The Time is Now

OK, so it may not be Summer, but this is the kind of weather I like to see when I have more than a week off work! It was so beautiful yesterday after a grey start, so I’m hoping today will be the same.

The site has been very active over the long May Day weekend. People arriving with egg boxes full of spuds with the same plan as us. We haven’t gone over the top with potatoes this year. We have 2x2 Nicola in bags and these in the ground. Sarpo Mira is a maincrop with good blight resistance; Desiree is a maincrop which makes amazing mash and Nicola is a second early which is a tasty salad potato and good for mashing.

The beetroot seedlings are struggling to arrive but some of the seeds that we sowed a week ago in the polytunnel have started to appear so morning visits will be needed for opening the doors and watering if it’s going to be warm. The temperature quickly rises to over 30° in there if the Sun appears.

A few more seeds sown at home this weekend are: Radish Rat’s Tails, Bush Delicata squash, Sunburst patty pan, All Green courgette, Tall Timbers sunflowers and Jack-Be-Little pumpkins. Also, lobelia which made me think that I shouldn’t have complained about the size of the Nicotiana seeds last week! And these are the parsnip seeds that I germinated on paper towel in a plastic lidded container.

They’re sown into the ground which has been under black weed suppressant for a couple of weeks. I sowed two rows: the row on the left in this photo was pre-germinated, so will see what difference it makes, if any. I’ve put a cover over them more for protection from birds than any good reason.

A few more seeds sown were radish and perpetual spinach in the raised bed. The Egyptian walking onions are growing very slowly and look very similar to the grass and weeds that I had to clear but now the weather is cheering up a bit they may get moving (not walking yet 🤭). 

And lastly, two rows of Spring onions, some red, some white have been sowed on Plot 3 where Jamie also spent a lot of time yesterday digging the hole for the melon to grow.

The purple sprouting broccoli on that plot is beginning to flower. I’m hoping to get at least one more harvest. I included some in this Katsu curry with Cluck the other evening - delicious.

I appreciate these photos are mainly of dirt, but well, it’s that time of year.  To make up for all the brown in this blogpost, here’s a beautiful little phlox flower that’s growing on the fringes of the HAHA Wildlife plot bog garden.

And here’s a ladybird, they’re just beginning to emerge and will be looking out for mates now. I hope the larvae arrive before the blackfly this year!

The birds have mostly paired up now - we’ve seen pairs of goldcrest, blue tits and great tits in the hedge. The robins are feeding their females and are very demanding of us with their tuneful song. The jackdaws and magpies are squabbling even more than usual and are most upset by the carrion crow that has a nest nearby. And there is a flock of starlings that swoop down from the power cables when the site isn’t too busy.

As you can see, it’s all happening so the song title provided by Moloko is very apt. Enjoy 😊 

Time for Action

What a lovely long day we had on the allotment yesterday. It was warm and the Sun even appeared from between the cloud at times.

We’ve taken the net cloches off the broad beans so that the bees and other insects can do their pollination duty to provide us with some tasty broad beans quite soon. The photo above is one of the plants sown at the end of October- they survived the extreme frost; some of their gang didn’t which is why we have a bit of succession planting.

Yesterday we were mostly sowing (and chatting and listening to the birds) during our several hours on the plot. In the inner polytunnel tunnel we have: Flowers: Verbena bonariensis, Nicotiana Whisper, Ipomoea Iobata (Spanish flag), Calendula Officinalis ‘Canteloupe’, Marigold ‘Legion of Honour’, Sunflower ‘Tall Timber’ and veg: Rainbow chard, Asparagus pea and an All Green courgette is an early sowing at home.
The nicotiana (Tobacco plant) has the tiniest possible seeds - there they are a tiny smudge in the bottom of that miniature phial. And only 20 seeds! But I know they're a pretty flower so I hope they work.

 

Most of these flowers are destined for the flower plot this year, around the bench. It's great to see the perennials re-appearing now the ground is warming up and the daffodils finally came out.

I'm trying to keep on top of the weeds which are appearing and also pulling up some of the masses of Nigella. Having said that, Ivan gave us this plant, which looks a bit like Nigella - but we're not too sure what it is at this point. It's probably a weed as it was growing amongst his irises. I do like the foliage and I'm sure the flowers will provide an identification quite soon and we can decide then whether it's a keeper.

I was going to sow some veg outside but the ground was too wet. I have a week off soon so hopefully the weather will be a bit drier then. If we get the spuds planted out next week we'll have some space under the grow lamp at home. I've started parsnips by germinating them at home on a paper towel - they are notoriously awkward germinators so this way I'll only plant viable seed to get the best chance of a few parsnips this year.

At the weekend we spotted our first swallow of the season and then yesterday it was joined by a pair of house martens so it's really beginning to feel Spring-like, although night-time temperatures are still dipping close to zero (centigrade) and frosty rooftops are still regular morning sights. The birds were in full song at the weekend though and Ted pointed out at least two song thrushes, by their songs. That would help to explain all the broken snail shells but there are plenty of living snails left!

I spent a lot of time scrambling around by the pond trying to get a 'from the bottom of the pond' style photo. I had my camera on remote control using my phone and had some tadpoles in a transparent pot. It was quite awkward and of the 20-ish photos this was the best but isn't quite what I was aiming for ... oh well, perhaps I'll try again another day.

