Better news - for now

First things first - good news on the Amersham rescue ponies & donkeys. They can stay at their rescue centres for the time being. But it's a story that still needs watching, because I suspect if the final decision goes against the best interests of the animals, efforts will be made to keep it out of the public eye.

Yet again, the weather is on the turn for the weekend. Fortunately, the instructions in The Wartime Weekend Gardener could count for next week as well:

Sow celery under cover. Celery can be slow to germinate, and too much hard work for a novice gardener unless a self-blanching variety. But it's such a useful vegetable that it's worth the effort.

Sow cauliflowers for Autumn and Winter harvest. This is where a variety like All the Year Round proves good value, as the seeds not sown earlier in the year can be used now.

Start sowing annual flowers. As well as brightening up the plot, or even providing an element of disguise, many of these flowers are useful for attracting beneficial insects for pollination and keeping pests down.

It's probably too late now for Sweet Peas, but they can be bought as young plants. French Marigolds, in particular single flowered varieties, are essential. I also like Escholzia and Cosmos, especially the variety Purity. Nasturtiums not only provide flowers for colour, they also have edible flowers leaves and seeds, though keep an eye on them if you want to eat them - they are also useful as a "sacrificial" plant, drawing blackfly and Cabbage White butterflies away from crops.

Hope the rain stays away, and if not, washes away "Le Stink"

A week of extremes

This has been a strange week. The Olympic torch arriving in London showed the British do sometimes have the guts to protest - though as per usual, the French did it better. The weather went from unseasonably warm and sunny to 4 inches of snow - which melted by lunchtime. After months of not bothering due to impending scalp surgery, I finally took care of my hair and in less than an hour, went from too long and unkempt to short, soft and managable. I no longer have to keep it under control with a series of bands and clips. I feel a burden has been taken away. But above all one thing has been troubling me. Those of you who are UK based may recall that earlier this year, there was a major news story about police and RSPCA rescuing over 100 horses ponies and donkeys who were in the process of being starved to death on a farm near Amersham. The skeletal corpses of around thirty others were found on site. It emerged that the "farmer" was buying them cheap at auctions, then planning to ship them to the meat trade. At a preliminary hearing into the cruelty case, the Judge decided that the ponies and donkeys were family pets, and could be returned to the family (in spite of evidence that they had been bought to be killed), and the remaining horses would be sold at auction to compensate the family for their financial loss.PLEASE have a look at this website that has been set up to help save the already rescued horses & Ponies form being sent to auction. At auction these neglected animals will not go for any money and will most likely be bought for meat. There is no excuse for this action, the RSPCA and the various horse refuges who were caring from them. In fact, they were handed over by the police for the express purpose of restoring them to health, rehabilitating them after the abuse and ensuring they were found a PERMANENT, CARING NEW HOME. Please please write a letter and sign the petition when it is ready on the this site. http://amershamhorses. com/ Amersham Horses - Help us protect them! Please join us in asking Judge Kainth to overturn his decision to return 29 donkeys and ponies to James Gray and to send 82 rescued horses to a public auction. Deputy District Judge Sandeep Kainth has ordered 29 donkeys and ponies be returned to Mr James Gray and his family. Oxford magistrates heard the family consider some of the donkeys and Shetland ponies to be pets. Judge Kainth agreed to return the pets to the family but rejected their application to have the remaining 82 animals returned. These animals will instead be sold at auction in May in Warwickshire. The RSPCA had argued that it should be allowed to oversee the re-homing of the animals in order to safeguard their future welfare. But Judge Kainth said the donkeys and Shetland ponies had to be returned to the Grays, "as there is no evidence to show they are in any danger". RSPCA inspector Kirsty Hampton said the decision to return the horses to the Grays was "devastating". ------------------------------------- I know from my old job that there are many judges that live such cosy lives that they are too unworldly to understand and interpret laws involving abuse and violation of rights. It is up to us to campaign for the victims. I find it shocking that the news media is giving so little space to this court decision. I have heard that they are people who are asking The Sun to launch a campaign to save ALL the animals - whatever you think of the paper, at least it knows how to make an impact. Please pass this info on to anyone who may be interested. Add to this the decision to go ahead with a cull of badgers to prevent bovine TB, in spite of scientific evidence that it will not work. Once again the NFU has shown that it only cares about penny pinching and big commercial farms. They have only recently had to defend themselves for blaming smallholders for the foot & mouth outbreak last Summer. No mention of vaccines and innoculation yet again. When will they learn that in the long run a bullet is NOT cheaper than a needle? -------------------------------- Back to the main purpose of my blog. The weather is still erratic, but Spring is rattling along apace. The Wartime Weekend Gardener's task for this weekend include sowing French Beans. I've started some of mine, but my precious Cherokee Trail of Tears seeds will wait until the end of the month. Sow a later cropping variety of Brussels Sprout. Nowadays most commercial seed catalogues only stock F1 varieties. As I only grow open pollinated (for reasons I really should explain sometime) I sow Bedford Fillbasket. He also says this is the time to plant Second Early potatoes. I plant Kestrel, and when I can find them, the gorgeous Shetland Black. But as I was by my standards so far behind with the First Earlies, I'll wait a week or so.

