Too Cold to Hang Around!

A quick visit to the plot this afternoon to pick some leeks for two days dinners. We picked mostly from the ones which had been undercover and a couple from the ones which have been out in the open.

 The covered ones have been generally larger than the uncovered ones. There are only 3 left in the covered section (though they're not covered anymore).

It was bitterly cold - reached 2° with a low of -4° over the last week and there have been dry flakes of sleet falling for the last two days.
No sign of our robin but the female blackbird was staying close and was had puffed up her feathers for warmth.
Had a quick peeop at our over-wintered broad beans which are still looking ok. Some other beans on site have been taken down by the frost - not sure whether that's the variety that was used or because they had grown a bit too tall too early (like ours did last year).

You can see we're not going to be living on broad beans but hopefully we'll get a few early ones...
 

Saturday Snigger

No time or inclination to go to the COLD plot today, so here's a joke - thanks John!

My racing snail wasn't winning any races

I took its shell off to make him more aerodynamic

It didn't work...

If anything, it made him more sluggish

 

 

HAHAHA :-D
(Sorry!)

Two Quarters Dug

I was using up a days leave today and the sun shone! It was about 8° so very pleasantly warm in the sunshine. In fact, it's been so sunny that this dandelion decided it was worth opening its flower - shame it had already been pulled up and was on our spoils heap!

And, amazing, we saw our first butterfly! It flew by a couple of times but was going so fast we couldn't identify it - it looked like tortoiseshell-type colours.
Our rhubarb is looking very feeble! I took the cover off it so it can get a little sunshine. It's only its first year though, so we're not expecting it to produce anything this year - except maybe one stalk for some rhubarb vodka!


That is IT!



For the next couple of hours Jamie spent time re-building the frame for our leeks and shallots and I moved the frame for the peas - this year we're growing mange tout and petit pois.
Then for the rest of the afternoon I was digging over the second quarter - where our potatoes are going this year. The earth was pretty easy to dig (though my back is suffering!) and it didn't need a serious dig as we'll be digging trenches for the spuds as usual anyway.

It looked good when we left though so we're half way there - with Plot 7. Plot 8 will be more taxing...

 

Weeding in the sun

Another dry day and today with sunshine - we really are feeling spoilt!

This was taken at about 5:00

We saw our first ladybird of the year - it appeared to be hibernating on an old brassica stalk. It's a harlequin ladybird.

We had a couple of hours on the plot, just doing some tidying and clearing. So many weeds and so much grass :-( At least it's not too hard pulling them free from the ground as it's been so wet.
Our robin had his nose (beak) put out of joint today by a very cocky female blackbird who was happy to hop very close to pinch worms that 'Robbie' would have had. He was around too but didn't get the first pick of worms :-)

We went home with leeks for tea - still quite a few left in the ground.

Wildlife blog updated with some of today's finds

 

More Days like this, please!

That's more like it! Three days with no rainfall. We've had an inch of rain since our last visit to the plot a week ago -- evidence in the form of our new rain gauge...

It was so good to be digging the plot and having other plotholders to watch and talk to for a change!

The ground is muddy but very diggable (doesn't look like a word, but we know what it means!) and last year's potato quarter looks pretty much ready for this years onions now - we're expecting Thompson & Morgan to deliver our Santero F1 onion sets very soon, joining the garlic which is looking good - 15 bulbs have sprouted.


Garlic shooting up well

While Jamie was doing most of the digging I was clearing away the beets which had grown to mammoth size. Although Boltardy I can't think that they wouldn't be woody so they'll be thrown away but I left them on a spare bit of plot for the mice to enjoy for a bit. As I was pulling them I saw a lot of centipedes, spiders and slugs. Hopefully the birds will deal with clearing the slugs and the slug eggs we found. See the Wildlife blog for more

 

Asteroids and Meteors

After the amazing footage of the meteorite falling in Russia this morning I'd been looking forward to seeing the DA14 asteroid this evening from the well-placed allotment site.

Russia, not Hungerford

We took our flask of coffee, binoculars, camera, sky map and star map Android app along with a little rum and settled in the container at about 7:30 ready for the start of the 'show' at 7:50.
It was a fabulous night for star gazing. Lovely and clear with a newish moon not causing too much light. The DA14 asteroid passed between Earth and some satellites but it's only small so not visible to human eye without at least binoculars.

