digging the trench is such hard work - a real back-breaker. But it means the patch gets an extra bit of digging. The earth is really claggy; wet and rather clay-ey on Plot3.

We added the shredded paper and grass clippings to the bottom of the trench, along with some manure. It's now a row of 12 Kestrels with one Salad Blue at the end.

The rest of our potatoes we've planted in 6 bags: 

2x Orla (plus a separate 1 Orla)

2x Salad Blue

2x Athlete

2x Chopin

2x Annabelle

The bags were partially filled with a mix of John Innes, Multi-purpose and some potato fertiliser. Now we sit back and wait a bit and hope it doesn't get frosty once they pop through the earth...

Cuckoo!

We heard one this afternoon! It sounded like it was across the marsh. I love to hear them, though they are very naughty birds!! We also saw two swifts (or maybe house martens) swoop into the carport next door to the allotment site.

As you can see, it was a busy visit to the plot this afternoon :-) We were so surprised to be in lovely warm sunshine we thought it would be a shame not to make the most of it!

This alien-looking thing is one off our tulips... It should be a proper flower very soon...

We shredded lots of paper this morning and de-needled the remainder of the Christmas tree for the potato planting tomorrow. We also sieved some compost and potting compost for the potato bags.

This is another of our finds on Plot3 ...

Man-made or natural?

I can't tell...

Oh, and this is one of our onions. Most of them have sprouted, but you have to get close to see! At least it shows they're alive.

3-Day Weekend

The plan this weekend is mostly to plant our spuds; some in the ground and some in bags. I've taken Monday off work to make up for today's weather - I've just checked... Not very inviting, if the forecast is right - Ugh, look at those 'feels like' temperatures!

It's been a mixed week weatherwise, drenching yesterday and even a bit of thunder one evening, but Tuesday was lovely! So warm and sunny that my office buddy, Ruth, and I visited the local family-run Savages garden centre in Blewbury at lunchtime.

Pots of tea in the sunshine. Polytunnel envy and a little bit of shopping (I bought a blue hibiscus shrub for £2.95! And some new potatoes and some bird seed. Oh yes, and some lovely relish. Oh, and a home-made cake :)). What a delight!

I could happily sit on that seat all day long!

It was hard going back to work but, now I know where it is, I know I'll be re-visiting Savages, it is lovely!