More progress than expected

A Busy Week

Had things gone as expected this week, I may not have been able to post a blog. But things turned out better than expected, and I’m here, but very tired.

I was due to go into hospital to have an operation to remove a cyst on my head that had been damaged and become infected. This was the second attempt, as I was sent to a clinic a couple of months ago but the doctor managed to put the anaesthetic needle into a nerve in my scalp, so inflicted more pain instead of numbing. To accurately describe him would be an insult to ducks.

Anyway, this time I was left waiting for an hour and a half while an emergency was dealt with, giving me plenty of time to worry about what I was about to go through and to think about discharging myself and hoping for the best. Eventually I was called in and the specialist checked over the bump in question and told me the infection and swelling was gone, the cyst was healing and there was no need for an operation!

This gave us more time to work on the allotment, as I had expected to be out of action from Wednesday onwards. With lovely warm, DRY (!) Spring weather at last, we were able to start breaking up the soil - solid, compacted, mostly sodden pure clay - and start marking out and making raised beds. I can finally announce that our First Early potatoes were planted Wednesday lunchtime (just before I headed to hospital).

When we arrived Thursday morning, a monumental sight greeted us. The allotments had taken delivery of a humungous pile of municipal compost. All the more amusing to me by its remarkable resemblance in shape to Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons, though not shrouded in clouds. We jumped into action, filling the wheelbarrow countless times until the three compost "daleks" were filled with dark, sweet smelling compost, almost warm enough to melt the plastic.

We then added a thick layer to the potato bed and filled as many compost sacks as we could find. Next we marked out spots on the lower half of the plot where fruit trees would be planted, dug holes, filled them with compost and planted the relevant trees.

By lunchtime word had got out, and a good dozen or so plotholders were hurtling up and down the trackway with barrows and trugs filled with compost. On arrival this morning the pile had changed shaped - just as tall, but narrower - more like the Matterhorn. If the snow holds off there will be none left by Sunday afternoon!

Anyway, the plot is now taking shape, the first raised bed is in place, trees have been planted along the edge and the next phase of work is marked out with canes. I don’t think it’s ever possible to be on top of work in a garden, but now I don’t face the prospect of weeks self-consciously hiding away, I’m ready to tackle the work.

While I was waiting for the kettle to boil, I made a list of the birds I’d seen over the past few days. It’s pretty amazing:
Blue tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Blackbird, Robin, Mistle Thrush, Wren, Woodpigeon. Chiff Chaff. Magpie, Jay, Carrion Crow, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, House Sparrow, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Black Headed Gull, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Heron, Mallard Duck, Wigeon, Teal, Mandarin Duck and Canada Goose. Heard but not seen were Moorhens and the resident Pheasant.
Peacock butterflies have been very active the past few days, as have various Bumble Bees. The beekeepers at the allotments have been tending their hives this week, and their charges have started to venture out. Ladybirds and hoverflies have just started appearing, as have mosquitoes.

As we were heading home this evening, the first bat of the year looped overhead.

