Winter Weather Worries

I am worried.  The weatherman said the jet stream has shifted well south of the British Isles and we could have weeks, or MONTHS, more of the winter weather. MONTHS! MONTHS! My broad beans, peas, sweet peas and totally over-sprouted potatoes can't wait that long! Usually I've sown all my tomatoes by now, and well, sowed practically everything else as well.  Sigh. What to do? Will the beans and peas survive outside?  I've got to get them planted out. They are looking desperate for fresh air and a touch of sunlight. Much like me. 

This was the view from the cottage we stay in every year in South Devon, on this day last year:

I think I might leave the young plants out tonight, see if they survive. It's sink or swim. 

On a non-allotment, but cheery note, here is a snap I took at the Horniman Museum South London, when undertaking research for my museum gardens signage project.  It's a depiction in puppet form by an African sculptor of an extremely well known couple's wedding from the 1980s.  But who is it? (A British bobby is between the happy couple) 

Wordless Wednesday 27th March 2013

Dinosaur Toupe- another use for the manure.

Allotment Spring Clean

We were invited to help in a "Spring" clean up of the communal parts of the site today.  So in the snow and biting cold, but good spirits, we dragged out wire, glass, plastic, tangled fencing, and old filing cabinets from the communal garden, the shared lock up and the recycling bin area.  

Any ideas what to do with an old portaloo?  Former plot holders had once rigged it up to discharge directly into our little brook, which sounds a) charming b) illegal. One current allotment tenant suggested setting up a compost loo, sounds like a great idea.  I wonder if you can get grants and/or advice for that sort of thing?

 Actually having extolled the virtues of green sewerage I should add that I once made a 50 mile night-time journey to get away from a farm I was supposed to be staying at that had a really basic compost loo. I felt certain I was going to fall into its deep brown, murky depths, and I've never really recovered from the horror. 

Back to today, and we found a frog sheltering under the plastic bags lurking in one corner of the communal garden, next to our plot. A good day for wildlife all in all as earlier we'd seen the first ever Goldcrest in our garden,  picking off the aphids on the emerging rose leaves.  Later I rescued a perfect nest box from the heap of trash at the site, so this will find a place on our plot. It'll be safer to keep it on site, than in the garden, where Pansy, Charlie, Freddie, Chester, Odd Bod, Weird Cat, Wild Beast Cat, Runny Bottom and all the other hundreds of other neighbourhood cats visit for daily birdwatching under the feeder. 

That means you, Charlie and Freddie (the neighbours' cats seen here relaxing in our garden)

And you, for that matter, young Ms Fox! 

Those pictures from last year remind me: one day it may be sunny again.....!

Weather, apples and signs!

What awful weather the country has been having- we occasionally get a day with sun, and don't the bulbs and new Spring growth look great then?  But today the weather is most un-Springy again and we have heavy snow in the north and floods in the south west. Here in London it is dry (at the moment) but rather dull and cold. I've been hardening off sweet peas, peas and broad beans, but how long will it be before we can plant them out on the allotment without fear of frost and snow?

So, considering the weather, I don't feel too bad that we didn't get Mum's apple tree's pruned till a couple of weeks ago. But how about this for squirrel damage? The orangey colours are where the bark has been stripped.

You can see the tooth marks here!

I don't know the answer: but when Mum and Dad had a cat they never got that sort of damage! I went a bit crazy with the chicken wire, to try to protect the main trunk, but whether it'll work....

In other news...... I am  thinking about my Museum work/ dissertation on signage and interpretation in museum gardens. I'm thinking about how to link object collections and gardens....  I like the idea of taking an old object and using it in signage, like these spoons squashed and stamped to be used as plant labels.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/47728331/5-antique-spoons-garden-markers-set

This isn't necessarily what we'd go for, but it's given me something to think about!

Hope the weather isn't too horrible wherever you are today!

Sun, rain, rain, signs

It's been mostly raining...again. But we did get some work done in a brief bit of drier weather on Saturday. We moved some Autumn fruiting raspberries and put in some Summer ones from Mum's garden. We also popped in some wild garlic to put in the shady wild part of the plot. I also did my first bit of greenhouse planting (part from the peas, still alive!) - just plopping 3 potatoes into a big carrier bag with some soil, and sowing some carrots in pots. 

Today in the rain we visited Cressing Temple in Essex, a medieval farm complex with two cathedral like barns. This was great, not only to see the beautiful whopping great timber masterpieces, but also to check out the walled gardens to get ideas for the allotment and the herb bed/garden we'll be incorporating into it.  Mandrake anyone?  I've never seen it before!

