Chop Chop!

Sometimes it helps to be slow. We had a lazy morning and didn't make it to the plot till 2:30 but then the sun was finally managing to break through. We had a pleasant 2½ hours with a temperature of about 9° listening to the red kite calling overhead and the terns (Oops! See comment below) screeching over the canal.
A less welcome sound was of shooting in the distance, but some people do seem to hate deer and pheasants :( It upsets me, but perhaps they were clay pigeon shooting ...

We had our plans for what to do today; Jamie potted on the raspberry bush ('Ruby Beauty' from Thompson & Morgan). It claims to produce lots of fruit even in its first year and we intend to net it so we get to eat more than the birds!
My aim was to clear the two raised beds. The big salad bed was full of weeds and grass so at least now there is an area of clear earth showing! We should cover that until it's time to start sowing otherwise the weeds will take over again quite quickly.

The smaller raised bed still had beets in it... It seems wasteful, but at least the uneaten veggies are perfectly recycled as compost.

Lessons learned: don't grow Cylindra beets in a raised bed and don't leave them to get too big... Look at those prize-winning funny-shaped vegetables! I'm sticking to Boltardy beets this year.

I got chopped out of the photo...but chopping the beets up in a bucket was pleasing and warmed me up so even I took my coat off.

The resulting purple mess was layered in the compost bin with dry waste, like the the dried-out tops of the wildflowers. That should rot down nicely and fairly quickly - though may also prove irresistible to mice!

Another vegetable destined for the compost bin - the swedes. We didn't get to eat any of them - they all bolted :-( Shop-bought neeps and tatties for the Burns Night meal on Monday I'm afraid!

Frozen Sprouts and Skittles

The weather has gone really cold over the last few nights with some proper frost which stays put all day in the shade. The temperature has been down to at least -5°. The skies have remained clear with beautiful blue skies during the day and fabulous starry nights with a bright waxing (e.g. newish) moon. Jamie visited the plot yesterday to feed our ever-present robin and pick some (frozen) Brussels sprouts for our evening meal.

We had a lovely cheesy, sprouts and Quorn lardons bake - delicious, but wish we'd had some mixed chopped nuts to add to the top to make it extra crunchy. It was a very tasty way to eat the sprouts.

I think the frost had done its job of making the sprouts a bit more flavoursome.

Last Saturday night we had our HAHA skittles evening at the Royal British Legion in Hungerford. It was a great night, really good fun. There were at least 24 people on each side (HAHA versus RBL) which was such a brilliant turnout we're sure to hold another event later in the year I'm sure. Anyway, the RBL need another chance to beat us ;-)

As Cold As Ice

Finally we've had some frosty nights this winter, so we went to see the plot this afternoon but not to do any work - too frozen. I mostly played with the ice while Jamie fed and watched the birds.

I think this looks rather galactic, but actually it's just our rain gauge...

 

This looks like a PhotoShop effect...

But it's the real world though the ice from a bucket...

And the birds were very lively. Starting with a beautiful male bullfinch, but he didn't hang round for long enough to get a photo with my small camera. So, it's mostly robin photos but I did also manage to snap this long-tailed tit - such pretty little bids.

Now, bring on the robins...

There were 3 trying to get at the food Jamie put out at one point. These two had an argument and flew off across the site.

Leaving just one to eat the worms!

Last Sunday a few of us from the HAHA committee enjoyed a lovely New Year's lunch with the Curridge Horticultural Society - very pleasant at the Newbury & Crookham Golf Club.

Then on Monday we had the HAHA general meeting. Lots of plotholders turned up to hear what the committee are trying to achieve and what possibilities may be available for us. The District Councillor, Mayor and Newbury Weekly News journalist were also in attendance.

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/hungerford/17015/Allotment-holders--resent-being-.html

And tonight we have a HAHA versus Royal British Legion skittles evening! What fun!

Nice Weather for...

...Ducks!

It wasn't raining when we walked up to the allotment today. We knew it would be soggy after so much rain over the last week though. We did have one night of frost, but it's mostly been about rain.

At the Town Council meeting on Monday we heard that the housing developer is granting us a one year extension on the site lease - with the 'possibility' of a permanent lease if planning is granted on an entirely separate piece of land in the town. We have the HAHA General Meeting this Monday so it'll be good to hear how the other plotholders feel. 

So, it's great that we can start preparing for April now, but will likely have to look forward to this again in a year's time. 