For the past couple of nights, the hedgehog who I suspected was venturing into our garden has been making his presence very evident. The cat has been agitated about her territory being invaded, and at about 11pm hurtled to the back door. I’d left a bag of vegetable trimmings on the doorstep to take down to the compost bin in the morning, and the hedgehog was rooting through it, looking for slugs & snails. I put some Hedgehog food pellets out, but the cat started eating them, asserting her claim to the territory. Fortunately, I found a plant pot that had been damaged in the storms, and realised when turned over it had a neat hedgehog sized hole in the rim. So I our another pile of food out an placed the pot over it. The following night our little visitor (which we have named Russell Grunt) returned, and I was delighted to see found the plant pot and ate all the food.

Spring seems to be here at last. Let’s hope the cold snap expected this weekend is the last for a while.

So, the tasks set out in The Wartime Weekend Gardener are:

Sow more radishes and lettuce
Sow broccoli - purple or the less common white sprouting varieties
Sow more cabbage, such as Red Drumhead.

After the busy week I’ve had, I might hold off on more work until next week.

Accepting what life throws at you....

Which at the moment seems to be vast amounts of water. All cold, some frozen.

When I look back on it, last weekend wasn’t quite the wash out it felt at the time. Friday was good - we spent time in the garden, mostly transferring our Alpines into terracotta pots, which could be placed in the bark chip filled Belfast sink we saved from a skip. I have several cultivars of Lesser Celandine, which are reaching their best around now. As they’re not as wildlife friendly, I’m not normally a fan of double flowers, but I have a cream double celandine which I adore. I have a couple of the best known - Brazen Hussey, named by the late great Christopher Lloyd in his usual impish style.

The rest of the weekend was punctuated by blizzards and snow flurries. Yet we managed a few hours at the allotment each day. Didn’t get the raised beds done, let alone plant potatoes, but we worked all the same.

We have a reclaimed potato crate which is earmarked for dismantling to provide the slats for the front of the compost bins. On Saturday it was turned on its side, and the various parts of the dismantled shed propped round it. Being a cubic metre and a half in size, it provided a decent sized shelter, and I set up the little camping stove plus a couple of kneeling pads for seats. I was able to brew up tea out of the worst of the weather and on Sunday cooked sausages for lunch.

This weekend looks like being another damp squib, but I’m near enough on top of the seed sowing, so the first sign of good weather we should catch up.

Should the weather permit you to get to the plot, the Wartime Weekend Gardener has plenty of tasks alloted to this date:

Thin onions sown as seed. If possible try to replant the thinnings or pot them up for planting out later.

Sow Kale. The variety recommended in the book is Cottagers, but there are plenty of other varieties worth sowing. Kale is hardy enough to stand up to most Winter weather, and some, like Ragged Jack, Redbor, Red Russian and especially Nero di Toscana provide great colour & form, worthy of a potager or even a mixed border.

Also, sow Savoy Cabbage. I happen to like Savoys, wilted in butter with mustard seeds, with a fresh tomato sauce or used to hold a pilaff type stuffing.

Also, start sowing maincrop carrots such as Autumn King. Some gardeners say that to lessen carrot fly damage, you should avoid sowing carrot seeds when Queen Anne’s Lace is in flower. Haven’t seen any out yet, hopefully the recent cold snap has brought things back in line.

It’s often said that the mindset has changed from gardening to control nature, to one of gardening with nature. In truth that still seems a little arrogant. We need to garden in a way that acknowledges we are part of nature. Maybe the best way to put it is gardening with the permission of nature.

Let’s see what we’re allowed to do over the next couple of weeks.

The year turns a corner

Apologies for the late posting - after a busy day gardening I retreated to a cosy sofa and idn’t move all evening. Anyway, we have an extra day of weekend, don’t we?

It’s is now officially Spring, and with Easter falling so close to the Equinox, it feels all the more special. OK, outside it seems like Winter has returned (snowing with you right now? or is the wind blowing so fiercely that it can’t land?) but the change over the past week or so has been dramatic. Only a few weeks back, the sun set behind the first house opposite me. Now it clears the whole block. There just seems to be more light, and with a narrow garden on a Northern slope of a hill, you certainly notice the change.

The plan for us this weekend is to spend as much time as possible (in spite of the weather) working at the new allotment. By the end of Monday I hope to have planted onions, garlic and shallots in their alloted raised beds, and most importantly, first early potatoes.

