Mostly beasties & phenomenon

Well, we got up to the allotment at 4:15am ready and waiting for the 'supermoon' only to be disappointed because there was thick cloud cover - such a shame, it could have been a goodun!
We fleeced up our potatoes yesterday expecting a frost but due to the clouds there wasn't one though it was pretty chilly - that was an amazing thing too; the temperature was 5.5° at about 5:15am then it dropped suddenly to 2.8° just before the sun rose (though we couldn't see it).

Being at Marsh Lane for the dawn chorus, including a very noisy cuckoo, was fabulous. The birds are going crazy at the moment - we've been watching a robin feed his mate over the last couple of days. She's quite demanding!

This male blackbird was warming itself on the warm stones pile

Anyway, after that early start we did get back up the plot later today to do a bit of faffing and chatting.
Here are some pictures of interesting beasties I snapped yesterday and today.

A queen wasp who got splashed with dirty water, so she was cleaning her antennae

One of the many crane flies around site at the moment

I think this is a 16-spot ladybird - really tiny, ~3mm

I posted the ladybird to the UK Ladybird survey site as I'm not absolutely certain of it's identity.

Mostly talking onions

We had a great day on the allotment - several hours of pottering around and chatting to fellow plot holders. Even had time to burn a lot of old weeds and bamboo canes (we checked very carefully for ladybirds and other good guys first).
We put our bean wigwam up - just 6 x 8ft canes. That's enough runner beans for us; plus plenty to give away at work!
I spent much of the time weeding, particularly around the onion plot. The seedlings are growing happily now.

Oarsman leeks

Silverskin & 'White Lisbon' Spring Onions

Spring onions, silverskin onions and leeks seedlings all look similar with the same bent-over grass blade look - the first year we took on the plot we thought they were grass, until we pulled them out and the smell of onion was really strong even with a tiny seedling - luky otherwise the whole row would have been pulled up!!

The shallots are dividing well - some of the leaves appear to have signs of downy mildew (the curse that we had with onions last year). Not too suprising given the weather but hopefully it won't cause too much damage...

And the onions are looking happy too - though when we got home I noticed this little hole in the onion leaf - well, we know there's always some insect that wants to get at our produce before us!!

Growing, growing and eating

Popped up the plot after work to see how things were looking. The cabbage and sprout seedlings  look healthy. We'll move them out of the cloche but under netting in the next week or so - depending on the weather.

Cabbage seedling

Marigolds & sweet peas

The eating in the title isn't by us yet, sadly! However, we've got so many marigold seedlings we can afford to lose a few to the abundance of slugs!

Evidence!

And we found this evidence of a mouse's work in the cloche! Funny (sorry Neal) thing is that the broad bean seemed to have been taken from our neighbour's plot to be enjoyed in the dry! 

Neal's beans nibbled down to ground level

The turnip seeds have germinated and the whole first row of potatoes (Belana and Chopin) are above the ground now.

Spuds are up!

A walk in the pouring rain naturally took us under the railway bridge, through the lake which is Marsh Lane and on to the allotment.

The torrential rain and wind had blown some netting around the site but our plot was all in one piece - you can see how much it rained overnight and this morning from our rain gauge - amazing!

And we were pleased to see our first potatoes (Belana) have poked their first leaves out of the ground - knew they'd appreciate the rainfall! That's 3 weeks since they went in.

When we got home I sowed 3 Cape Gooseberries in the bedroom cloche - we bought the dwarf variety otherwise they can grow like crazy - especially if we do get the dry hot summer we're expecting!

Nice weather for snails

Soooo wet and chilly! We transplanted all the marigolds into the bigger trays and I sowed some calendula and put them all in the cloche.
We mulched around the raspberries with well rotted horse manure from Andy at work and took the bottle cloches off the broad beans which are big enough to look after themselves now.

That was enough - as it was we spent more than half the time in the container just watching the birds and enjoying watching the rain from under cover! It sure is getting a good soaking!

Seedlings (& slugs)

Quick visit to the plot after work to see how it's managing after the windy/rainy/sunny week that we've had.


About 10cm of rain

The perspex over the beets had blown across the plot but the beet seedlings are looking happy enough so they should be alright without that protection - I'll sow a few more seeds to fill the gaps.


