Meet the neighbours...

Welcome to May!

I can't believe it's here already, but I'm glad it is. Things are really going to take off on the allotment this month. But for today, I'll just continue with another catch up post...

We still haven't met our human neighbours on our left hand side, but we have met our neighbour on the right hand side. A rather pleasant fellow with 31 years of allotment experience, he has 2 plots and has very traditional growing methods. He is full of advice and is also kean to encourage people to try something new. He grows grapes for wine and has given almost every single tenant on the site a grape vine he has cultivated himself. I have one on my plot that was given to the last holder of plot 114.

The neighbours at the top of our plot are also newbies and have just took over the allotment and they also seem really keen.

Our plot back on to the road to the site car park, but there also some unusual neighbours beyond this boundary. They don't say much but they are rather pleasant to watch...

There are about 8 of them and I have plenty more pictures to share over the coming weeks....

Martin

Hatton Village

We spent an afternoon at Hatton farming world and village on Tuesday. We both hadn't been since we were children and with our seperate families. It was going to be interesting to see what we thought of this Warwickshire tourist attraction now that we are 4ft taller than the last time we went.

The farm village is seperate to the shopping village. The shopping village had a nice garden centre and some pleasant designer shops. The garden centre had loads of great things there and they sold chickens too. I can't believe how much garden centres charge for chickens, at £35 a time I certainly won't be buying any of their stock. All of my chickens I have ever owned only cost between £5 and £10 each!

The farm village was really good fun with lots of livestock about the place.

We decided that if we ever had a smallholding we would need to find out what breed of sheep these were because they were just gorgeous...

They were very wooly, and looked like they carried their fair share of meat too!

They used to have a really nice meadow with pigs roaming around, but this has been downgraded to a cheesy attraction called 'Pig Palace' which was basically a big, blue gazebo with some cardboard cut out pigs dressed as gaurds. I don't understand why tourist attractions feel they have to lower their standards to be more appealing. It is a real turn off. Any way this Gloucestershire Old Spot seemed to be enjoying himself....

We released our inner children when it got to the funfair and games part of the farm village. This skelter slide was real fun. I love getting in to those old potato sacks and whizzing down the tube. We did question our safety though because the whole thing was swaying with the wind, when you are high up and rocking it is not a great sign.

Amy was glad to be back on the ground. She made me retake her photo because she didn't like the first one I took. So here it is anyway... (Edit - She has been whining all night so I've had to change it to the 'articficial version)

They had one of those 'Gold Mine' attractions where you get a pan and sieve through the water and find little nuggets of metal which they call 'Gold'. Whilst pondering around the attraction I found my own little golden nugget...

I wanted to take this girl home, she was so friendly and inquisitive and only too happy to be picked up. Shame, we didn't take a bag big enough to smuggle her out through the gift shop!

We would reccomend this place for anyone passing. Especially if the weather is nice. We had a bit of rain, so the tractor ride was a welcome relief from the downpour. But because of the rain we had to forego the chance to navigate our way through the impressive Maize Maze. Maybe next time.

Have a fabulous weekend! You deserve it!

Martin

We're going to the zoo.. zoo.. zoo

Well that's a lie. We went to the zoo last Friday for a well deserved rest following constant work, exams and general business. We're now entering our third consecutive year of being members at Bristol Zoo. It is one of our most favourite places to go. It is so relaxing, the zoo is sculpted around a large lawn area and the gardens are amazing, hence their accreditation as Bristol Zoo Gardens. The animal enclosures are really spacious and very modern, no bars and wire, it's more like open enclousures with manmade moats and  tall bushes. Being only 12 acres in size, they don't keep the larger species such as Rhino, Elephant or Giraffes. They have lots of smaller animals such as lemurs, gibbons, red pandas, penguins and tapir. They do have Asiatic Lions and Gorillas though!

They are celebrating their 175th Birthday this year, and this post is a little tribute to the wonderful zoo which we first visited on Monday 23rd February 2009.

Happy Birthday Bristol Zoo Gardens!

Martin and Amy x

Cheeky Cows

Just been for a walk in Haselor.

We stumbled across these cows in a field. They certainly were very curious...