The Wartime Weekend Gardener suggests sowing another batch of peas. Already done that - found a packet from last year with four remaining Purple Podded seeds, so put them in pots, and sowed twice as many Golden Sweet peas to complement. I’m looking forward to a pile of salad leaves topped with them, garnished with a few Nasturtium flowers.

The other recommendation is to prepare a special bed for growing marrows. Similar to a hotbed, by placing a layer of topsoil on top of fresh or part rotted manure. Well if I manage to complete the main tasks at the allotment, I’ll be making the beds for the Three Sisters (beans, corn & squashes) part of the rotation plan, so that’s a possibility as well.

A late night intruder leaves a message

After the storms of the earlier part of the week, I checked over the garden for damage. All I could find was one hellebore with a broken stem, which I took in, cut down to size and put in a vase, and a small pot of feverfew on its side. Upon further inspection, I decided that the tipped herb pot wasn’t blown over by the wind. Nearby I spotted an animal dropping, and by checking reference books and websites my initial suspicions were confirmed - a Hedgehog has been visiting the garden.

I knew there were some in the area - someone a street away had some hibernating under her shed, and there is a small gap underneath the back fence that I guess is the entry point. We salvaged a pallet based crate to make a lean-to to store bags of potting compost, and the dimensions of the pallet are ideal for me to use it as a cat-proof hedgehog feeding point. There are plenty of plant saucers scattered around the garden for them to drink out of.

I’m looking forward to being outside at dusk, and to hear the tell tale snuffling and grunting from the undergrowth.

I guess most people’s gardening tasks this weekend will start with checking for storm damage and tidying up, and some of you (those with their plots prepared and not suffering from back twinges) will be starting to plant potatoes. I remember this weekend five years back. While many people were marching in protest of the upcoming invasion of Iraq, I was planting potatoes in preparation for the trade sanctions I expected to be the consequence.

The Wartime Weekend Gardener suggests that this weekend you make another sowing of early carrots, and a first row of turnips. If turnips don’t appeal to you, maybe try sowing Cima di Rapa, turnip greens, which are very popular in Italy.

Now I have a proper potting shed, I’ve been able to start seed sowing earlier than before. Most years I spent the mornings of Cheltenham Festival week frantically sowing as many trays of seed as I could, then lying on the sofa in the afternoon watching the racing. This year I am far enough ahead to have celery germinating and broccoli ready to pot on.

Tomorrow will be seven years to the day from when I started working on my first allotment. To say the day was grey would be an understatement. The rain was barely falling - it was more horizontal, kept from landing on the ground by a foot high shagpile of mist. The plot hadn’t been touched for years and the couch grass had knitted itself into the assorted objects that had been dumped on there. But from there on in, it was mine to do what I wanted. Well in a couple of weeks I’ll be handing that plot back to the council. The clearing has been completed on the new plot. We now have to start on the cultivation proper. This year I’m not going to let anything get in my way.

Brace Youself......

Severe Weather Warnings make me sit up and take notice nowadays. The event is usually preceded by attempts to anchor vulnerable stuff - usually involving bricks or paving slabs, and followed by checking for damage and clearing up the mess. The morning after the "hurricane" of 87 i got a bus into work and was able to survey the damage from the top deck. Nowadays I'd be surprised if I'd be able to get more than 2 stops before the entire system shut down.

Four tier mini greenhouses are great if you don't have space for a proper greenhouse, but they are inclined to do a passable impression of a hot air balloon at the slightest gust. I'm hoping the paving slab on the bottom shelf will be sufficient for the storms due on Sunday night, as I have quite a few trays with seedlings emerging.

I keep having to remind myself that the house is about 200ft above sea level with mature trees all round. Add to that the clump of bamboo in next door's garden and the slightest breeze is going to sound like a gale.

So, instructions for this weekend for the WWG, if the weather allows, are to sow early carrots and early turnips.

It's the Cheltenham Festival next week, my signal to get really busy in the garden. I've managed to get a little ahead so far this year - I've even spotted a few celery seedlings emerging! But I digress. Cheltenham is special to me, although I've never been, I make a point of being at home for the week. Let's hope everyone one gets round safely, and Kauto Star makes it 2 Gold Cups. Can't help but wonder how things would have panned out if Best Mate was still around....