Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts

Monday 6 November 2023

The Only One I Know

Looks like an aerial photo of a desert landscape doesn’t it? Oh, just me?
It’s been quite the opposite, so much rainfall over the last week. Our 50mm raingauge had over-flowed, but I appreciate that we’ve been lucky compared to some parts of the country which are still flooded as the ground is so saturated.

We had some lovely blue sky yesterday (Sunday). Some tiny showers threatened more rain, but the wind blew the clouds away and we had a pleasant couple of hours clearing the sweetcorn patch. If the weather stays mild the weeds will love that patch of bare soil! You can see how much the grass is growing and the Calendula are still providing spots of colour.
Most of the other flowers are just seedheads now, although the verbena bonariensis still have a purple tinge and the Nicotiana has a few flowers protected under the glass table.
This seems rather unexpected in November - we’re still eating our tomatoes! They eventually turned red after being at home for a few weeks and are so tasty providing bruschetta lunches. There's home-grown basil on there but the Spring Onions are shop-bought - we simply can't grow them without slugs demolishing them. I sowed 2 long rows this year, but not one was fit to eat 😞 Any ideas?
Anyway, as you can tell, there’s not really much going on. Which is why I was staring at a plank for much of the time. 
But what a plank! The moss is certainly enjoying the decaying wood. There are at least 4 different species that I can see on there.

So, here are a few moss facts: moss is a type of bryophyte (along with liverworts and hornworts) and there are over 1000 species in Britain and Ireland! The British Bryological Society (formerly known as The Moss Exchange Club) is celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year. 

Mosses can be found almost anywhere in the World, from deserts to the arctic but Britain's warm-ish, wet (getting wetter) climate is perfect for lots of species. This is the only one that I think I can recognise and name at the moment - Grymmia Pulvinata. The little things that look like flower buds, setae, turning back into the pincushion are the defining feature. Cute.
So that provided the song title - sung by The Charlatans. Sing along - marvellous.

Tuesday 10 October 2023

Morning Glory

Yes, it’s filtered, I had to because it was a bit blurry and then Photoshop offered me this and how could I refuse?! It was quite a nice photo with a distant hot air balloon.
Anyway, that was Saturday as the Sun was just slipping down behind the treeline. Jamie and I enjoyed a barbecue on site and had a couple of games of pétanque in the warm weather. The Sun is setting at 6:30 now and is rising at about 7:30 - this was the lovely sunrise sky on Saturday morning (no filter required).
They may only be short days now that we’re in October but what a lovely sunny Sunday we had. The flowers are still making the most of it on the plot. Our morning glory took a long time to flower, but look how beautiful they are now.
And my one dahlia has finally developed a flower, after the amazing dahlia year everyone else seems to have had! Oh well, it’s still pretty.

And finally a melon Mangomel had matured enough for us to eat for breakfast - it was tiny, barely a mouthful but super-sweet.

The bees, hoverflies and butterflies are really making the most of the fine weather and on Saturday we were so pleased to see a Hummingbird Hawkmoth enjoying the verbena bonariensis. The antirrhinum have got to be one of the best self-seeded flowers. So many different colours; they’ve been flowering for months and the bumblebees love them.

I planted 2 garlic bulbs, which provided 20 cloves, (Caulk White) on Friday and I’ve now planted up all the flower bulbs I ordered. I’ve put some in pots and some in the ground: various alliums, daffodils and anemones. I hope they don’t get wiped out by mice like they did last year… we’ll see what appears next Spring. A few have gone into the flower bed where I’ve cleared masses of Nigella seedlings, but never fear… they’ll be back!.
And here’s a before-and-after weeding photo at the front of Plot8. I’ve put some bulbs in front of the irises and amongst the grape hyacinths. As you can see, the irises have been trimmed back to 15cm for over-Wintering.
HAHA has a seed swap container in our communal shed, so I’ve packed up a few of our collected seeds this weekend too. Lots of beans and flowers - if plotholders don’t want them we’ll find somewhere else to share them.

