Hungerford allotment blog - grow your own, harvesting and vegetarian cooking. Enjoying allotment wildlife, weather and other things that catch my attention.
Enjoying time on the Marsh Lane Allotment site in Hungerford, Berkshire.
A record of successes, failures and a handy reminder for me.
From 2017 each post title brings a song to add a little extra music to the world - enjoy!
Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine at the weekend.
The ladybirds were sunning themselves, out from their Winter shelters. We saw Brimstone and Peacock butterflies and I even uncovered a little frog. So, I had to stop digging that last part of the plot. I knew toads hibernated underground but I didn’t realise that frogs do too. There was another rhubarb plant in that spot, but it had rotted away under a mass of nigella. We'll get another one to put in there later in the year.
The robins and wrens were in full song and the kites and buzzards were out in number overhead. It really has been a beautiful 3 days, with sunshine pretty much all the way through - what luck that I’d taken Friday off work.
We got lots of clearing done - the potato patch is ready and waiting, including removal of the mammoth bramble. It had taken over our path, and beyond, a couple of years ago and intertwined with rolls of chicken wire and other netting - ugh. As you can see Jamie took the saw to it, but not until it totally spiked and scratched us. Horrible thing! I don’t think we’ve seen the last of it!!
Jamie dug a runner bean trench and filled it with soil from pre-used tomato and potato bags. Exhausting work in the heat of the February sun!
We stayed until the Sun started to dip on Friday and the temperature soon started to drop. The temperature showed as -3° overnight.
My seeds haven't popped up yet, but the marigolds that Jamie had covered with a plastic bag in the polytunnel have started to germinate. The anemone is continuing to flower in the pots, such a pretty flower but it's fighting with weeds which I can't clear because there are a few bulbs still waiting to emerge.
So for the end of February our plot is looking better than it has done for a few years, but still lots more to do and I think I need more seeds :-) Maybe I'll wait to see what offerings fellow plotholders have to share a bit later in the season...
Talking of which, Ivan gave us a lovely crop of purple sprouting broccoli which we added to a Quorn curry on Friday evening.
What a great weekend - some would say 'epic' or maybe it's just an excuse to use this song title by Faith No More after I saw the video on a Top of the Pops from 1990 last week :-) Hooray! Now it's March!
We had a lovely afternoon on the plot - we were so pleased (and surprised) when we got there and found that most of the broad beans had recovered from their frosty battering last week. We were ready to pull them up and re-sow. Instead, Jamie added a sprinkling of lime to encourage growth and alkaline the soil.
I think today was the first dry day we’ve had in weeks and the Sun even tried to make an appearance. We avoided treading on the soil as it’s still really wet, though nowhere near as bad as some parts of the country. The air was warm and positively Spring-like so, although I shared this to the Marsh Lane Allotments Facebook page last week.....
Well, as the saying goes, don’t do as I do, do as I say... I sowed a row of Boltardy beetroot and perpetual spinach into the raised bed with the garlic. I retrieved our old cold frame, which was rather abandoned and harbouring loads of snails, slugs and a mouse nest, to give the seeds a bit of protection, as I’m sure we’ve not seen the last of the cold weather! That section of the raised bed was under cardboard for the last few months so was weed-free and, maybe, a little warmer than uncovered soil.
Jamie sowed some marigold seeds and put them in a bag in the polytunnel. I sowed some Shiraz mangetout into a piece of guttering, they can stay in the polytunnel to germinate and grow a bit. If successful, and the mice don’t find them, they should produce pods early enough to avoid pea moth larvae. 🤞
Jamie planted 24 Mikor shallots on Plot3. We haven’t netted them, so the birds may disturb some of them, but they normally survive being pushed back into the ground if that happens. The blue tit and robins were singing happily today, another sign of Spring being on its way.
And our wallflowers are full of buds.
Aah, nearly March, not really Spring but time is moving on. I got another letter from the Government advising me to continue shielding until 31st March, but getting a bit of exercise is ok and visiting the allotment is so welcome. It’s good to see a few fellow plotholders, particularly as Ivan gave us some lovely fresh leeks. It seems that there will be some reduction in lockdown rules quite soon, so we may be able to start leasing plots again - our waiting list is looking healthy, which helps our cause for keeping the site.
The song title is, of course, referring to the broad beans and is by Soul II Soul. Nice.
