Cold Cold Cold

Well the north wind did blow and we did get a dusting of snow (although some may call it sleet). It wasn't enough to have fun in but it made the rooftops look pretty.

The old Hungerford Fire Station - 'Hungerford Volunteer Fire Brigade' from 1910.

We avoided being outside too much today by going to Wantage to buy our seed potatoes - Charlton Park Garden Centre is great because they sell individual tubers for 17p each. And there are so many varieties to choose from...

We opted for Orla, Kestrel, Chopin, Desiree and Burgundy Red - most will be grown in bags. We don't grow masses nowadays. When we first took on the allotment we grew 2 full rows, but we don't store them and there were far too many.

Yesterday we stayed on the plot for a little while so Jamie cleaned the bird bath and I cleared old pots in the greenhouse. This is a little video of a bird singing - well, it's the sound of a great tit but I couldn't actually spot the bird and had to look up the song when I got home - you can see the snow though :-)

The bulbs are making their way up through the soil. The garlic I planted last month are being pulled up by birds so each visit I have to push them back into the ground. They'll be fine though once the roots get a grip in the ground.

We visited the plot twice this weekend - to feed the birds and pick some veg. We've taken the netting off the sprouts now, so the pigeons will probably clear the plants off and the blackbirds and thrushes can clear away any under the plants to clear any pests that the cold temperatures haven't killed off. (Fingers crossed)

Today's song title is very apt and is provided by 'Cage the Elephant'.

Its Not Right, but Its OK

Actually, it's very tasty! But it doesn't look like the vegetable soup I was expecting it to look like..

For a change I decided to make a watery-type soup rather than blitzing the ingredients. I fancied the idea of tasting the individual vegetables - just one of each. The other leeks are for dinner tomorrow night and one of the parsnips had such bad canker that most of it was composted. 

I chopped the carrot and parsnip very small (maybe too small) and added it to the stock with a little rosemary and thyme. I added the leek after about 40 mins.

So, the top photo looks like a real vegetable soup, but this is what it looks like in the jug - a bit too much veg I think and I was expecting it to be suspended rather than sunken! However, the taste is good and the ingredients are fresh and that's the main thing...

So, over to Whitney Houston for the song...

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...