33 Crows

OK, I'll admit it may not be quite 33 but there was a big flock ('murder') of crows in the tree opposite our flat. They just kept flying in, a pair at a time. Then something spooked them and...off they went.

As you can see we had a nice blue-sky weekend. We should have spent longer on the allotment, but we didn't get there till late on Saturday afternoon. We did sow a packet of Bonita french marigolds, Suttons broad beans and some salad veg though, so at least we achieved something.

The Blackthorn in the allotment hedge has flowered and it is was a proper Spring weekend.

The moss is looking rather stunning too - I need to charge the batteries on my macro camera to see these in all their miniature glory.

Our shallots have sprouted - yay! But still no frogspawn in our pond :-(

Last Wednesday I joined Ted, our Chairman, on a stall at the Hungerford Town Council meeting. The room was edged by all the volunteer groups and about 100 people turned up to find out about what we all do for the town. It was quite a good format - and we got interest from a new plotholder.

And on Friday night we had a HAHA versus the Rest of the World Skittles match - it turned out that the 'rest of the world' consisted of Steve and as there wasn't a huge turnout we decided to play as individuals rather than teams. It was a lot of fun and we made about £30 (after paying for the room) for HAHA funds so it was worth arranging this little off-site social gathering.

We didn't make it to the plot yesterday as we went to Newbury and then went for a walk around Bowdown Woods near Greenham Common - it was so beautiful, just a couple of weeks and the whole place will be full of bluebells.

The title is provided by Kula Shaker - great song, if a rather spurious link to this blogpost :-)

All the Small Things

The wind was really strong again today after a further storm over the last few days - Storm Gareth this time. We had a delivery in the week so had to go to the plot to transplant these tiny begonias.

They're the tiniest plug plants I've ever seen, but they look healthy and are going to be Funky Pink, Funky Orange and Funky White. They're mostly going to be for the HAHA Plant Sale in June, so we've potted them on and taken them back home - they won't appreciate the cold temperatures we're expecting over the next few days and couldn't survive in those tiny modules for much longer.

They look happier now they're potted up in some new compost with a suitably labelled lolly stick. I also potted on the sweetpeas which Ivan gave me a couple of weeks ago. I had already pinched the tops out so they look like they're going to bush out a bit more. Jamie said they could be planted out, but I've no idea where they're going yet and there isn't a clear bit of earth even if I did know!

We really need a good few days to get onto our plots and start clearing before the weeds completely take over. Today wasn't the day for that though. As well as gales we had some cold rain - this lovely lighting appeared just before the rain.

I was hoping to see some pond-life today, but no froggies yet - just a lot of water snails.

And the South-East corner of the site has been collecting debris as usual during these windy spells! Notice the grape hyacinth that we transferred to the grassy knoll last year - I hope they'll spread all over, they're so pretty and the bees love them.

We weren't on site very long, it did get rather chilly. But we had some nice chats and  got a few things done - just not on our plots, still it's only early.. One more thing... if you're near Hungerford next Friday - you're invited...

The blog title is provided by Blink 182 - I can't help but like this song though the video is a bit ..er.. funny...

Better Together

Thankyou to all our helpful volunteers! Our mission yesterday was to prepare our 'horsetail plots' which surround the composting toilet.

About 6 poles (150 sq.mtrs) have been covered for at least a couple of years now and have always looked ugly (so ugly that the only 'before' photo showing the area is 2 years old - before the toilet was erected!). Two additional plots alongside the toilet-plot have been recently leased so we'll have a productive growing area there once again.

Look at that sea of covers - the aim was to stop the deep-rooted weed from spreading - we tend to call it MaresTail, (but that's actually its cousin which grows in water). Now here's the 'After photo' - doesn't that look much better!

I've never been convinced that we'll stop the weed as it's growing on the canal towpath, the other side of our hedge. If a plot is worked then the weed doesn't cause too many issues, but if left it can spread up the site, which we don't want. So we figure that if we grass seed the area and keep it cut that should curtail further spreading.

We've also prepared the end furthest from the toilet for wildflower seeds - hopefully the mass of roots will also stop the marestail from spreading - it's an experiment and both methods will look better than the white covers.

It was a particularly windy day for this task but, with enough of us, we managed to keep some control though the dirty puddles ended up all over us and we had a few slip ups in the mud, which caused some amusement.

It may have been windy, but the sun shone a few times and it didn't rain, so it was a good day to be working outside with friends. Now I need to select and buy enough grass seed for 100 sq.mtrs and 25 sq.mtrs of British Wildflower seed - what fun!

Thanks for the photo Kerry

Love this song is by Jack Johnson and the title is very apt - many hands do make light work, though our legs and backs are aching today!

Riders on the Storm

After the last three sunny blogposts it's now March - yay! Meteorological Spring has arrived and with it comes Storm Freya...

We had a hot chocolate, using our optimistically Summery mugs, sitting in our leaky polytunnel which was being severely buffetted. I wonder if it will survive the storm, which is peaking later this evening. The cover is already in a sorry state, but we're struggling to find a replacement at the moment, so keeping an eye on Amazon for one that will fit.

We only went to the site today to mend the mechanism on the pedestrian gate and feed the birds, though the little ones were hiding and all we saw were red kites and rooks enjoying the strong winds - you could say riding on them <ahem>...