Yesterday I had a meal of Yin Yang beans, curly kale (thanks to Nia), tomatoes and onion flavoured with a bit of garlic, oregano, soy, tomato puree with a little finely grated cheese on top - delish and so easy to make!

 And, just one last thing - look at this potato! Is it the veggie version of ham-fisted? 😊

The song title is provided by Oasis. What a song, haven't heard that in a while but can't believe it was released 28years ago!

Monday 2 October 2023

Changing

Pink and purple flower bed
The verbena bonariensis is so pretty and I do love the mix of colours with the nicotiana. They’re usually buzzing with life but I didn’t see many bees yesterday, even though it was pretty warm for October (October already!?) and wasn’t breezy.

We had a busy day on the plot and my aching body isn’t used to it! In the morning I weeded and dug this area where the garlic is to be planted. We’ve had a delivery of very well rotted manure to the site so I dug some of that in - a barrowful for £1.50 - bargain. Jamie spent the time clearing, digging and chalking an area where the potatoes had been - for our broad beans to over-Winter.
In the afternoon I spent time clearing the weeds from the leeks bed. The weather has been warm with a bit of rain - the weeds have loved it… the bindweed had started strangling the leeks and the grass and bittercress has also enjoyed a fresh burst of growth. I tried hard to pull out unbroken bindweed roots, but it’ll be back 😩 I’ve cut back the parsnip leaves which had become a slugfest and there's a row of leeks there which have been chomped. Hopefully they'll recover now they can see the light of day again.
Now that the foliage is dying back we can see all the mini Jack-be-Little pumpkins. Those two plants have been happy it seems! We need to get some shelves up in the polytunnel so those little fruits can go in there to cure. Jamie was making some room in the polytunnel today by removing a couple of the pepper plants. I'll use the soil for planting up some bulb pots. So, as well as sweetcorn, we had peppers for our meal last night. They were meant to go orange, but they taste good green too.

We had halloumi and roasted veg - I've started just adding the halloumi to the roasting pan towards the end of cooking rather than cooking separately on the hob - it gives it a slightly different texture but still delicious and squeaky. That plateful has home-grown peppers, sweetcorn, garlic, basil and a few tomatoes (but mostly shop-bought). Perhaps we'll try growing our own onions again next year ...

We've had the last of the green beans, although I'm contemplating whether to save some of the runners for drying...

The beans in the polytunnel roof completely dried and they’re now in jars - I have a few left over for sharing. I know borlotti are delicious but the Yin Yang (aka Orca or Calypso bean) are so fabulous looking; I hope they taste good too!

We think we may have had the last of the courgettes, although there are a couple of new ones appearing - we've been eating them since June! The song is provided by Sigma with Paloma Faith.

Friday 4 August 2023

Talking in Tones

On 1st August, between rainy days, we planted 60 leeks. I think that’s the most we’ve ever planted but they’re such a handy Winter vegetable.

We planted them in the usual way; topping and tailing and dropping them in a deep hole so they hopefully grow with a substantial white bit, then fill the hole with water. They’re spaced so that a hoe can get between them.

Apart from dealing with the leeks, we’ve mostly been sitting and watching. 
The weather is dealing with most of the watering, we just do a bit for the weekly feeding and the items in the polytunnel.
Talking of the polytunnel.. it’s been a welcome shelter a few times this holiday! There are lots of peppers, tomatoes and aubergines forming but the plants aren’t as wild as they usually grow.
The sweetcorn has developed its male flowers, rather pretty pinky ones ones on these Incredible plants, though the cobs are expected to be standard yellow.
Talking of yellow, look at the lovely rudbeckia - we have several of these, all offspring from one plant my niece gave me probably 10 years ago. Beautiful.
And, talking of beautiful, here’s the female bullfinch. We hear their hooting call before we see them. Both parents are with their young at the moment. So lovely to see.
Talking of lovely… I did the Big Butterfly Count by the HAHA Wildlife plot yesterday. The numbers were rather low, less than we’re seeing on our buddleja at home:

















I was pleased to see that someone else had reported a count from the site on 23rd July - interesting to see the different species.

