On Friday night we had our Take-2 of Chinese New Year. So now it really is the Year of the Metal Ox. We added some star croutons and Spring onions to the Miso soup starter and had mushroom chow mein for the main.
This weekend we had a plan... to get the shallots planted because the freezing weather of last week is moving on. And I thought I’d risk sowing a few seeds under a cloche - mangetout, beetroot and perpetual spinach, because they should be reasonably hardy.
Well, that plan changed when we got to the plot and found the ground still frozen and then we saw our broad beans 🥺
Oh dear! We’ve never seen such a thing. But it has been extremely cold, with an added windchill taking the temperature even lower than the thermometer recorded.
The globe artichoke looks sad too; I’m sure that will recover, though I’m not convinced that the beans will.
Although it was horribly cold, with some rain, we decided to stick it out for a bit so we tidied and moved some weed suppressant to make space for the potatoes.
Moving the Grow Bags was harder than it seems because they were heavy, wet and frozen. We got muddy and frozen ourselves!
We sat and had a coffee, then wandered round the site but it was too cold to think about doing anything else. Our watering cans full of rain water appear to have completely solidified and look how thick the ice was in a bucket!
I sympathise with the workmen who have recently been working on the site’s water system in the icy weather. Looks good doesn’t it? Better than the pallets which were starting to rot after being leaked onto for a few years.
I actually did a bit of HAHA admin this weekend too - long overdue, but I have enough of spreadsheets (much as I love them) during the working week at the moment. We did have a trip out last week though - to get my first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at Newbury racecourse. What a treat 😄
And I drove Jamie to Hungerford Tesco - all the COVID-precautions have passed me by so I was interested to see the traffic light system on the doors!
We have the 2m distancing signs at the allotment, but social distancing has certainly not been a problem on site so far in 2021!
The song is from the musical, Oliver! and is certainly what we’re doing. Reviewing and waiting...for so many things to get better.
It was tempting not to go out today as the weather forecast extremely chilling winds, but we have our shallots that need to be planted and it was actually dry. The top of the site was really windy but Plot3 is quite protected so we got on with some work and I even needed to take my coat off whilst digging the caged area. It’s the brassica cage, but this is the only plant in there - you can’t really see how small it is, but I’m determined to try and get one serving from it!
It was good to be working and Jamie took time to properly dig and add 6X to the patch where the shallots will go. I just turned the soil with a spade, rather than carefully working it like Jamie did. We’ll probably cover it to stop the weeds re-emerging before the brassica planting will happen.
And he weeded round the rhubarb, which is just showing signs of life.
The sky went very dark and we got some sleet but it stayed dry. We’ve started noticing the daylight lasting a little longer each day and Spring flowers are emerging, which are such a welcome sight.
All the purples so far.
We’ve drawn up the planting plan for Plot7, really itching to get started, but all in good time... Really must try to stop wishing the weeks away!
I went up the road in the week and enjoyed a bit of sunshine while Jamie went shopping. It was just me and the swans. I upset that swan and he hissed at me quite soon after getting that shot - clearly not socially distanced!
We celebrated Chinese New Year on Friday night, but discovered on Saturday that it’s not actually till next Friday 🙄 Oh well, it was a tasty meal of tofu chow mein, which I just about managed to eat with chopsticks 🙂
So, that’s how February has begun and the REALLY GOOD NEWS is that I have my vaccine booked for Tuesday! Hooray! I hope the weather doesn’t scupper that plan, more on that next week, I’m sure. The song by Inspiral Carpets is sad, but for this blogpost the title is referring to the weather - I haven’t warmed through yet. I need a bath to remove the chill from my bones! Brrr.
It was bright this morning so we decided to visit the plot. By the time we got there it wasn’t very bright but it was very cold ... brrr. I’m only slightly sorry that the snow started about 30minutes after we got home.
The ground is far too wet to dig, but we decided to weed and trowel over the area where the shallots will be planted. Quite a satisfying bit of work. We’ll get the shallots planted as soon as it dries a bit. If it doesn’t dry off soon we’ll have to start them off in pots.
While we were working we noticed a flock of redwings; it was at that point we decided to do the Big Garden Birdwatch 😊 and had quite a good count:
No sign of the robin unusually and I didn’t attempt any photos. The kestrel was hovering over the site and then we saw him land on an aerial so I won’t add it to the official count.