Yesterday we braved a cold, windy day to erect our new brassica cage and it's still standing today, so far so good... No netting on it yet, so not too much to catch the wind..

Our next lot of bulbs have flowered. I think these dwarf iris are so pretty, I'm sure there are meant to be some yellow ones in there too.

We're still waiting for the frogs to return - no sign of them or any frogspawn yet. I hope the crazy weather hasn't put them off. Oh, here's a photo of my new washing-up brush for no reason except that I love it (Jamie's not so keen as he thinks it's impractical :-))

So many songs to choose from, but this by The Doors has to be the best.

Its Only Natural

What an unexpected bonus for two days leave in February - temperatures in the high teens with a beautiful blue sky. Just lovely! Yesterday we had little trip to a nearby village called Inkpen to visit a ... field.

And what a field! The Inkpen Crocus Field is apparently "Britain's biggest display of wild crocuses" and I'm not surprised, but I am surprised that we only learned of its existence a couple of weeks ago.

The flowers aren't densely packed like in Kew Gardens or other cultivated gardens. It's prettier, I think, because the blooms aren't really in clumps as you may expect. Were they brought back by 12th Century crusaders? Or have they just escaped from nearby gardens? Well, surely there would be yellow ones if they were garden escapees....

Anyway, we loved it (and so did all the bees) and if you're in the area you should take a look.

And we saw a couple of deer while we were there - always a pleasure to spot these shy animals.

Male Roe Deer

Female Roe Deer

After that little jaunt we were working on the plot today. We cleared the patch where we had left potatoes in the ground. None suitable for eating, not surprisingly after all these months! Jamie gave it a good dig over once we'd cleared all the spuds - that looks better!

I planted up two pots for a Summer display - intended to pretty up the communal area during our Open Day in July/August (we haven't agreed a date yet). I added a small Rudbeckia plant to the Leucocoryne pot, as they are only meant to flower in June/July, whereas the Crocosmia should flower 'all Summer long'.

I chopped back all the snow-damaged broad bean plants - it hasn't left much growth! But we have plans to sow some more beans in modules, so if we manage to get even a few early ones from these plants we'll be happy.

And here's an impressive beetle I found. Looking gorgeous in the sunshine - A violet oil beetle, given away by lovely violet tinges on its sides and legs.

The title song by Crowded House is of course referring to the Inkpen Crocus Field.

Its Going to Happen

We had a lovely couple.of hours on the plot yesterday, in warm sunshine. The crocuses have opened up because of the extra warmth and we saw several (or possibly one) Brimstone butterflies flitting up and down alongside the hedge. There were also plenty of bees - bumblebees and other types.

It was lovely though we couldn't stay long. However, we managed to plant our shallots: 23 Red Sun. Each surrounded with a sprinkling of 6x. And then we covered them with some netting. Hoping that will keep the birds and mice away from them until they've grown enough roots to secure them to the ground.

Jamie hoed lime into this year's future brassica plot. The rest of the time we were on site we spent chatting with other plotholders and having some coffee and biscuits. There was plenty of gardening going on around us. We (the HAHA committee) have some plans for an area of the site near the toilet and one of the 'mares tail plots'. We have a work day in a couple of weeks so more on that in March... In the meantime, here is another photo of one of our crocus pots. (with a bumblebee who's just taken off)

Crocus are so pretty and there isn't much else of interest to photograph on site at the moment. However, Jamie did uncover these and I haven't identified them yet... I wonder if they're good guys or bad guys.. Suggestions are welcome!

Today we didn't make it to the allotment but we did drive to nearby Charlton Park Garden Centre to pick out a few additional seed potatoes. Such a great selection - but we don't need many as we always end up not using them.

We already have some Nicola and Kestrel. We bought a handful of individual tubers. I selected Dido, which we've not heard of before, because my Dad was an engineer at Harwell on the Dido reactor and the others are chosen because of their various attributes as shown below..

It was a shame we missed out on a second sunny February day on the allotment, but at least we have all our potatoes now. And I have two days off work so will hopefully catch up with a bit of plot-work then...maybe. We decided to go for a walk along the canal just as the sun was going down and were glad we did.

And the title is courtesy of The Undertones because Spring is surely on it's way...

Since Yesterday

We've had a few hours on the allotment this weekend. It wasn't raining or snowing and in fact we saw a little sunshine which was very welcome and decidedly Spring-like.

Jamie cleared an area of weeds on Plot3 during the week - our shallots are desperate to be planted and that's where they'll go. Then yesterday we cleared a bit more..

The grass that self-seeds is really annoying, so it's a hands-and-knees job with a hand trowel initially, which is laborious but worth it. And a friendly robin cleared up the grubs as we uncovered them.

So since yesterday (hence the song title) we've dug through more than half of Plot3 - that was a good start, though we're extremely achey. Actually I was aching so much that I forgot to take the final 'after' photo - you know how it is when you've been working on the plot for the first time in months!

Jamie added some quality home-produced compost, with a sprinkling of 6X, around the small rhubarb plant that didn't achieve much last year. We're hoping this is its year, though it is competing with a lot of tree roots in its current location.

We left as the Sun dipped behind the tree-line - how lovely to still be light(ish) until 5:30 these days. I'm glad February is a short month and it'll soon be March. And in the meantime I hope I buy a new camera as you may have noticed the splodge that's appeared on all my photos :-{

Strawberry Switchblade provided the song.