DA14 asteroid image

The moon looked great through the binoculars and Jupiter was shining brightly. Sadly, finding the planned location of the asteroid wasn't as simple as that. My hands were shaking so much with the chill that I could barely make out the stars of the plough constellation through the binoculars. So, tracking down the star M94 and the asteroid near that was an impossible task!
So, we returned home fairly quickly, just as clouds began to cover the sky. Never mind, we'll stick to going out for the perseids in August when it's warmer and easier to spot!

Chitting Spuds for 2013

So, here's the essential blog photo :-)
All our seed potatoes chitting at my mum's house - in the nice, cold, light spare room.
Here's the psychedelic picture to identify the different varieties...

This is what they really look like:

And these are all our kestrels - probably more than we want, but there's always the spares table at the allotment site. We bought these from the Wyvale Garden Centre where they were stored in a much warmer room, hence the chits already forming.

 

 The earlies definitely benefit from chitting, as we want lots of little spuds to form but maincrops don't really need to chit in advance of being planted. However, it would be too early to put them in the ground now - apart from the fact that it's soaking wet!

Selecting potatoes and a Soggy Plot

It snowed all morning and was extremely cold and wet so we went shopping for our potatoes as planned.

We went to Charlton Park Garden Centre in Wantage as the owner is a bit of a connoisseur. We were able to select individual spuds for 15p each so this is what we chose (the links go to the British Potato database):

• 2 x Accent (First Earlies)
• 3 x Casablanca (First Earlies that look so lovely I had to have some)
• 3 x Arran Pilot (First Earlies Have such good reviews we thought we'd try them)
• 5 x Pentland Javelin (First Earlies seem to have the best reviews from what we've seen)
• 3 x Red Duke of York (First Earlies Not great last year but fancy some red new potatoes)
• 2 x Bonnie (Second Earlies)
• 3 x International Kidney (Second Earlies)
• 20 (ish) x Kestrels (Second Earlies - these are our favourite for mash and all-rounder)
• 4 x Orla (Early Maincrop so tasty, so hopefully more successful than last year's failed crop)

We selected based on slug/disease resistance, our experience and on reviews we've seen on the internet - along with a certain amount of shallowness based on colour :-) We really would have liked a few Chopin as they were very good last year, but they were sold out.
We also bought a small bag of Golden Gourmet shallots.

In the afternoon we popped up the soggy plot to take up a replacement rain gauge - our last one melted as I forgot about it when I lit a bonfire.
As we walked home we spotted some great wood left by the industrial estate skip, so we picked it up and walked back to the plot - it'll be perfect for growing my onion squash (uchiki kuri) over, which will save ground space and might serve some protection against slugs.
I was pleased to see that our chives are growing happily through the snow and cold, so we'll have some with our new potatoes - mmm, can't wait but will leave them chitting round my mum's house for a few weeks yet!

 

Composting keeps you warm!

A day off work meant we could have a few hours on the plot. It felt reasonably warm and the sun even shone for a bit. 

Terns flying overhead

There was a lot of birdlife, particularly the kestrel, robin, terns, pheasants and pigeons. Also the red kite was swooping and calling; It was beautiful.



We pulled up the remains of the sprouts - these parts can't be composted, they'll take too long to rot down.

We spent a few hours sorting out the compost bins. We took all the soggy compost from both plastic bins and mixed it with dry cuttings, plot clearance and lots of recycled cardboard from home. 

Just part of the mix

After a good mix it completely filled one bin (which can be left for a year) and the remainder went in the other bin.
Plot 7 is beginning to look like it's getting ready for planting but there's still a lot to be done. The ground is still so wet, far too claggy to walk on really. We're hoping to buy our spuds tomorrow as more rain is due so we won't be on the plot.

Weeding and Digging

Looks pretty doesn't it?

Not so good when you see it in less detail, though still vaguely pleasing to the eye ....

But just horrible when you see it in real life!

Ugh. Weeds, moss. mud and spring onion remains. All thriving under the netting which we hadn't cleared away.

