Holiday

What a beautiful Easter weekend! Lots of sunshine and warm temperatures every day. Those clouds just started to get darker on Monday afternoon - good timing!

We spent hours on the allotment over the lovely 4-day weekend. I dug through the area in front of the bench. Lots of couch and hedge roots to remove from the area which has been under weed-suppressant for a few years. 

One particularly large root took a lot of tugging; when it gave, I discovered that it was a (the?) tap-root of the Lovage plant DOH! So I'm quite expecting part of that lovely plant to die off soon... The wet patches are where I've sown some chrysanthemums - I want that area to be a beautiful flower bed... we'll see!

Jamie was working on the carrot trench and it's environmesh cage then sowed two rows of carrots (Eskimo and Early Nantes 5). We really hope they do better than last year when we hardly had any carrots to eat. We're being more generous with our sowings this year, where previously we've been a bit tight; we've decided to sow lots and plan on thinning more than we usually do.

I've been more liberal with my beetroot, parsnip, radish, spring onion and lettuce seeds that went in on Sunday too. 

The watering regime has started. As you can see the ground is very dry, but there may be a few showers this week.

I cleared some weeds and some of the masses of nigella seedlings near the pond. I transplanted a couple of houseleek and hope that they'll spread across the area.

The pots next to the bench will be moved when I plan to have Love Lies Bleeding growing there. The seeds, along with some more sunflowers, are sown into pots and in the polytunnel so I'm hoping the night temperatures don't dip too low. 

The pots are full of various flowers and bulbs including the tulips that my nephew, George, gave us for Christmas which are just developing. Also the bay laurel from my sister, but the cold winds hit it when it was in a different position and some of the leaves went brown. I'm hoping it'll be happier in that more protected spot.

Meanwhile the wallflowers are providing a lovely scent, even though they're beginning to go over now. They come back every year and are messy but so pretty. My mum always insisted on pulling them up each year and then I'd go searching for new plants each spring.

We managed another PSB harvest along with some leeks. Much of the Purple Sprouting Brocolli is covered in yellow flowers now, but I wouldn't be surprised to see another lot of shoots now that I've chopped these off.

I've made leek and chestnut soup, with turmeric, for my lunches. I had to have a taster - delish.

And lastly, we have a frog in the pond on the wildlife plot! I'm not sure if he found his own way there. He may have arrived with a lot of duckweed, which I think the tadpoles will appreciate as protection.

The song title is provided by Weezer - it may have only been 4 days but it felt like a holiday. Bliss!

Hip Hop Hooray!

Another weekend of cold nights but both days the sky was mostly blue and it was pleasant weather to work in. 

Unusual wildlife spotted at Marsh Lane

I managed to finish digging another quarter of Plot7. The digging is ok, but every fork brings up a load of roots - we think they're tree/hedge roots which benefitted from last year's bean trenches. Jamie tidied up after me to remove the lumps and bumps.

That photo makes the earth look awful, but it's not that dry really. Here, this makes it look more like real life. Two quarters dug now.

And I finally planted the three irises from Ivan. They should be happy there with their rhizomes in the sun - hope the slugs steer clear of them; I should clear all that junk behind really but I want to get on with digging and sowing now.

We got up early and walked up the plot both mornings to open the polytunnel door and then sit in the sun for a while before going home and returning for a few hours working in the afternoons.
This is Jamie's photo of our little Robbie. He's feeding his mate now - she's very demanding but sometimes he's too slow and she has to retrieve her own worms. Well, they have to be quick otherwise Mr B (the blackbird, obviously) or the magpies will gobble the lot down too quickly.

 Robbie tried that method but wasn't so successful!

We were sorry to find this broken birds egg - and it seems to be a song thrush. What a great shame that is. We have seen evidence of thrushes in the form of broken snail shells, so they're a most welcome visitor.

We've picked, probably the last, of the purple sprouting brocolli as you can see it's beginning to flower now. That one plant has served us well. Hoping to get more than one plant producing for us this year.

On the way back home on Sunday morning we popped into the Food Festival being held on the Croft Field, a very pretty area in Hungerford near the church and the canal.

There were some nice stalls selling food and plants. We resisted the urge to buy any plants but Jamie wanted some Chilli oil so we came home with this little bundle (but no chilli oil!).

Jamie's planted up our strawberry planter. Three layers with 9 plants. It seems a bit too heavy to hang from the polytunnel frame this year. We really need to clear the strawberry bed where these runners were taken from.