Amy is not the world's biggest fan of cows, but I think they are great.

Would love to have a house big enough for a couple of Dexters in the future...

Enjoy the rest of your evening!

Martin

'Kaizen' (vegetable style)

Kaizen is the Japanese term for 'continuous improvement'.

As a gardener you always wish to continually improve your methods, ideas and hopefully your final crop/harvest.

At the moment, the veg patch in the garden IS continually improving. The whole area is full of green and everything is growing well!

The pictures don't really represent what it looks like in real life. The courgette plants are going crazy, the tomatoe plants are growing daily, and the first lot of early potatoes are on their final cover up of soil and are peeking well out of the bag. There is also the gorgeous blue pot and the ravishing mange tout and runner bean bushes...



 

I mentioned the courgettes a minute ago. Want a peek?

There are ten courgettes on there. Some are minute, but 3 or 4 are over finger size, harvesting is a day or two away!!

Here is the second sowing of mange tout. The third sowing is just germinating now. The first lot have really thrived in a trough style pot, so the second lot are following suit..

Despite the progress in the bags and pots at the eglu end of the veg garden, the potting table is looking pretty uninspiring compared to a few weeks back. Just a seed tray of germinating mange tout, half dozen pitiful tomato seedlings, some cabbage seedlings and a few more runner bean bushes.

Away from the potting table though I have planted 15 runner beans, 6 sunflowers (for my grandparents) and 3 more pumpkins. I also sown some raddish seeds in the same pot as the salad leaves.

Unfortunately (where there is something good in the garden there is always something bad) some plants were affected by a quick frost a few days ago. The tempratures plumeted to -1 celcius and it is evident that some plants have suffered a little. Some of the edges of the leaves on the tomato plants have blackened and the cucumber plant has significantly yellowed. The runner bean bushes which were establishing well look very limp, but fortunately the younger plants that have just germinated seem to have come through well.

This is what I mean.. see the blackening tips of the leaves?

The chilli plant is really limp. I saw a picture on Mel and Paul's blog and there's was about to bloom but ours is far away from that. I've fed it and propped it up against a cane so fingers crossed!

We weren't going to be growing traditional runner beans this year, that's why we bought the runner bean 'bush' seeds. However, we now have resources to grow both. I made this structure the other day and the runner beans have been sown in pots whilst I improve the quality of the soil in the area. I've added multi-purpose compost on top of the actual soil and have 'dug it in'. I've also added some liquid feed so hopefully they'll get off to a good start!

The structure is against the boundary fence between the vegetable garden and the lawn.

Not only do we have this arched structure, but I have now got an obelisk which I took from my Grandad's garden, I'm in the process of starting to do his too! His first growbag was set up today so he can grown some tomatoes. My grandparents taught me everything I know about 'growing my own'.

Anyway, asides from good old vegetables, I finish my exams next Wednesday and I have a few projects lined up including my grandparent's and Amy's mums garden.

Amy is still keen on the idea of bantams, and we found ourselves bidding on an eglu on ebay earlier...

In the beehive, I removed the queen excluder so hopefully the bees will begin to draw out the comb so they can store some more honey!! I'll try and take pictures tomorrow.

Have a lovely evening.

Martin

Evening walk in Bidford Upon Avon

Well, Amy is ever so keen to get on the road since she passed her test and got her car. After going all over the place yesterday we decided to go to the park at Bidford Upon Avon for a walk by the pituresque river. Bidford Upon Avon is a nice riverside town which is sort of parked inbetween Evesham and Stratford-Upon-Avon.

This is the great view from where we parked..

The town's allotments were adjacent to us on the opposite bank..



After a while we found a fishing peg to have a rest on. Most of the fishing pegs were either half in the water or the path was impassable due to a rath of stinging nettles and weeds. This one looked sturdy and had a clear path thankfully..

This field of peas was a nice sight..

We walked to the next field after the peas which contained oil seed rape and then decided to turn back as we were going to my grandma's house for 7.30. Surprisingly we didn't see any waterfowl on the walk up to the rape field except for a solitary drake but we actually saw lots of waterfowl on the way back...

