Cheat

No, it’s not cress. That, believe it or not, is a celeriac seedling.

There are 3 or 4 like that. I'm not convinced they'll survive to planting stage but will keep them going, even though we nipped to a garden centre and they had these. Now they look a bit healthier and will be planted rather earlier than our home-germinated plants. Don't they look lovely and healthy?

Talking of healthy, our site is now 100% leased, with most plots looking prepped and ready for the year ahead - a bit different from this time in 2010, when the land developer had withdrawn the idea for allotments on Marsh Lane after 1 year of being set up. Thank goodness the Council were able to negotiate a 4-year lease for us - and that was 11 years ago :-)

We were on the site at the weekend. In between snow showers the sun would come out and it was really hot - as my boss pointed out, the sun is as high now as it is at the end of August! We sowed some teasel seeds on the wildflower plot and I'm pleased to say that our bog plants from Bakker are on their way so it'll be good to get them planted out. I moved the drainpipe of mangetout seedlings outside to a cold frame as I'll (hopefully) plant them out next weekend. The weather is still far more wintry than we want in April - look what we woke up to yesterday - snowy rooftops!

I thought it was going to feel like a soup week, so I soaked some of my home-grown dried beans - I added celery seeds to the water which smelled lovely.

To the stock, I added the few leaves of Cavolo Nero, that we'd grown, plus a few carrots and tomato puree, as per Shaheen's recent soup recipe. I have to admit that my soup doesn't look very pretty, but it tastes good. I wish I had mushed up some of the gigantes beans separately rather than blitzing the whole soup, though there are some whole beans at the bottom of the cup.

Remember our broad beans that got severely hit by the frost in February? They unexpectedly revitalised and now look! I hope the frosts we're having at the moment don't take them out at this stage in the game...

I have to start work now, but just one last thing... You must watch the BBC4 programme: A Year in an English Garden: Flicker & Pulse. It's so beautiful, with time-lapse and other fancy effects and just a little bit of talking - I really enjoyed it, in fact I may have to watch it again (and copy some of their ideas).

The song title is provided by The Clash and is because of buying seedlings from a shop. But, as I said to Forbes on site, "It's not cheating. It's common sense" ;-) 

No Roots

A 4-day weekend, I need more of these! Especially with weather like we had yesterday - sun and lovely warmth. Aah, that blue sky makes me so happy!

Jamie and I finished clearing the wildlife plot. Ready to sow the wildflower seeds in a couple of weeks and hopefully the bog plants won’t be held up by stupid BREXIT for too long; they’re coming from Holland and I’ve seen some bad reports online, but Ivan said his irises weren’t delayed. 

Anyway the temperature is dropping over the next couple of weeks, with snow tomorrow - really?! So planting can wait a bit longer...

The reason this plot isn’t leased is because it suffers from Horsetail, apart from the fact that it’s good to have an area on site where people aren’t trying to remove anything that wriggles or flies 🙄. We hope that the wildflowers will help reduce the spread of the horsetail, which creeps onto the site from the canal towpath. Grassing other areas has helped and the white coverings probably worked too, but look so ugly! We’ve also put some mini-plots on a horsetail plot because those plots tend to get more intensive cultivation which curtails the horsetail. Here’s some of the weed we found yesterday - it’s just sprouting, but so hard to spot when it’s dormant.

So, back to our plots. The crazy rhubarb missed out on being divided again last year - it’s trying to take over! We really must split it this year...

The beetroot and rainbow chard have germinated in the polytunnel. I’m hoping to be able to see the difference once they’ve grown a bit (I know! Why didn’t I label them?!)

I’ve got a new watering can for the greenhouse. The mangetout can go outside soon, they won’t mind the frost, but I need to prepare their plot.

The marigolds have germinated poorly this year. Only 4 or 5 from each batch at home and in the polytunnel.

We’re seeing a lot of different butterflies and bees on the site now that flowers are appearing, it’s such a positive time of year (especially when the sun shines).  This is ground ivy, pretty ground cover, with a nice minty smell. The bees love it.

We’ve also seen a lot more bee flies this year, they’re predators of solitary bees so not that welcome but interesting to see. They’re so bee-like, including a buzz.

So, that’s been our weekend so far. Today is Bank Holiday Monday and snow showers are now threatening today. It doesn’t look very welcoming but we’ll probably enjoy it when we finally get outside. The song title is provided by Alice Merton. I’d like to think there are no horsetail roots left in the wildlife plot, but I know that won’t be the case! Ooh, the sun has just come out!

Thankyou

This weekend marks the thirteenth year of my kidney transplant. This was me at one of my earliest dialysis sessions - you can see the dialysis machine is connected through Tesio lines through my chest - before the fistula was created in my arm.

I was connected to that machine for 4hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for nearly 4 years cleaning my blood as my kidneys weren’t able to. Fluid restriction (~1litre per day), tiredness and no appetite were the hardest part of kidney failure for me but I made some good friends whilst on dialysis and continued working throughout (albeit not very efficiently). I couldn’t have been more happy when my 3rd call for a transplant was confirmed as a match and it continues to serve me very well at about 30% efficiency.

Thankyou seems too small a word for such a generous gesture as an organ donation. The system is now opt-out in England, which I’m not a supporter of; I prefer to think of it as a generous gift, rather than Government-led. However, with more than 4000 people currently waiting for a transplant please make sure your family knows your wish, should the worst happen.

Spring, Spring, Spring

Spring is here, the clocks have changed, we're on our way out of lockdown and we found this bowl of a clay pipe on the allotment. We haven't found anything for 'the allotment museum' for ages (in fact, I need to re-find the museum!). It's probably late 19th/early 20th century so not that old but still interesting.