We're expecting some rain this week but the weather is meant to cheer up for Easter's 4-day weekend - hooray! And a 4-day weekend means two 4-day working weeks - hooray! Hooray! Or as the title song by Naughty By Nature - Hip Hop Hooray 😏

14 Years

It was a cold weekend - very cold nights with the temperature falling to -6.8° on Saturday night. We got up early (well, not that early but it felt it!) and walked up to the allotment to open the polytunnel door. 

It's always nice walking through Hungerford on a sunny morning as everyone says "Good morning!" to each other.

And it was so pleasant when we got to site that we just sat by the wildlife plot listening to the birds for a while. The little pond had ice on it on Sunday morning so I'm not surprised the tadpoles stayed low in the pond until the water started to warm up.

Of course, each evening we have to go back to the plot to shut the polytunnel down for the night. Rain threatened, but I'm pleased to say we didn't get a soaking. The site is nicely active at the moment with new and returning plotholders trying to get everything prepared for sowing.

The Delikata mangetout have all germinated. I'll let them grow quite a lot taller before planting them outside, otherwise the pigeons will decimate them - like they do every year. I really need to fix up some better protection but that can make it difficult to pick the pods - oh, decisions, decisions! Some of the PSB and brussels sprouts have also germinated, but sadly some of the tagetes got frostbite even inside the inner polytunnel.

On Sunday I managed to clear and dig the old seating area which had rotten wooden decking over weed suppressant - and a lot of weed growth. It looks like such a small area, but honestly, it was exhausting! That's where I'm putting the three lovely (bearded?) irises that Ivan gave us. They should spread well, he got 23 plants from his one original! They need (something like) 7 hours of sunshine on their rhizomes so mustn't be planted deep, which is why they will have pride of place at the front of the plot.

 

And today's post is remembering 5th April 2008 - a date when someone else's kindness provided me with a new lease of life. This daily cocktail of pills helps to keep my transplant working and my heart healthy so I can get plenty more years from my donated kidney.

Thankyou to all the donors and relatives of donors who choose to opt-in so that their body can help others should the worst happen.The song is provided by Guns n Roses

Making a Fire

The clocks have moved forward an hour, so now we’re in British Summer Time. The blackthorn thinks it’s May already. So beautiful against the blue sky.

It felt really summery on Saturday, I even wore cropped trousers while we had several hours on the plot, with a trip home for lunch. It was nice again Sunday afternoon when the Sun emerged through the mist. We had a bonfire so that kept us toasty for a while. We used the new HAHA incinerator; it's not so shiny now.

And that bonfire spelt the end of the sage plant. I finished clearing the area Saturday so we flattened and levelled it down and Jamie edged it with a plank.

And now our seating area is in its new place; we're going to get some decking or something to put over the weed fabric. So now we can sit watching our own plot growing. I’ve moved the bulb tubs next to the seat, they're mostly grape hyacinth at the moment, but tulips and iris are on their way. Eventually that area will be a flowerbed and I think the area in front, next to the pond, will be for herbs (in pots, so they don't take over the world again!)

Directly in front of the bench is a lovage plant. It’s not been looked after for the last couple of years but it struggles on. I’m hoping it’ll grow tall this year; it can grow to 2m apparently. It has a celery scent, which I love and it can be used in salads, soups and stews.

I used fresh chives for the first time this year. They added a bit of extra colour to this harissa-flavoured What-the-Cluck and peppers meal, served with spinach-coloured noodles. I really like the plant-based chicken-style cluck, but Jamie finds the texture too close to chicken for his liking. He likes the Beyond Meat burger, but for me that is too much like beef.

I had the rest of the What-the-Cluck and peppers with rice and a leek from the allotment - just a bit of garlic salt and pepper was added as flavouring for this meal. Both really tasty and quick meals. I hope we manage to have more home-grown peppers this year.

The birds are full of song at the moment. The robins have paired up and we've seen blackbirds, blue tits, wrens and pied wagtails squabbling meanwhile the kites soar overhead and just keep an eye on what's happening below. We saw a tiny goldcrest the other day (far too nippy to get a photo) and Jamie saw a greenfinch, which is good news as I've not seen one for a few years. The wildlife plot is greening up nicely but there aren't many flowers yet; just the cowslips, some grape hyacinths and a couple of these particularly large-headed daisies. They must have been included in a seed mix.

So that's nearly the end of March and I need to logon to work on this foggy morning - I'm glad I don't have to drive in that. The title song is provided by The Foo Fighters, sorry to have seen that the drummer died at the weekend, but at least he seemed to enjoy his life.

New Life

I was amazed to see how quickly the frogspawn have developed. The frilly bits aren’t legs yet though, they’re external gills. The tadpoles look much more black in real life and are very small. I recorded their arrival on the Pondnet Spawn Survey.