Yesterday I went through all the seeds and have a planting plan, (I know! Haven’t been this organised for a few years!) Of course, it doesn’t include any offerings from fellow plotholders which I find so hard to refuse and there are a few things missing, but we know where they’re going eg spuds, toms, peppers,..
All the trailing squashes, apart from the pumpkin, are going to form my squash tunnel which I’ve been talking about for years! Ooh, it’s a dangerous thing... to make a plan in the middle of a pandemic, but fingers crossed.
Something I planned for, and did yesterday, was to make some of Shaheen’s Sweet Potato & Cumin soup. I’ve had a taster and am very pleased that it should provide me with 3 or 4 tasty workday lunches. Thanks Shaheen! And a few leftover sweet potatoes to make some roasted wedges for tonight - yum!
The song title is by Tori Amos. The snow has stopped now and turned to cold rain with dripping wet trees. Bye-bye January.
I took a day off work last Tuesday, I’m determined to have at least one day off a month to break the monotony and it’s quite nice having a random mid-week day. We visited the allotment. Too wet to do anything constructive but I did get to play with some ice.
It looks so pure and I love the frozen bubbles.
I found three frozen circles, but my hands were also frozen so this is as creative as I could be 🙄
The thermometer in the polytunnel showed a minimum of -5.2°
We celebrated Burns Night on Monday, which was why I took Tuesday off. It’s a good excuse for eating, drinking, listening to some different music and watching a film (Whisky Galore, 1949). We are increasingly finding that we’re the butt of the very funny Daily Mash articles but..whatever!
It warmed up a bit over the last few days but now it’s just rain, rain, rain and it apparently feels cold so I’m staying indoors. It’s a shame, as I really feel like getting to the plot to do some clearing, but I don’t feel like getting cold, wet and dirty. Our shallots have been delivered; we ordered a long variety, Jermore, but COVID-19 is taking its toll everywhere and so they were unavailable and we’ve been sent these, Mikor.
The allotments lease is unfortunately a newsworthy subject again, but the date we’re ‘safe’ to is actually 31st December 2022 so it’s not quite as bad as it reads, but bad enough. For our amazing site to ever be at risk of development is a disgrace!
And there was a further mention of allotments in this week’s Newbury Weekly News... at a time when Growing Your Own has had a new lease of life. It is appalling that developers can use words to help win a purchase but then simply remove it at planning stage and still be granted permission. We’d rather stay at Marsh Lane (obviously) but permanent allotment provision should have been included in this development. And don’t get me started on the affordable housing aspect...! 😡
Sad... it may seem at times like the world is changing, but in fact it’s not.
Today’s song title is by The Corgis and it’s referring to my crochet plans... it’s a rather slow process, but I’ll get there... I hope.
That is what I achieved in 3 hours, following Bella Coco on YouTube... luckily I have some time on my hands..!
Look what we woke up to this morning! Such big fluffy flakes!
Finally some snow reached Berkshire, after seeing so many beautiful snow photos from around the country.
Actually the weather forecast did predict it, so Jamie was doing a snow check every hour until it arrived at 7am 🙂 We couldn’t resist going for a little walk in it, just round the block, to hear and feel the crunch underfoot - it’s just so special.
The catkins were highlighted against the monochrome environment.
We weren’t fully convinced we were going to see the forecast snow but thought we’d better protect our broad beans from getting crushed, just in case, so we had a very quick late afternoon visit to the plot yesterday - a good job we did! The broad bean plants can handle the cold but damage from the weight of snow definitely causes a set-back and we do hope to get an early crop.
Our seed potatoes were delivered yesterday, so they’re now chitting in the hall - just a few Nicola and Kestrel.
We still need to check what seeds we have in our stocks, definitely getting the feel of Spring even in the cold and snow! I’m looking forward to cooking with our own home-grown harvests again. I made onion and butter bean soup with Ivan’s giant onion - it was lovely and creamy.
And had delicious halloumi with red onions and peppers in the week. Mmm, halloumi...
The snow has melted from the trees and roads but is remaining on the rooftops so it still looks pretty. I’m glad we were able to see it falling and have a walk.
And it meant I could use the great song title by Badly Drawn Boy from the amazing The Hour of Bewilderbeast album.
