Come on Strawbs!

Well, we got some rain! Quite a lot of it this morning (2.5mm) so we didn't get to Marsh Lane until after lunch; by then you'd hardly notice that it had rained.
We fed Robbie who is very busy feeding his chicks but still not ready for them to be photographed and Mrs Blackbird is squeezing as much as possible into her beak to take off to a nest somewhere.

I'm keeping a close eye on the strawberries - it can't be too much longer to wait now, surely...!
I transplanted some chard seedlings. I tried to be a bit selective so the multi-coloured stems show at their best. I like chard in salads but Jamie's not keen, so I don't grow much and I grow a new crop each year rather than leaving it in the ground.

We spent most of the time, yesterday and today, working on the new HAHA plot. We've nearly cleared all the weeds. We're going to grow unusual veg - the types of things you won't find in the supermarket. We hope to have enough for the HAHA stand at the Hungerford Food Festival at the end of September - that's the plan.
Look at these pretty weeds - not on our plot or the HAHA one I hasten to add!

 

More sunshine and sitting

Here's a photo of the plots from the other angle. I love these overheads shots - taken by putting the camera on timer and attaching it to the end of an 8-ft bamboo cane! It's a bit hit&miss, sometimes the photos line up, but there are also a lot at very jaunty angles :-) I'm taking a few around the site and adding to our Facebook page to show off all the hard work of the plotholders.

It was another scorcher today. Jamie mowed the grass around our plots while I mixed up the remainder of the manure which we collected and it's now bagged up for when we need it.
We spent most of our time on the site today working on the new HAHA plot. We've moved it to a1-pole plot near the communal area. We cleared a lot of the weeds but have a long way to go yet....

We also spent a lot of time chatting - lucky our actual plots aren't by a communal seat otherwise we'd never get anything done!

Watching/Growing/Planting/Sowing

Wow! What a great week to be on leave! Such a lovely sunny day that even the wind was warm.

Jamie potted up the three peppers, using a sand and potting compost mix. They're in pots on weed suppressant near the tomatoes.

I planted a row of French marigolds between the carrots and parsnips. And put a staggered row of pot marigolds (calendula) alongside the tomatoes.
The salsify is barely visible but they all seem to have germinated. Here's a macro-shot of it - very easy to miss or mistake for grass!

The French beans haven't appeared (well one did) so I sowed some into individual pots and have left them in the greenhouse to germinate. I also sowed a tray of Winter cabbage Tundra in modules which should be fine germinating outside, under netting.

At last we've also sown a root trainer tray of Sweetcorn supersweet which are under the grow light at home.

A little bit of Robbie news - his chicks have fledged. We saw two sitting on the fence and Robbie was feeding them both. One of them did a circuit round our plot, but didn't land. Hopefully I'll get a photo of the family soon.
At one point Robbie was sitting on our bench and was letting out a really high-pitched sound but frozen in position. When we looked about we saw that the kestrel was on the telegraph wires watching. Once the kestrel flew away Robbie started feeding again.
That reminded me to fill in the Kestrel Survey online!

A Bit of Planting

Another lovely sunny day started with us collecting two bags and a bucketful of horse manure from beside the road at Liddington. We've driven past the 'free manure' sign so many times!

So, when we got to the plot I dug nice deep holes and filled them with the manure. I planted the Uchiki Kuri plants by the trellis and put the Floridor yellow (round courgette) in the legume quarter.

I want to put the green courgette where the lettuce are, but that can wait a bit.

The watering system is a plastic bottle with a length of pipe attached; the aim being to let the water seep down to the roots rather than running off the surface. I've used flower pots for the same purpose by the trellis.

The hole on plot 8b is waiting for the Cornell's Bush Delicata, which eventually germinated but is nowhere ready to be planted yet.

While I was doing that Jamie planted up the tomato plants. He's put a cane through into the ground to stop them toppling over and we loosely attached the plant to it. They're looking rather unhappy with their browning leaves but hopefully they'll cheer up in the big pots full of Tomorite grow bags... we'll see...

 

Two Visits to the Plot

We got to the plot for sunrise. We intended to get there before the birds started their chorus but we were too late. They were singing beautifully all the while we were there and we could hear the cuckoo across the marsh. It was a beautiful morning; just a few clouds and when the sun rose they were a fabulous colour (the photo doesn't do them justice).


5am

The sun reaches the the western hedge well before it lights up our plot.

The hedges round the site are looking beautiful at the moment with their shiny new foliage. The hawthorn with its may blossom is particularly stunning up close. This photo isn't photo-shopped, it's the morning sunlight giving it the pinky hue.

We went back home for a couple of hours and then returned to site about lunchtime. A lovely warm day and although windy at the top of site we found it to be quite still at our plots.

Plants in waiting

I planted up the celeriac - 2 rows about 30cm apart.

Yes, I cheated. My seed-sown celeriac is too pathetic so I bought a tray at the Garden Centre. I'm sure more germinated than are in the tray but something is nibbling them and it's just too slow growing.

Jamie took the netting off the onions and weeded all round them and dug up the persistent potatoes!

The strawberry plants, which we're growing next to our seat for the birds to eat, are looking healthy and, along with the chives, are bringing bees and hoverflies in.

Robbie came to join us as usual and watches our every move. No sign of his youngsters yet; he's still taking them plenty of worms.