Most of the hatched tadpoles were huddled together eating the remaining spawn jelly. I retrieved some more tadpoles from a puddle before it dried out in the hot March sunshine and put it in the newly- created pond in the bog garden on the HAHA Wildlife plot. It'll look better once there's a bit of growth round the outside and I'll probably buy a plant for in the pond.

When I pointed out the ‘pond’ to a new plotholder he said “I drink my morning cocoa from a mug bigger than that”. Haha, you’ve got to laugh! It may be tiny, but it’s a life saver to some residents at the moment. I’ve put a flat stone in it so the birds may like it too, but I hope they don’t eat the froglets!

We've had a beautiful few days and I was on leave so enjoyed a sunny 4-day weekend. On Friday we visited the Inkpen Crocus Field again - we visited 3 years ago in February and there were more crocuses then, perhaps due to our recent wet and windy weather - the ground was soggy, even at the top of the hill. 

It's so pretty and natural with the crocuses tending to grow individually rather than in clumps, it's quite fascinating and the origin is unknown; I prefer to think of them as from 12th Century crusaders rather than garden escapees.

We walked more than 6km that day; my working-from-home legs aren't used to it! And then for the rest of the weekend we were working on the allotment - quite exhausting, but so lovely to be out in the sunshine.

I showed a couple of new plotholders around and there were lots of people gardening on site. Along with many butterflies (comma, brimstone, tortoiseshell and whites) and bees enjoying the grape hyacinths and the few other flowers that are showing.

Let's hope they do their work on our broad bean flowers which have started to appear. Our bean plants are a really sickly bunch, so small after all the battering by the wind and frost, but we should get a few handfuls of beans eventually.

I spent most of the time working on the area by our pond where the mammoth sage had taken over with a tree-like root. Eventually managed to pull the remaining roots along with the couch grass, raspberry and various other roots - in fact I still have a tiny strip to do. The soil looks quite good, but I'm mostly clearing it for our new seating area.

We've actually sown a few seeds, including mangetout. They're in the polytunnel at the moment. On a couple of the sunny mornings this week I've popped up to the allotment first thing to open up the door. The temperature in the polytunnel has fluctuated between 30° and -3° over the last week! Jamie's been closing up at the end of the day. The mornings are so beautiful up there, it's hard to pull myself away to sit back at my desk, but it is a lovely benefit of home-working.

Seems like I'll be working from home for a while yet, as covid cases are increasing again - not suprising as people don't need to isolate. It seems that a 5th vaccination will be on the cards for immuno-suppressed people... ho hum.. Anway, less of that depressing news... the song title is provided by an extremely young Depeche Mode. Feel free to bop 😉

Scatman

The robin that visits the wildlife plot is so friendly. He eats from a lid in my hand but isn't willing to stand on it; just takes a mealworm hummingbird-style and eats it on the fence. 

We've had two afternoons on the plot. There was a stiff breeze but the sun shone occasionally so it was pleasant. I showed a new couple round yesterday and leased another empty plot this afternoon. It's a good time for new plotholders when there are lots of people on site in the sunshine. 

Jamie sowed some seeds in seed compost that's he's made up from coir, 25% vermiculite and perlite. He's sown some calendula, tagetes and 3 Brussels sprouts into modules. Hopefully they'll be OK to germinate in the polytunnel.

I retrieved some frogspawn from a puddle on an empty plot on 3rd March. Those frogs really should have gone to a pond.

I’m pleased to say that the foetus have developed and they now look quite tadpole-y. I’ve tried to clear the duckweed from our little pond and have put a mesh over the top.

A couple of other people took some of the spawn away to their ponds today.

I’ve been attempting to clear our mammoth sage plant. 

I was going to remove the sage completely but I found a frog so have left some of it. We want to move our seating there this year so we can plant some of Ivan’s iris at the other end of the plot where they should get more sunshine.

Unfortunately the area has couch grass, stinging nettles and raspberry so it was a bit hard going, but it's getting there. I’m hoping to grow Love Lies Bleeding (Amaranthus Caudatus) next to the bench. The long red tassels looked amazing on another person’s plot last year and the birds apparently love the seed. 

Someone else’s plot last July

I may add some to the wildlife plot, which is a segue to share a photo of some poop that we discovered in the straw-filled compost bin on the wildlife plot. 

It appears to be weasel scat. We have seen one on site before, several years ago. We would welcome them on site, though the birds and voles will be less pleased to share their space with them 😒

On that note, the song title is provided by Scatman John 🥳