Newbury Weekly News

Some things are still growing (not just the grass). This is one of the beetroots which Jamie sowed in late July (or possibly later than that)! Wonder if it'll actually ever bulb up?

We have started ordering. Jamie's ordered some tomato plants and I've ordered some stuff, including loofah seeds! We also have plans for spuds but more on all this when things actually get delivered!

I bet mine won't look as perfect as these ones!

We hadn't been on site long when it started pouring and the wind blew up. This year's robin hid rather than eating the food we took up for him and I hid too, thank goodness for the greenhouse! (It's the sound that's better than the video on this...)

 

I hope it's not like this for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of the month!

 

Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading. 

Thanks for your comments. 

Thanks for the inspiration from other bloggers.

The end of 2015 and a Summary

Yesterday evening we had a nice snacky tea, so I made up a few of these excellent little penguins - mozzarella pearls, black olives and home-grown carrot. Cute, huh?

And, these are cherry tomatoes with pesto (vegan) and a little cocktail onion in the middle for an extra bit of crunch. They were very tasty. I only made a few. My sister, Joanne, will remember the pain of making loads (probably 50 or more) for a party she had years ago. Hopefully next year we'll have some home-grown tomatoes and I know fellow plotholder, Alison, makes pesto using broad beans so I'll have to get the recipe from her.

As Storm Frank was causing havoc in the North-West we were having a blustery wet day. We took a walk up to the allotment as we haven't moved much over the last week. It was nice to be out in the fresh air, which was rather cooler than it has been of late so we got to use the hand warmers. They'll certainly be useful when cleaning veg on the plot in icy cold water! (Have I mentioned my sister gave me some nail varnish? I couldn't decide which colour to wear, so tried them all out :-)) You can see the gel in the hand warmer I'm holding has gone solid and that's when it heats up - amazing!

Compost bins and lids have been fairly scattered around the site as usual, but no real damage. I added a lot of kitchen waste (mostly tea bags and coffee grounds) to the compost bins. Plenty of worms doing their job but also a lot of (white) flies, which are less welcome. The temperature is forecast to go below freezing tonight so that may kill off a few of the nasties. The weather's been so mild! The rosemary has buds on and this is one of the Meconopsis plants (beautiful blue Himalayan poppy) that my sister gave us for Christmas. It arrived just before Christmas as an empty pot!

Happy New Year Everyone!!

I hope you'll have some happy blogposts from me in 2016!!

Pawns after Christmas

Christmas was fun. The weather didn't look like the Christmas cards but although warm I'm glad it was rainy so the Christmas lights looked pretty throughout the day. We received some lovely presents and here are a few which are at least vaguely allotment-based.

The red things at the front are hand warmer gel packs, which will prove so useful if we actually get a Winter this year! The West Country recipe book has some lovely recipes for veggies - I'm keen to try the potato, carrot and parsnips coated in herby flour and onion, fennel and red pepper tarts sound good too! And how about the Gardener's hip flask! I think the to-do list is definitely in the right order!!
Hopefully we will have somewhere to use these lovely pressies and our veggies will be home-grown...

In my last post I mentioned 'news of a further extension of our lease'. I was being more positive than I've felt over the last month. I probably should have said something like 'a further year's extension of our lease seems likely'. So we're not out of the woods yet.
Just before Christmas, Hungerford Town Council, HAHA and AONB (along with other concerned authorities and individuals) contacted West Berkshire Council to outline why the WBC decision on the Hungerford development plan is flawed and why they should listen to the opinions of the local council and townspeople. The argument refers to allotments because (I quote),

"Donnington Homes made a clear commitment that if planning permission is gained for their HUN001 site then the Marsh Lane allotment site would receive a lengthy lease extension at the very least, or it may even be given to the community of Hungerford permanently. So the future of our lovely site is unfortunately linked into these development machinations. If WBC’s Plan, as it currently stands, is approved by the Planning Inspector then we will probably lose the Marsh Lane site".

I grudgingly completed the paperwork to backup the HTC plan for the sake of the allotment site (and because the WBC plan does seem illogical based on traffic flow in the town). But I really hate being used as a bargaining chip, particularly when I'm still aware of the compulsory lease option which the Council doesn't seem to have looked into. We have another Council meeting next week, which I hope will have another big turnout of allotment holders, but I'm sure there will have been little progress over the Christmas period...

Merry Christmas from Plot 7!

Sprouts, carrots and parsnips picked for tomorrow's lunch. News of a further extension to our lease.