And here's a classic Spring sight on our plot. Lovely grape hyacinths.

Jamie and I started a new project last week. I had Thursday off work, so we started work on the HAHA Wildlife Plot

In normal times it would have been a fun job for a work party. There's still a lot more to be cleared but not bad for two long days of work. We wouldn't have wanted the sun out but it may have been less exhausting if it wasn't blowing a gale on both days - oh, and if I hadn't been mainly sitting on my butt for the last year!!

Much as we'd like the site to have a pond, it's better for individual plots to have small ponds at the moment due to the ever-present lease which doesn't allow us to have a pond plot. There was also the concern of accidents and covering it with a strong enough grill detracts from the appeal somewhat.

So we decided to convert the pond into a bog garden and the rest of that plot will be a wildlife plot - with wildflowers and other wildlife-friendly plants. It already has the bug hotel, which needs to be refurbished and now it has a compost bin and stone piles for solitary bees.

We've re-planted a few plants that were already there, like this Jacobs Ladder, cowslips,  forget-me-nots and a couple of iris. 

Plus one of the buddleja that I grew from a cutting ("a cutting from my sister" I was going to say, that doesn't sound right!!) and some Snakes Head Fritillary that were reduced in the Garden Centre. We also have some bog plants on order from Bakker.

Now, I hope you'll agree that the empty plot, which is prone to horsetail, looks better though rather empty at the moment. However, what we didn't bank on was the number of frogs in that pond. There must have been 50 or more quite small frogs. There was no frogspawn so we thought we had timed it ok but we're not so sure now. Anyway, the 4 little ponds around the site now have new residents but we hope the bog garden works and the frogs should appreciate that damp area to at least visit...

Our own plots are just waiting a little longer before we get down to some proper planting. But we're happy to see the shallots on Plot3 have sprouted. And the celeriac at home have germinated - though they are the weakest little things at the moment; too small even for my macro camera to focus on.

So, this week we're expecting two hot days - yay! I've booked two 2-hour lunches :-) And then, over Easter, the weather is going to turn Wintry again :-( Well, that's disappointing but not so surprising, it's what British weather does after all... But the hedgerow is coming to life and the path nearest the hedge is covered in wild white violets (they may well be Common Dog Violets as there is no scent at all) which look very pretty.

And the wallflowers are in full colour on our plot - so glad I stuck them in the ground a couple of years ago, rather than disposing of them.

The song title is from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - what a wholly inappropriate film for the 21st Century! Well, I guess it was acceptable in the '50s..!

Hold On

Such a windy few days! I’ve been busy all week with work, but have enjoyed looking out at sunshine, rather than needing to brave the wind. I have a decoupage project that I’m working on so have been cutting pictures out of the seed catalogues but it has been making me want to buy more. I’m sure you know what it’s like!

We had a few hours on the plot this afternoon but it was still horribly windy and rather cold. Our plots gained some pots and compost bins but luckily the only damage was to a table; the glass tabletop landed in the manure pile so didn’t smash 😆. I was pleased to see that our polytunnel is still intact and most of my mangetout have germinated as have the marigolds.

We’ve set up an old fire guard as shelving for more seeds in the polytunnel. And have sown the celeriac seeds at home. I was amazed to see how tiny the seeds are!

I sowed all 40, as they can be tricky to germinate. I could have sowed them in a tray but I was keen to use these cut-off milk bottles. They’re under a cover in Jamie’s foil-coated windowsill germinators. And we have some more marigolds germinating at home too. They make such a great display and bees like them.

Meanwhile more buds are appearing everywhere you look and the birds are pairing up. It seems so Spring-like, until the wind cuts you in half! I wouldn’t want to be a seedling out there right now... just need to hang on a bit longer...

We left the site just as it started to rain, having achieved little, but at least it was a bit of time spent outside. Look at it, just waiting...

To be honest, I would have sowed something outside if it had been a bright sunny weekend. Instead, I’ll hold on.. What a great song, provided by KT Tunstall.

Someday Soon

Oh, I do love a close-up of a chitting potato at this time of year :-) Here's another for your enjoyment (or at least, for mine) 

Look at those tiny emerging leaves, so cute. Talking of er.. cute... here are some more <ahem> 'babies'.

Lots of teeny tiny snails waiting to emerge from hibernation just in time to breakfast on our seedlings. Pesky things! I hope now they've been revealed that a thrush will find them - over the hedge, where I moved them to!

 

HAHA arranged a manure delivery in the week so lots of people were working on the site at the weekend, even though it was cold. I wheel-barrowed 5 loads to Plot3 - it couldn't be further away from the manure pile, so that was a workout that my lockdown-body isn't used to!

We had a lovely few hours on the plot yesterday. By the time we got there, the sun was just strong enough to burn off the clouds and coats and jumpers were soon removed. Especially as we were digging. I dug a trench where I'm going to try again to grow celeriac.

 

The shredded bills and well-rotted manure will hopefully provide enough water retention to help these thirsty plants to bulb up. We'll see... I know they need A LOT of water. Anyway, first I need to get the seeds to germinate, which I'll do at home as they like to be warm.

 

And Jamie dug the carrot trench. He got the raw deal. There were so many roots in that part of the plot - well, there certainly aren't any roots of stones left in there when he'd finished.

Last week I was eating this really tasty Chestnut and Fennel soup - I topped it with some Seaweed (Kelp) Flavour Boost with either chives or chilli to add a bit of interest.

 

The song title is provided by KT Tunstall. Because, someday soon I'll be making soup with home-grown veg again and sitting on the plot watching things grow... And we'll be out of lockdown (my fingers are crossed).