Backdoor Man

One of the main topics of conversation over the last couple of weeks has been how the runner beans aren't setting. We figure the windy weather hasn't helped as there are less pollinators about, but there is another issue...

A lot of the bees and wasps take the nectar from the back of the flowers, rather than through the front door for pollinating - this animation is a bit more obvious (but the red flowers make for a more dramatic top photo).

Another obvious topic of conversation is the weather which over the last week has been decidedly changeable which is most unfortunate as I'm off for the week and we've only had one hot day.

But this kind of weather helps things grow and we've been picking potatoes, fennel, carrots, cabbage, beans, courgettes, courgettes, courgettes!

These yellow courgettes have been the most prolific. The stripey Goldmine ones are good too but unfortunately half the plant got snapped off - I think it got too big and couldn't support itself. Even that hasn't stopped it producing though!

These are our Tigerella tomatoes - rather pretty, but this is the only truss so far.

The purple dwarf beans also fell foul of the wind and two plants snapped off, but the others are looking pretty and healthy and are just beginning to set. We've secured them and also our sunflowers to supports as more wind and heavy rain is expected.

A lot of us have found our onions have succumbed to rot - even these that are sold as resistant. I've pulled some of the largest ones so they can dry off for the Horticultural Show on 19th August, but I'm not expecting any prizes. Perhaps this little cyclops could have been included as a funniest veg, but we've eaten him :-D

The Doors provide the title track - referring to the bees antics (I know it's spurious, it's hard work finding suitable song titles along with songs I like!)

Song for a Friend

I had such a lovely day with my friends yesterday - a day in Oxford and in particular the Botanic Garden.

The oldest botanic garden in Britain - founded in 1621!

It has 7 glass houses with different climates from the fernery to the arid cacti house. I particularly liked the insectovores house.

The laid out gardens and these amazing meadows are so beautiful!

And the walled border, which was planted up 10 years ago - wow!

The sun shone for much of the day, after a grey wet start which would have upset our open-top bus ride!

My lovely buddies - good luck in Switzerland Sarah!

 Thank goodness for the sunshine as it makes for much more colourful photos!

So, we had a great day with lunch at The Vaults and later a cream tea in the oldest coffee house in Britain, The Grand Hotel. 

Such a beautiful city

It was a fab send-off for Sarah who's moving to Switzerland. Today's title song is for her by her favourite, Roddy Frame.

Dont Matter Now

Over the last week we spent a lot of time clearing weeds that we've been ignoring for a few weeks - so much grass, bindweed and occasional giant thistle! So the plots were looking their best for Saturday morning for the Hungerford in Bloom Allotment judging.

Look at that! Not a weed in sight.

It's good to have a reason to clear the plots up, but unfortunately we came 4th - so no certificate for us this year. Maybe our plots have a few too many flowers or too many gaps? Well, not to worry I love our plots this year - the weather has been really good for growing (along with plenty of watering).

On Saturday afternoon the Marsh Lane site was open to the public - we didn't get any public (! - there were lots of other local events on) but we got plenty of plotholders and cakes that they had generously made and donated.

So, even though we didn't get to show off our plots to other locals, we got to have a good natter, eat cake and have a drink or two...

And, although we had some rain in the morning, it didn't rain in the afternoon and the wind only flipped the gazebo onto its roof when it was being taken down :-)



I pulled the rest of the garlic as they had all collapsed and the leaves have browned. The ones I pulled a week earlier are drying in the greenhouse surrounded by tomato plants.

The leeks are planted now and, at last, so are the pumpkins! One Atlantic (not so) Giant and two Jack of All Trades. I don't think these will even get us a fourth prize :-) They're planted in holes filled with manure but the ground hasn't been dug very well on that empty plot that a few plotholders are using for the competition.

Lunches and dinners have been involving courgettes quite a lot. We've bought a Spiralizer so at least meals look a bit different, even if they have very similar ingredients :-) That's my first fennel bulb. I'm shaving it into salads this week and eating it with the first of our Chopin potatoes from one of the bags - very tasty, but not a huge haul considering it was two plants - but it'll provide us with about 6 meals in total.

So, you can see where the blog title is derived from - thanks to George Ezra (and my cousin Jen for sharing the song)

Come Up and See Me (Make me Smile)

Two weeks of extreme heat and still no rainfall have meant plot visits have mostly involved watering, watering, watering! But because of next Saturday's Open Afternoon and Hungerford in Bloom (Allotment) judging in the morning we're doing a lot of weeding too.