So now we can relax and enjoy Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all who read my blog. Thankyou for your support, advice and comments. See you the other side!

A Brief Visit

This was the first day we've been to the allotment since we received the awful news about the lease not being renewed and the news that the site had been broken into. We've both had colds and been busy with Christmas.
Here's a cheery photo from Longleat to stop this post being too depressing!

It started raining just as we were walking to the site, but it's still very mild. We were only dropping off some compost and checking that nothing had been taken from our plot - it hadn't been.

The site is looking rather neglected, although there are quite a few plots with vegetables, mostly leeks, carrots, parsnips and cabbages still growing. Obviously people aren't taking advantage of the dry, mild weather as we would have in previous years. So sad. We should definitely have sprouts and carrots and possibly a parsnip or two for Christmas dinner.

At least the pheasants are making use of the greenhouse. That's one of the dust baths they've been having in there!

We left in sunshine and met fellow plotholder, Vic and his family, popping in to pick veggies for their lunch. Let's hope our MP, Richard Benyon, can appreciate our position and provide some useful pressure to the landowner/developer when our Chairman and Treasurer meet him next week...

This is our treasurer, Ted, talking to BBC Radio Berkshire about our plight.

Marsh Lane Allotments in the Media

Marsh Lane in 2010

The Council meeting last week didn't go far to lift our spirits regarding the future of our site. However, it was great to see the room over-crowded due to the number of plotholders who turned out - we outnumbered the councillors by at least 2:1!

And the local paper (Hungerford edition of the Newbury Weekly News) had the full story on the front page and continuing inside.

A few weeks earlier I summarised our successful year of community events in the local ChainMail magazine (covering Jan-March 2016). I didn't consider that it could be my final post as an allotment holder :-(

Here's a link to my article in the Autumn issue of ChainMail. I was hoping to encourage people to make their own compost.

http://www.hungerford.org.uk/chain/issue_128/haha.htm

There's likely to be more media coverage before this is resolved, but I really hope we have a happy ending to this sorry Christmas tale...

Return to Grassland

It can't be right, can it? Our beautiful site which is currently being enjoyed by over 77 families and has been providing a healthy pastime and community spirit within Hungerford over the last 7 years is to be "returned to grassland" by the landowner.

The reason for ending the tenancy is apparently due to a planning dispute. Not because of a plan for housing on Marsh Lane, but for another piece of land which wasn't included in West Berkshire's recent Development Plan. It's understood that the Marsh Lane field is unlikely to ever be given planning permission (though this may be wishful thinking).

So, we allotment holders are stuck in the middle of this dispute and Hungerford will lose one of its greatest community assets unless Hungerford Town Council manage to resolve the situation before April 2016. 

Hungerford will be left with an empty field with £5,000 of public-funded rabbit fencing and an unused publicly-funded £5,000 borehole in the middle of it.

Borehole digging in 2010

The town council has leased the land since 2009 and in that time we've received 3 notices to quit, which have been turned around at the last moment. I'm sick of it! It's time the town had a PERMANENT ALLOTMENT SITE, as outlined in the HungerfordTown Plan 2013.

'The Allotment' play in 2012

The Council meeting next Monday (7th Dec), which is open to the public, could be interesting...

Please come along if you think our allotment site is worth keeping!! 

Tiger Tiger...

What a horrible day! We should have got to the plot earlier; by the time we got there it was already starting to spit and when we left it was raining hard and blowing cold sharp gusts if wind. Ugh, lucky I had my new German navy parka to keep me warm and dry! (What a bargain from GoArmy - it's such a great coat I feel a bit bad getting it dirty, but I did specifically buy it for the allotment).

Anyway, this is an allotment blog, not a fashion blog :-) but this explains why we ventured out on such an awful late-November day... We had to harvest our tiger nuts (Chufa, to the spanish).

We were pleased to see that some of the tubers (they aren't nuts) had reached a reasonable size and there were some nice clumps of them around some of the stems - they seemed to be better around the edge of the pot, unless they were just easier to see.

We got a pretty good amount - hopefully enough to make our own Horchata de chufa, a lovely sweet milky-type drink which we drink in Tenerife and is very popular in Valencia. 

They're also quite nice raw, as a snack. They taste very much like hazelnuts but it's tricky getting all the dirt off.

Looks like a tiny spud or bug!

The grassy plant was attractive throughout the year and would be good for a bog garden, as it needs to stay wet all the time, although rather invasive which is why we grew it in a pot.