Now, I'd love to write the identity of this moss, but as is always the case when you start looking into these things, you find it's a much larger subject than you may originally think! Suffice to say, there's a LOT of moss in the UK!

I'm pleased to say that by the time we left the plot today the area was weed free, dug and looking much more loved - we're hoping that the moss will just die off and the birds can eat up any slug eggs they find!

Wildlife blog updated

Planning for this year (Part One)

We didn't make it to the plot yesterday - shame as it was a sunny day but we've just got too many germs between us to bear going out in the cold!

So, we did a bit of planning. We've drawn up part of this years plan - the basics for Plot 7.
We're going to be moving more plantings to Plot 8B - the sweetcorn will be over there, with the jack-o-lantern pumpkins growing through them...
The celeriac will also go back on Plot 8B - possibly in the same spot as last year but this year I'm growing from seed. Ditto for fennel; I need to read up a bit about how/where to grow it. Last year I sowed it in the herb bed, because I didn't realise the difference between herb fennel and the big bulb type I want for soup.

On Plot 7 I'm thinking of having some sort of trellis for the Uchiki Kuri squash - but this definitely needs a bit more work!

Another new vegetable for us this year is salsify. I've seen that it doesn't need a lot of work and stays in the ground till October/November so I'm not too sure where that will go yet - maybe in with the parsnips - but that is a very busy quarter already!

Hmm, writing this has made me realise we need to do a lot more planning - I'll call this blog entry 'part one'!

British Weather and British Birds

The sun was shining and it was considerably warmer than it has been for more than a week (about 8°) so we were really pleased to go to the allotment to do the RSPB Birdwatch.

These are our figures:

•   Robin: 1
•   Magpie: 1
•   Pigeon: 3
•   Rook: 10
•   Chaffinch: 3
•   Blue Tit: 1
•   Great Tit: 1

I was disappointed that there wasn't much birdlife around ... the blackbirds didn't show up and we sometimes have a whole flock of long-tailed tits in the hedge but they were a no-show too.

We did a bit of digging and tidying while we were there. Jamie dug the parsnip plot and dug up the rotten parsnips - which were all we had to show of the ones we sowed last year. He then added a bit of the 6X compost and dug it in - this is where the peas/mangetout are going this year.

I cleared weeds from the plot where purple Congo potatoes had re-grown. I found some reasonable tubers which I brought home. We're a bit concerned that it may not be too obvious whether they're blighty (because of their dark colour), but will take a look.
It's still too wet for proper digging - can't step on the soil without taking more home than we leave behind!

We decided to pick our leeks and sprouts just as it started to spot with rain. Two minutes later there was torrential rain, hail and strong winds so we had to run to the container for cover! On returning to the plot to return the leek cage to its proper place we found this...

...a broken leek cage and a broken sprout cage! Well, it was very strong wind!!
We covered them as best we could and went home wet, cold and a little bit more miserable than we had been 15 minutes earlier!

NB. Wildlife blog also has an update

 

The Horticultural Channel & Big Garden Birdwatch

The Horticultural Channel is an online gardening channel, based on an allotment. The weekly short programme is entertaining and informative. In episode 3 of the new series of Sean's Allotment Garden Sean used some of the footage of the Marsh Lane snow video from my recent post.

It may make Marsh Lane plotholders a bit jealous when you see all the sheds and greenhouses that Sean's allotment has - we're not allowed any structures on Marsh Lane which I think is a shame. It would be great to get started a bit earlier and a shed, aahh, a shed - would so love to have a shed for storage and for sitting in when it gets rainy (rather than having to dash up to the communal container!)



The episode also includes information for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch - we intend to do some bird counting on the allotment tomorrow...

Sign the National Allotment Petition

The introduction of this strategy would really help those of us who’s allotments are owned by private landlords.

Our Council is due to renew the lease next year - it expires in April 2014 - and we’re getting very concerned that the Council don’t appreciate the urgency of getting the renewal sorted out sooner rather than later…
https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/44634

Myself and the rest of our committee are trying their best but it would be so much better to have weightier support...
http://www.haha-hungerford.org.uk/



Snow Day!!