Talking of interesting … yesterday was our Flying Ant Day. When the ants fly off to start new nests - see this link for more info. We have so many ants nests in the grass paths on site, I think they’ll have a long flight to find a new nesting site!
And, when did black ants start biting? I’m sure it used to only be the red ones.
Talking of biting … <ahem> here’s a couple of recent tasty meals.
Baked halloumi, courgette, tomato bake with potatoes and asparagus pea
Stuffed courgette with cheese, nuts and carrot with mangetout
And talking of mangetout… I pulled the remaining plants but have left the frame so the Cornell’s Delicata squash can grow up it. It’s gone a bit crazy, but that’s good as it’s the only Winter squash we’re growing.
And finally, talking of frames. We’ve picked our first French beans today which we’re growing up the old polytunnel frame. The Borlotti beans on the other side are winning at the moment.
The Charlatans provide the song title which is why I’ve been ‘talking’ a lot in this post. Enjoy!

Monday 12 June 2023

Last Nite

Petrichor - that's the word of the day after we eventually had some rainfall last night. Aah, the smell of earth after rain - it really is a feel-good smell. And rain is so much better at watering than we are - having said that, the watering regime has certainly helped me keep my steps up this month so far!

This photo was taken at the HAHA Plant Swap & Picnic on Saturday. Not many people turned up as it was extremely hot and clashed with various other events in town. Having said that, those of us who stayed for the picnic were over the moon to be drinking Ivan's wine - there, on the table in the demijohn. Made from grapes from his Marsh Lane grapevine - it is delicious and rare to have a red grape wine made in England. It was a lot of fun but the walk home was quite a struggle!

The Plant Swap was more of a success, even if people didn't stay for the picnic. I couldn't resist taking a pink jasmine climber (probably Jasminum beesianum), which I've planted at the end of the polytunnel; a couple of Heavenly Blue morning glory, which I have seen on other plots before and it's so beautiful, some spinach and two aubergine plants. I spent Sunday planting out the flowers and also planting the Nicotiana and Verbena Bonariensis that I've grown from seed. Hoping the flower bed will burst into colour quite soon...at the moment it's still looking rather bare..Slightly concerned that the rain will have brought out the slugs and snails to polish off my seedlings.

The HAHA Wildlife plot is looking much more flowery with lots of these huge daisies, which bugs really like.
HAHA Wildlife Plot

I'm pleased that my mangetout have finally developed some flowers. We've all debated it and are convinced that the cold nights have been the cause of slow growth this year - but they're on their way now. And this week we're working out different ways to enjoy broad beans. I do have quite a few recipes that I know we've enjoyed before and I love them cold in salads.

I've transplanted some lettuces from their grow tray into the ground and we've started eating our radishes - I wanted them to get big enough to roast them, but I may need to wait for the Chinese Dragon radishes for that meal. You can see that the pollen beetles are making a mess of the leaves as usual.

On my final day of annual leave last week we had an engineer come to sort out the site's composting toilet - what a relief (hoho) that it wasn't as big a fault as we thought. Kate and I dug out and prepared a proper soakaway so that the blockage doesn't repeat itself. Jamie and I were wandering the site searching for suitable stones - that's a first :-)

On Saturday, thunder was rumbling around, the sky went quite dark but we only felt about 10 drops of rain but last night (Sunday) we got the rain although the thunder & lightning was mostly further north and east of Hungerford - more may be expected today.

So, back to work now, looking out at the sunshine and wishing I was on the plot - but we'll have a lunchtime visit today to see how much rain actually fell. Here are The Strokes not singing about last night's rain!