Boltardy Beets

The silverskin onions carrots and parsnips have all got nice little seedlings growing now. All onion seedlings have the bent over tops so they're easy to spot amongst weeds; carrots are a bit more tricky but if you pull one (even when they're this tiny) they already taste carroty!


Silverskin onions

Early Nantes carrots

The seedlings in the cloches are looking good too though I think we may have to arm ourselves with more slug pellets - this rain is really encouraging them to be out and about, dining on our lettuce seedlings!

Happy St Georges Day (for tomorrow!)

We managed to get some work done today before we got drenched and had to run for cover in the container.

Jamie cleared the area where the leonaris flowers are going to be planted - four of the six seeds have germinated at home in the cloche now. He was attempting to clear all the raspberry plants which have re-appeared since the area was last cleared!

I sowed a row of Oasis turnips - we had some last year. They are meant to taste of melon; not too sure of that description but they are a tasty treat whilst at the plot and they're nice in salads.

We sowed ten Speedy dwarf beans in paper potter pots and put them in the cloche. I also filled the gaps where some of the broad beans haven't yet come up.
There were several terns flying around - they make a lot of noise over the canal and Freemans Marsh. They seem to fight a lot!

Tern

We got the flag up for St Georges Day and then went home with very wet clothes :-(

Potato planting and other stuff

Jamie did all the work today. I've got a cold so just flitted about and mostly sat down enjoying the sunshine. It's definitely April - we've had some torrential showers over the last few days but managed to avoid them all this morning.

That meant that Jamie was able to plant the two remaining rows of potatoes - both about 6" deep with grass/paper at the bottom of the trench and then the usual bag of farmyard manure. These two rows have Kestrel, Orla and the last Duke of York Red (which we intend to leave in as a maincrop).

We were joined by a lot of robins and blue tits on the plot today - the robins are getting very cocky and are willing to pinch worms from a couple of feet away from us now. I spotted the kestrel and he sat on the telegraph wires long enough for me to get this pic of him. It's a bit blurred as I had to zoom in but his lovely pinky plumage really stands out when he's flying over the site.

Kestrel

Most of our seeds are emerging now, including some silverskin onions, beets, cabbages, sprouts, sweet peas, salad crops. No sign of the parsnips, leeks or spring onions but we've found them to be quite slow to germinate previously.
We need to work out our sowing plan for the rest of these busy weeks now, then we can sit back and wait for food :-)

Various forms of life

Well, one week after sowing and the marigolds are already up! If only everything was so quick to germinate - all round site you can see people peering into pots and cloches! One cabbage has showed itself and maybe a carrot but nothing else has appeared yet...

Marigold seedlings

I sowed a few rainbow chard directly into the ground, Jamie doesn't like it and I don't eat it much so really no need to plant more than a few plants - I put the cloches on to protect them from weather and birds for a while. I've added some protection to my row of beets - I thought I saw a seedling there yesterday but it's not there today :-( This bit of perspex may put pigeons off and may help a little with germination.

Much of the afternoon was spent clearing our compost - we did it in January but one bin in particular was rather wet. We took most of the compost out of both bins and mixed it all with some grass cuttings, a bit of manure and lots of broken up corrugated cardboard - that should aerate it and help the worms and many other creatures to help break down the compost.

Took this photo to see how quickly it rots down

It was amazing seeing all the life in there - worms, beetles, slugs, tiny mites and millipedes.

Mini millipede

I also found this nice looking butterfly. He (I think it's a male) was resting on the stone pile around the edge of the site. This one's larvae should steer clear of our plot and eat more hedgerow-type plants - including couch grass!
We've seen very few butterflies but lots of bees and ladybirds so far this year.

Speckled Wood Butterfly

Flying visit

Had a little visit to the plot after work yesterday. We thought we were going to get caught in a thunderstorm but it avoided Marsh Lane.
It rained all day on Monday but it barely showed on the ground so we could certainly do with more rain - but hopefully it will come at night, mostly :-)
At last there's life in the broad beans plot - they were sowed in 18th March and we'd almost given up on them!
I put slug pellets in the salad cloche and it seems to have helped so far. However, still one lonely little stem in there!!

These particular slug pellets contain Iron-III Phosphate which bio-degrades in the soil to be used by plants