We fed nearly everything. The green things were given a nitrogen-rich mixture and the flowers were given a coffee-based mixture, which is potassium-rich as well as providing a bit of caffeine!

After the confusion with the pumpkins in my earlier post it turned out that the four gifts were  courgettes - that took us up to 7 courgette plants! A few too many :-) So we swapped two of them for 2 Tromboncinos, a spaghetti squash and a Jumbo Pink Banana! They're all in the barrels and as they grow we'll try to encourage them across the wires over the top of Plot 46a.

And, we now have 3 pumpkins which have germinated - 1 Atlantic Giant and 2 Jack of All Trades. They're rather behind the other competition growers but hopefully we'll have something to show! And here's the first trug shot of the year - nice and colourful, huh?

I've cited poetic licence with the title song: Make Me Smile (Come up and See Me) by Cockney Rebel is to encourage you to visit the Marsh Lane Allotment site next Saturday! I wonder if there will be any lavender flavoured goodies there?!

What a Beautiful Day

A little off-topic but I had a day off work so we took a trip to Somerset to visit a lavender farm.

There were two large fields of lavender and a garden with many different varieties. It was interesting to see that the bees seemed to prefer the pinky coloured varieties (I preferred the purple).

The cream tea with a lavender scone was delicious! I feel inspired!

Apart from the scones I like the sound of  chocolate and lavender brownies or how about leek, potato and lavender soup? Yum!

I would have liked to buy one (or more) of their little plants to grow my own for culinary use next year, but didn't think the plants would appreciate the extreme heat of the car journey yesterday.

As you can see the farm had a lovely vegetable patch and look at those calendula, what a display!

After that lovely visit we made our way home via Farleigh Hungerford Castle - amazing remains of the 14th Century castle.

Thomas Hungerford who bought the original manor in 1369 was the son of Sir Robert de Hungerford who was buried in our Hungerford's St Lawrence Church in 1352. He was an MP and general bigwig in Berkshire. Interesting to know the link to our town and to wander through the castle remains, chapel and priest house.

 Thanks to The Levellers for the title song.

Growing Pains

It was such an amazing sky yesterday evening, I had to put this photo on the blog, but this post is mostly about pumpkins.

I'm preparing for the Pumpkin Competition at Hungerford Food Festival in October. I managed to get some Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds but none of them germinated. Fellow plotholder Jonathan left four pumpkin plants on our plot for us. I was so close to planting them on the empty plot that HAHA have commandeered for the competition when I remembered that they aren't pumpkins, they're Tromboncini squash plants! My "pumpkins" would have looked a bit strange compared to the others on that plot!!

So now the Tromboncini are on Plot 46A in the barrels and we're attempting to quickly germinate 2 more Atlantic Giants and 2 Jack of All Trades... We've got 3 months so hopefully we'll have something to show for it!
We've put two cucumber Mini Munch on that plot too, along with a row of swede under the netting.

At least I'm fairing a bit better with the flowers this year. We're having to water a lot as there's been no rain (apart from a few drops) for weeks. But the sunflowers and sweetpeas are doing ok. Also, I'm pleased to say that the asters got over their problem after I removed the crinkled leaves and I'm hoping the flowers will develop quite soon...

The tomatoes in the greenhouse are doing what they always do - but this year we're really trying to remove the side shoots! Flowers and a few tomatoes are appearing on the Aviditas plants and the Redcurrant, but nothing on the Tigerella yet.

My lunchtime salads will be more interesting when they have tomatoes on them, but the rogue potatoes from last week made fabulous potato salad!

So, we just have to wait for all these little plants to get bigger.. And I'm going to sow some more salady bits and beetroot to see if I can keep the production going for a bit longer this year.

Dwarf beans and sweetcorn

This song by Birdy seems appropriate at this point - enjoy!

Pretty in Pink

In May I started soaking chive flowers in white wine vinegar and now it's looking pretty in 5 small bottles with the remainder in our vinegar bottle.

It has a lovely mild onion flavour, much less over-powering than pickled onion vinegar, which makes it perfect for adding to salads. The chive flowers had faded completely in the bottle.

I strained the liquid into a jug to get rid of any loose bits of flower and dusty pollen.

And voila - looks like an apothecary! It needs to be kept out of sunlight though, otherwise the colour will fade.
The Psychedelic Furs provide the title song ...