The forecasters were right! It started snowing at about 6pm yesterday and is still snowing - amazing!
I set off for work but after taking about about an hour to go 8 miles decided not to attempt the A34 so headed back home.

After warming up a bit and piling on some extra layers we ventured out into the beautiful, quiet and white Hungerford. We walked to the allotment via Freemans Marsh as it's such a pretty route and even more so when it's covered in so much snow!

No-one else had been on the site so it looked amazing. Jamie put some cheese and nuts out for the robin but we didn't see him. We saw terns and magpies over the allotment and two egret and swans amongst the birdlife on the marsh.

The snow continued to fall all the while we were there so we were happy to have a hot chocolate in the container and then I took the little video. I really must remember to move more slowly when filming - sorry if it makes you travel sick!

 

 

Frosty and Cold

Jamie visited the plot to take some compost up and get a spade, as snow (and lots of it) has been forecast for tomorrow. The forecasters may be right - it's snowing as I type this.

It was a bit frosty and cold. The minimum temperature had been -5° with a maximum of 4°. The compost was frozen - hopefully the worms were snuggled in the warm centre but the slugs weren't!

All the while he was there he was being watched by a kestrel - a very fluffy kestrel. Apologies for shakey pic but Jamie was chilly :-)

 

Another Day; Another Load of Manure

We couldn't resist going back to Hilliers and this visit we bought 5 bags of Country Natural composted stable manure - all organic. We also picked up another free bag of grape hyacinth bulbs so I've planted all of them next to our seating area. It may be a bit late for them to do much this Spring, but what have we got to lose?

That should keep our spuds, raspberries and rhubarb happy - Jamie already surrounded the rhubarb with some today. Our rhubarb is just poking out from under the ground but is still under its protective cover. Other people on site have rhubarb which has grown substantially more than ours, but we did only plant ours in July.

The snow warnings continue but it was a bright, cold day today (about 6° with still a minimum of only zero). Cleaning off the veg in (literally) icy is water is not nice! Malcolm kindly gave us some lovely parsnips for tonight's dinner and I've got soup planned for lunches. And Jamie picked some sprouts and leeks.

We did a bit of plot planning and then had to escape the chill. Really need to go through our seeds and do a real plan - maybe one evening this week...

New Shoots in the New Year!

We had a quick visit to the plot today - first visit this year! The weather has been so awful. There have been a couple of days in the last week when it didn't rain but the site is still pretty saturated. And today we had a few flakes of snow amongst the rain - it's meant to go wintry over the next few days. It was 4° whilst we were on the plot and the minimum this year has been 0° but apart from this weekend it's been incredibly mild, more like 8° to 10° day and night! Crazy!


Had to blur the surround so that the shoot actually stood out!

We were very pleased that our garlic has finally sprouted. They're a bit tricky to spot but there were at least 8 shoots - they were planted on 21st October!

The actual reason we went to the plot was to drop off some Countrycare Mushroom Compost and 6X Natural Fertiliser. We're thinking that the ground will need plenty of added nutrients this year because of all the rain washing away last years. We shopped at Hilliers Garden Centre - it was a bit of a bargain as they've got a 20% sale for their gardening club members at the moment and we also got a free bag of grape hyacinth bulbs!

The bags of compost will be stored on top of the sprout plot until it's time to dig it - this keeps the ground compacted which sprouts like. (Although at the moment the bags may just sink into the mud!!)

New Wildlife Blog

Since having the allotment our interest in the various wildlife that we've encountered has increased. Naturally, once you start noticing the different beasties it's just a small step to investigating further...


http://plot7wildlife.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/common-green-shieldbug.html

As a result I have created a new blog about the wildlife on the Marsh Lane site (not only, but mostly, on our plots). The blog contains photos and information about the creatures we're living alongside. I have identified what I can and include links to some of the brilliant sites which have proved invaluable in trying to work out how I should feel about seeing some of the creatures!


http://plot7wildlife.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/vapourer-moth-caterpillar.html

I'll continue to mention wildlife in this main Plot7 blog but Plot7Wildlife will have more details and photos.
Pay a visit, follow, link and comment as you see fit :-) I welcome any comments, advice or corrections!

http://plot7wildlife.blogspot.co.uk/

 

The Sun's Shining

It really does feel like a new year!