Wasp Trouble

I got a bit of a shock today at the plot, when I opened up our storage bench to get some tools out and a gigantic wasp buzzed out at me. Looks like she fancies our bench as her new home!

And I'm glad Matron posted something very similar a couple of weeks back, or I'm not sure I would have had the courage to remove the nest. This one is not so advanced as the one she found, but a remarkable piece of architecture nonetheless, with its own little raincap and an entrance at the bottom of the little pod - and inside, perfect hexagonal cells ready for egg-laying...

Unfortunately I could not discourage the wasp, and a few hours later she had made a pretty decent start on a new nest. I removed it again, but I have a feeling this could become a problem...

Got a few bits done today between rain showers. I planted out the broad beans I've been raising at home, and I challenge any pigeons to get at them now!

Aww, don't laugh. I hate buying that expensive plastic netting stuff that just gets all tangled up in everything and is virtually impossible to use again. Good old fashioned string is good enough for me. I hope...

And I planted out the Golden Marjoram and Tricolour Sage I got in the post a few weeks back, and eight sunflowers as a border alongside the asparagus. The idea is that the sunflowers give the asparagus ferns a little wind-protection - we shall see if it works! Of course, it's still a teeny bit early and I may live to regret planting them out now, but the temperature here hasn't dipped below 5 degrees for a few weeks now and I'm fairly confident...


I also dug over one of the flowerbeds down the middle of the plot, and planted out two Monarda Didyma (Bergamot or Bee Balm) that I bought, plus a few borage volunteers from around the plot, and some poppy and poached-egg plant seeds. As well as looking great, all these should help attract beneficial insects to the plot.
This picture shows my flower border down the centre, with swede seedlings under the netting just to the right of it, and potatoes just coming up to the left (along with a lot of tiny weedlings). The next pair of beds along are more spuds on the left and onions/shallots/carrots/parsnips on the right (extremely weedy and needing a lot of attention!) then after that, on the right, you can see what will be the courgette bed (half-dug) and then the raised salad beds (I seem to have reached a compromise with whatever's digging my lettuces up: I won't fill the hole in, and he won't dig it again) and finally the raspberries.

A Spot of Bother

This is our asparagus bed. You can only sort-of see from this little picture, but out of ten plants, only five are doing well. Three more are just about showing their first shoots, and the other two are showing no signs of life yet whatsoever. I wonder what the problem is. I have noticed a lot of ants in the area and there must be a nest about - I wonder if they're doing damage somehow...

This isn't the only problem that has been worrying my little head this week. There has been a random act of destruction on our patio; all ungerminated seeds were dug up and soil scattered everywhere. It can't have been birds, as the broad beans were untouched, and the cat would not have been so discriminate. I can only think that it must be mice, but... in broad daylight? And they didn't try this when the peas and broad beans were germinating. Weird.

There's a similar story on the allotment: something has been repeatedly digging holes in the lettuce bed. I have raked the soil back into place three times now (Cover it up?? But that would be sensible!) and sadly lost a lot of tiny lettuce seedlings, but finally have given up and sown a trayful of lettuce seeds at home to transplant later - the few I can raise here are better than none! I don't know what's doing this - it's a big hole, not like a cat would dig, surely too big for a mouse or a rat, and if we had rabbits about I would have seen the droppings. We have had it before; the last two years something burrowed holes under our pumpkins! I can only think that it might be a dog, which is annoying because one would hope people wouldn't let their dogs run amuck on an allotment site! There's actually a 'no dogs allowed' rule, but I know a few people ignore it...

Finally, eight days on, there's still no sign of life from my second sowings of Waltham Butternut Squash and King of the North Peppers, which have been kept indoors and had their moisture levels monitored carefully. I got in touch with Real Seeds last week to ask whether I was doing something wrong or whether anyone else had been having problems, and was assured that I had simply sown too early and seeds kept at a higher temperature would germinate fine. So I wait with bated breath...

Asparagus Cream Pasta

Dinner yesterday was a favourite asparagus recipe I got from Ready Steady Cook. The slightly mustardy sauce really sets off the flavour of the asparagus - I love it!

• Cut 8-12 asparagus spears into lengths about 4cm and boil until tender (3-4 minutes).
  
• Chop 4 spring onions and saute them in a little butter for a minute.
• Add 1 tbsp white wine and around 150ml double cream. Season and bring to the boil. Simmer for 2 or 3 minutes until the cream slightly reduces and thickens.
• Stir in 2 tsps wholegrain mustard, a generous handful of chopped chives and the asparagus, and heat through.
• Stir into cooked, drained pasta (tagliatelle recommended), check seasoning, and serve with grated parmesan. (I sometimes like to serve this with grilled chicken too.)

A Quiet Week...

Progress has been slow on the plot this week, and we haven't achieved much except for regular watering trips. I was beginning to think the warm sunny weather had spelled the end for my direct-sown seeds, and that the compost I sowed my salads in was perhaps too coarse despite all the sieving, and that maybe I'd have to sow everything again, and I was getting pretty depressed...

But today, in a general maintenance visit between rain showers, I was overjoyed to find a few radish seedlings and some tiny lettuce seedlings popping up! Hurrah! (They didn't photograph well, sadly, so you'll just have to believe me.) I also found a row of carrots coming up...

And some swede seedlings, under their little protective net tunnel...

The first strawberry flowers...

And the first potatoes appearing...

The onions are doing nicely, as are the shallots...
And the apple tree is about to burst into bloom. I didn't expect the buds to be this colour!

Hastings, our 'allotment cat', has been back for a couple of weeks after a long absence, and enjoyed lying about in the sun close to wherever I was watering and weeding.

And I picked these chives and asparagus spears for dinner.

I guess the plot has been busier than I have!

Breakfast (and some more sowing)

Exquisite.

I'm quite impressed by the speed it's grown, considering the cold spring! The compost and blood, fish and bone I smothered over the bed back in early March must have done it some good.

As usual, Samson had to get in on the excitement. Poser.


We gave the home garden a good tidy and sweep yesterday, did a bit of all-round seedling maintenance, and sowed a few more seeds. The pumpkins and things are getting to a pretty good size now...

...all except for these ones; the Waltham Butternut Squash.

After weeks of struggling, they've withered and died, despite being apparently specially suited to the British climate, and getting the same treatment as all the other squashes I'm growing. I've sown some more - plenty of extra seeds this time too - and will keep my fingers crossed.

I'm having a similar problem with the 'King of the North' peppers - not a single one has germinated, even though the Jalapeno peppers and tomatoes right next to them are doing well! Again, I've sown some more and will hope for the best.

My new herb seeds arrived yesterday, and I promptly sowed a trayful of purslane and a trayful of chervil. I will try to find somewhere on the plot to transplant them when they get started. The wild garlic and sweet cicely must be autumn-sown - doh!

The new broad beans I sowed to replace the ones at the plot are coming up good and fast, and hopefully will be ready to plant out in a week or two.


And one super-enthusiastic french bean (Delinel - my favourite!) has popped up in this trough in the garden (where they will stay), which reminded me to get round to sowing some runner beans for the plot as well.