We met this family of ducks about half way along our path back to the car..

It made us laugh because all 3 of them followed us back to the car. I think they were expecting us to throw some bread in or something...

Then we saw a majestic Swan by the bridge as we approached the car..

Then look who turned up...

Those three ducks did make us laugh.. They were very keen to follow our every movement at one point we were walking up and down the bank and they were following our every move!

To finish off I just want to share some pictures of the iconic bridge that really make this place stunning, a fantastic scene with the gorgeous church in the background..

The two arches on the right of the bridge no longer have the river flowing through them and they are mostly dry but it has created a small rockpool like area. Was interesting to see the interesting creatures in and around the water.. Amy was the first one over the stepping stones to investigate..

Another nice walk in the summery weather. I hear that a lot of places up and down the country have had frost and it has been killing off the plants etc. nothing here yet touch wood, but I am checking the weather forecasts regularly as there are lot of fragile/vulnerable plants outside now.

Will post an update on the growing tomorrow morning..

Martin

Bank Holiday Monday - Newbold on Stour

Whilst thinking of things to do this sunny, but windy Bank Holiday Monday I remembered a nice little farm shop about 25 minutes drive away. It is the nice, countryside village of Newbold-on-Stour. It's sort of in between Stratford Upon Avon and Shipton-on-Stour.

We parked in the village and decided to walk to the farm shop which was well signposted from the road.

Whilst walking amongst fields full of onions, corn and oil seed rape we spotted a couple of pigs who looked like they were dying for some rain. There pen was as dry as a bone and they couldn't wallow to protect themselves from the sun.

Not far to go now...

Ok.. so we've now turned right. We passed some nice chickens free-ranging in the field. There were lots of traitional ginger hybrid egg layers, but it did make me laugh that there was a single grey pekin bantam cockerel amongst them!

We were completly surrounded by an array of georgeous scenery including this stream..

Then as we got closer to the farm shop I could not believe it when we saw this...

CLOSED!!!!!!

We could not belive it. It is the last place we thought would be closed on a day like today. We popped in to and went past a few garden centres and farm shops and they were all full of people! It was very frustrating, but in hindsight we should have perhaps expected it!

Anyway, we continued on our walk. Amy posed by the bridge..

As we continued we added sheep and lambs to our growing check list of farm animals we had encountered. We saw some nesting swans too. Their nests were massive but it was impossible to get a picture...



Finally, as we re-entered the village itself we came across an idealic country pub. We popped in and had a glass of coke each. It was very refreshing to say the least...

So we were slightly dissapointed to not have actually been to the farm shop, but at least it is an exciting option for a day out in the future. We popped in to Stratford on the way home to pick up some bits for this afternoon's gardening session and then we've just finished off the rest of the sausagemeat by making another batch of those delicious sausage rolls.

Enjoy your bank holiday everybody!

I will be back later!!

Martin



We like frogs because they eat..

...SLUGS. And nobody likes SLUGS.

I'm not a big fan of putting down any chemicals to keep away slugs and snails, especially when we have other pets such as dogs and chickens who would most probably like the idea of scoffing a nice blue pellet.

At the allotment I had a wildlife pond which was full of slugs and now I really need to create something here too. The old slug is the gardener's enemy. Just as your plants start to look nice and pretty you come down one morning to see a gaping hole in the foliage and a big slimey trail along the soil, down the pot, across the path, over the grass, along the decking, up the wall... and yes.. they've got away!

Putting salt on them is effective but cruel and you actually have to find the slug in order to sprinkle it over them. I find that the only time slugs come out is when you are not around. I think they hide in the bush until you go back in to the house, and then as soon as they hear the back door close they re-emerge to eat your prize marrow and ruby red strawberries.

You can do the old beer trap thing.. but that is a waste of good beer! The Pumpkin needs that doesn't it?! What? I need that!! Not the pumpkin or slugs! What came over me there?

Therefore the best thing to do is get some slimy frogs. An awesome line up of frogs and chickens is a frightful thought for the slugs.

If you are a slug in my garden... here is your eviction notice!! Leave immediately or stay at your peril.

More to follow over the next few weeks....

Martin