The real reason behind the visit was as part of a project I am undertaking to review and redesign the signage and interpretation of my local museum garden (Vestry House Museum, Walthamstow).  This will also contribute to my MA dissertation, looking at the presentation and interpretation of museum gardens. If anyone has any thoughts about good or bad examples of this I'd love to hear about it. I'll  write more about it in future.  Here are a couple of signs I noted today:

This one hasn't stood up to the weather very well and it didn't seem particularly clear anyway.

You can't tell much from this poor photo,  but actually in real life this sign in the herb garden looked clear, attractive and informative to me.

But I do like this plain plant label, if only for the name and the touch of lichen!

Any thoughts on sign design and content greatly welcomed, on gardens attached to museums, or indeed any outdoor historic site interpretation. The Vestry House Museum has random objects from its collections in the garden including a Roman sarcophagus- anyone know of any similar open-air collections around the country?

Tomorrow I visit  the Horniman Gardens in South London.....

What a Difference a Day Makes

"What a difference a day makes": that's what the weather presenters kept saying after Tuesday when we had the warmest day so far this year- and beautiful bright sun.  Naturally this was rapidly followed by the more familiar days of grey, cold and now rain.  But finally on Tuesday I saw the crocuses at the allotment, and in the garden out, and fully out too!

On the sunny day I went down the allotment with my friend who had a plot there 10 years ago, so it was useful to hear what it used to be like (not much different!).  I realised then that there is only one little patch left that we haven't worked on since we got the plot 4 months ago. And here is a photo to remind me, as it'll be gone soon. The weeds are brambles, bindweed, willowherb, and verbena bonaris (the verbena will be moved to the edges of the beds).  I think I've noted before that we are keeping a wild patch so brambles, willowherb and other "weeds" will still have a bit of freedom. 

The warm weather on Tuesday also brought on a sudden spurt in the sweet peas, peas and broad beans at home. Now I find that the sweet peas are too tall and spindly so I'll have to get them outside if I can, to slow growth and harden them off. When there are 2 pairs of leaves I'll pinch out to let them get bushy. The cat seems to think they are edible, and/or a "wiggly toy" game. Hope they survive! 

Oh, and thanks to reader input, I now believe Dench to be a frog not a toad. She is glorious and fat so maybe she'll make some Denchlets, or Denchpoles,  soon.

( NB Urban dictionary's  definition of dench: "Another meaning for "sick" or nice. if something is well dench u can say that is well judi dench". Thanks to Grahame Norton for the heads up on that, I do feel it is so important for one to keep up with the youth.)

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Welcome to Dench the Toad

A warm welcome to Dench the Toad, making her debut in these pages: though probably not her debut on the allotment. We met her on the plot today, hiding in the compost heap. I don't know if she is a she but she is very fabulous. Hence Dench.  Verily she is a well dench amphibian.  May we discover many frog/toads. Maybe newts.

In other news.  A garlic plant has been cruelly nipped off despite using sticks to protect it.

And the front of the plot is looking rather smart. Dug over, chicken pellets added, strawberries (already all over the plot) replanted round the edges.

 And the primroses are looking primrosey. Roll on Spring!

It's a Plant!

Several plants actually!  Yes there is life at the allotment (and home) 

There are the sweet peas started off at home, germinating within hours after I soaked them for c. 5 hours in warm water (topping it up to keep it warm) and nicking a bit off the surface of the seed off (opposite the "eye").   There are also some peas and broad beans planted a couple of days ago, nothing doing with them yet. 

There are the peas in the greenhouse on the allotment (just 10 left after operation mouse brunch was complete)

Dino is included here as a scale. Of course, in the wild, Tyrannosaurus Rex are known to reach 12.3 m (40 ft) in length, up to 4 m (13 ft) tall at the hips, and up to 6.8 metric tons  in weight. The Common or Domestic Tyrannosaurus Allomentus tend to be a little on the smaller size, and rather more discrete in habit.

Then there are the potatoes chitting at home. Only two varieties! Probably boring ones- Arran Pilot and Charlotte.  Mock me not, for I know not what I do. 

There are various alliums- the garlic, onions and shallots look much the same. But there are also odd leek and onion like things that keep popping up from the previous tenant.

There are flowers. Well one unopened crocus.

 And some primroses I moved up from the garden. This one has had its head nipped off. Pigeons?

There are these lovely, slightly rude looking extrusions on the wiggly hazel. Female flowers?

And, finally,  there are these fellows coming up on the manure heap we made last week. The copious spores of which could be the reason my nose swelled up and felt like I'd snorted pine needles for three days after we had shifted the poo. 

Are they fungal growths......

Or Hattifatteners from Tove Jansson's amazing Moominland books?