But I thought this gelatenous outline was quite interesting on this shot.

Anyway, enough about tadpoles! Here's an arty photo of purple sprouting brocolli and chive flower buds which formed part of my meal the other night. 

I used one of the frozen bean burgers that I made a few weeks ago. I squashed it flat like a pancake; it still fell apart, but I really like the flavour of borlotti beans.

At 3pm yesterday everyone (almost) reached for their phones as we received our first ever Government 'Emergency Alert' - great, what a hopeful new advance for the 21st Century...😕

Oh well, it gave me an excuse to use this song by Secret Affair. Let's hope we never have to hear the alert alarm again.

Jump Around

The weekend wasn't as sunny as we'd hoped and we only visited the allotment on Sunday. We needed to pick some purple sprouting brocolli.

As you can see we also picked some rhubarb. The stems are rather thin from our plant on Plot3 but we thought it was worth a taster before the large plant on Plot8 provides us with more substantial stems. The psb was delish though.

The mangetout is growing pretty well, I'll leave it in the polytunnel for a bit longer before moving outside a week or two prior to planting out. We've put up our inner-polytunnel for added protection for our seeds which we intend to start sowing next weekend. No sign of the beetroot germinating outside yet.

Our grafted pepper plants have arrived: Sweet Eternity, Sweet Solario and Sweet Campor. They're enjoying the kitchen window for a few weeks but we have to move them if the Sun shines too brightly.

So, as that was a rather short, dull post (like the weekend 😏) I spent time writing a blogpost about frogs on my Wildlife on The Allotment blog - why not hop over and take a look <snigger>

The song title is provided by House of Pain (don't judge me, like my work colleagues did when I shared my screen and the video was shared with them all 😁 Well, they shouldn't have called me when I was having my lunch 😂)

These Days

What a welcome long Easter weekend that was! The site was full of plotholders each day and it was great to chat to newcomers and old-timers, like us 🤭

The rain stopped for a couple of days so on Saturday we managed some digging - where the carrots and parsnips will be grown this year. It was so warm even I was down to short sleeves. The birds were singing and one of the robins has found a mate to feed. There were quite a few butterflies on site including brimstones, peacocks, whites and tortoiseshells.

This is a comma butterfly with its wings closed. The little white mark is why it’s called a comma - funny isn’t it? The most striking thing about it is the wing shape; I’d expect it to have a name associated with that!
There were other interesting insects about too, including masses of bee flies and mining bees of different varieties. I managed to get some nice close-ups of these three. Based on data from various sources I'm pretty sure the ids are correct - more photos and info on my Allotment Wildlife Blog.

The dandelions are really putting on a show at the moment so these pollinators have made a very timely arrival and the dandelions have timed it so their seeds will be dispersed into the wet and windy weather this week.

Strong winds started on Saturday but it was still mostly sunny and it was warm enough for crop trousers. We burned a lot of gathered up wood and cuttings which finally had a chance to dry out. The wind was carrying the wind through the hedge to the canal, rather than towards our neighbours. We couldn’t have done it yesterday (Sunday) as the wind force was significantly higher and it rained again 🙄

Jamie's planted up two strawberry plants into tomato bags, with a pot to water through in each bag. We're hoping that the three bags and black covering will curtail the bindweed which is growing underneath in the original strawberry bed... We'll see, but at least should get a few more strawberries this year.

That freshly cleared patch now has a row of beetroot - I sowed them quite thickly as I enjoyed the early thinnings in salads last year and hope to eat the beets while they're small. I sowed mangetout into guttering in the polytunnel a week ago and it's just beginning to germinate. Along with other digging, clearing and weeding in various spots, the garlic got a chicken manure feed and we had some more tasty purple sprouting broccoli to harvest.

And these were some beanburgers I made at the end of March, with stored borlotti beans, fresh chives and shop-bought peppers - to be honest, they need a bit more seasoning so the two remaining I will have with some sort of spicy tomato sauce, but they look nice 😏

Song provided by Nico, aah these days.... and now, back to work.

Fifteen Words

Fifteen years post transplant; fifteen photos to represent my gratitude; fifteen words per photo.

Such a hard decision for a family, offering the gift of life to a stranger.

A release from dialysis. Life-saving but life-sapping treatment with appreciation always to our amazing NHS.

Bringing increased energy to enjoy long walks, perhaps in the mountains again (when covid ends).

One year post transplant the Marsh Lane allotments were established and advertised for new Plotholders.

An opportunity to exercise and give the gift the best chance of a long life.

Also providing fresh vegetables which were mainly off the menu during the four dialysis years.

A healthy appetite followed, with a new interest in cooking with all that home-grown veg.

So many hugely potassium-rich soups to make and enjoy after the years it was ‘banned’.

And chocolate, how did I manage while it was a no-no for those dialysis years?

Ok, perhaps not always healthy, but after years of fluid restriction… well, you get it!

Allotment related events aroused a formerly unknown community spirit and lovely new friends in Hungerford.

And the more impromptu gatherings on our increasingly beautiful site. Aah, such fun, happy times.

The transplant led to the allotment and the allotment led to the blog, my diary.

A revived interest in wildlife, especially up close with the smaller creatures sharing our world.

And increasing pleasure in photography of plants, clouds, wildlife and other things that please me.

Thank you. Here’s to at least fifteen more years, song title provided by Hey Ocean.