Time

February has begun mostly grey, wet and rather windy, but at least it's not January; such a long month - I'm really trying not to wish the months away but it's hard! We're keen to get started now, though it's too soggy to do much, so instead we did a bit of online shopping this morning, from Dobies of Devon. Here are a few of the basics that we'll be growing...

We've opted for grafted tomato plants again - they produce so many fruits and Aviditas is the sweetest, most delicious variety we grew last year. I also have some stripey tomatoes and these 'redcurrant tomatoes' look interesting. It seems they may be tricky to grow, so we've ordered plug plants rather than seeds.

And I ordered a few flowers for the plots too. The silky ones look very pretty and are good for bees apparently. I hope they aren't good for slugs! We're hoping that the frosty weather has set back the mollusk population this Winter - we can see evidence that the thrushes have.
I need to start thinking about sowing these quite soon.

The sun came out in the afternoon so we walked up to the plot. There were quite a few other plotholders enjoying the sunshine and making plans for the year. Jamie and I have planned what's-going-where on our plots. Well, it's a first draft; it's bound to change and more plants will get on our list...

We walked home as the sun dipped low and it started to get chilly.
Aah, here's a dance-along track from 'Jungle' to provide the soundtrack for today's title.

Three Little Birds

I was intending to join in with the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, but the birds didn't want to join us on the wet, dreary day so I'll have to give it a miss this year - of course the robin, blackbirds and magpies were there, but not enough to hang around for an extra hour to do the counting :-(

We've had a week with two excuses for celebrations. Last night we celebrated the Chinese new year of the Rooster - that little Buddha was bought for us in Malaysia and has blessed us with green fingers (apparently) so he's always a welcome addition to a celebration. Earlier in the week was Burn's Night, with a delicious Stahly vegetarian haggis - really, if you see one in a shop you must buy it! So tasty!

The plot looks unloved so it was good to do quite a bit of tidying and most importantly our garlic is planted!

We pulled all the weeds, topped it off with last year's potato bags and added a bit of manure. That looks better doesn't it? (Jamie's raking, not mine obviously)

We've now got 30 cloves of Cristo softneck garlic. I really wanted hardneck, but am just glad it's in at last! We surrounded each clove with some organic onion fertiliser - shouldn't take long for the rain to soak that in.

Much of the chard that's left is a soggy mess, I always sow afresh each year. These pink stems were gleaming out through the greyness of the day so I picked a few of those lovely fresh new leaves. I may add them to my carrot soup, if they aren't too bitter.

Today's song is provided by Bob Marley - "don't worry about a thing".

 

All the Plans...

...were thwarted by solid ground today. I was hoping that at least the raised bed would be protected enough to dig, as it wasn't frosted on the top. However, within a couple of centimetres the earth was full of frost - so not the time to be digging in preparation for garlic...

All this frost is good for clearing the nasties from the earth and it's nice to feel the Sun on your face, so, instead of working, we had a couple of hours on the plot chatting to our allotment buddy, Malcolm, and watching the wildlife around us. One particular thrush wasn't too bothered by our presence and seems to be making a good job of clearing the snails, judging by the many empty shells.

I did manage to break through the ground to pick two parsnips which I'm currently turning into soup.

There is some canker (Itersonilia pastinacae) on them, but plenty of parsnip left when that's chopped out. I think the canker is a result of the soil on plot 3, it's very compacted. Or it may be because of pest damage...

We're surprised to see that the Valerian has sprouted again on Plot 3. It didn't produce any flowers last year and we thought the Winter would spell it's demise, but it's looking quite healthy and pretty with pink foliage - strange, as the leaves were completely green on the plants last year. Will be interesting to see if it flowers this year..

I've now made parsnip and pea soup, with garlic and rosemary. Unfortunately we don't have any frozen peas, so I spent some time picking the peas out of a bag of frozen mixed veg! Not very satisfactory really. My soup wasn't as green as the recipe I saw online which put the idea in my head... Next time I definitely need more peas.

Starsailor are providing today's title...

Cold Day in the Sun

With sub-zero temperatures and frosty nights over the last week we weren't expecting to do anything on the plot today, but decided to walk up to feed the birds in the afternoon.

The sun was shining and the sky was such a fabulous blue that we opted to walk along the towpath which was frozen solid, as was the canal!

There was evidence that some boats had moved but most were moored in sunnier spots with their heaters on and doors shut down.

There were lots of thrushes, robins and wrens on the allotment - quite a bit of squabbling too as they try to protect their territories.

The sun's heat had managed to melt the top layer of frost, but where the heat didn't get through there were interesting things to look at:

A frosty brick, looking like a frozen landscape in miniature

Puddles which had frozen - is this a spanish galleon?...

Then melted and re-frozen trapping the air bubbles in bizaare shapes (I'm pretty sure there's a sea creature in there).

We left before the sun went down. I got up before the sun today, specifically to take photos of the steamy River Dun from the A4 bridge. It was beautiful, but so cold!

And today's song title is brought to you by Foo Fighters...

Tonight, Tonight

I couldn't find a song titled 'cheesy, sprouty nosh' so... can you guess what we're having for dinner tonight, tonight?

Lovely Brussels sprouts straight from the plot, mixed with fried Quorn lardons. We've had some frosty weather, even some snow, so the flavour should have been enhanced by that.

Covered in cheese sauce and topped with grated cheddar and chopped nuts - mmm, yum.

We aren't going to get a chance to work on the plot this weekend, but I'm hoping that by next weekend a raised bed will be ready for garlic planting. We haven't planned this year's seeds yet but these were delivered this week...

Here's the lovely Smashing Pumpkins video from the title...