Bike Hangar Test

A survey test on bike hangar provision in Devizes. Feel free to fill it in. Now removed and posted to the Cycle Friendly Devizes blog. 

Cargo Bike Survey Test

This wss a test survey for a possible cargo bike service in Devizes. Any responses in this test will be useful to see if it works, but will be disregarded in the final results. Now removed.

 

Figs

 

A good first crop of figs. I have three fig trees on the plot, all grown from small plants from a home wares shop. The largest is now over 6 feet tall and gives the most fruit, the other two are catching up. Figs are supposed to be grown with restricted roots to encourage fruit but these seem to do well as free range trees. The branches are starting to get crowded and will need a pruning after the crop is done.

Cycling Survey

This is a test run for a survey to assess local cycling demand; feel free to try it out, especially if you live in mid-Wiltshire. This will be pulled out and relaunched elsewhere after testing. 

 

Update........... the test survey has now been stood down. Thank you if you tried it out, this was a new venture and I'm pleased with how it is working so far.

Courgettes

Most of the plot is grass. The other bit has a few vegetables: today was a good day for courgettes.

Dragonfly.

This dragonfly flew past me when cycling by. It waited on a bush while I took a photograph.

Alton Barnes Airfield.

Alton Barnes was a wartime airfield although originally established as a relief landing ground in 1935. The remaining buildings are some gun posts, an air raid shelter and this building which housed the Link Trainer.

Blue

Painted blue and in the station yard.

Three wheeler

A whitemetal kit from the secondhand bits box at a model railway exhibition. It took a bit of bending and filing to get it to fit together.  It would look good in green, very good in red, but will probably end up blue. Probably a three wheeler Morgan F4.

Raspberry

The first raspberry crop from the allotment, and the resulting raspberry and elderflower granita.

Alton Barnes & Alton Priors

Two churches a short walk apart in the Vale of Pewsey. Alton Barnes church is Saxon but is still younger than the yew tree in the church yard. They are overlooked by the Alton Barnes White Horse.

Walks in the Vale of Pewsey.

Some walks in Pewsey Vale, to Knap Hill and Huish.

Blue Stilton

Blue Stilton from the market. Gentle, creamy and spreads like butter.

Lily

A picture from last year of Lily on a works train.

Progress with the station.

Progress with the station. Placing the buildings to decide the layout before starting on landscaping.

13th May 2020

Keeping the grass and weeds under control while cutting out beds to get some crops in for this year. Lost a couple of plants to frost on Monday night but there are spares in the greenhouse.

Spot the ant on the chard.

Update on the plot.

 

The plot has been neglected for a variety of reasons, and now the present lock down too. If this could be my designated daily exercise it may be possible to finish the year with the plot looking at least a little tidier. The herbs are doing well, there are some leeks that have continued to grow through the winter and the self sown ruby chard is looking good.

 

How it looks; 22nd May 2016

Just holding back the weeds. Broad beans a few inches long. Asparagus nearly finished.

Potatoes

Home Guard was a variety released in 1942 during the Dig for Victory campaign. It's a first early and good boiled, although it has a reputation for turning bitter if left in the ground too long.

My plot suffers from blight, which is why I've given up on growing tomatoes, but first early potatoes are usually ready for digging up before the haulms are too badly affected.

As well as Home Guard I've planted a short row of Pink Fir Apple salad potatoes.

These were all put in a bit early, traditionally they should be planted on Good Friday; hopefully the frost won't go down too deep.

Garlic

Last week I planted the garlic and shallots (the picture above is from 8 years ago). Both are useful crops that multiply from single cloves to clumps or bulbs. They should probably have been put in last autumn but they will settle in and catch up as the weather warms; they are planted deeply enough to avoid anything but the heaviest frosts. 

They need to be kept weeded and watered but are otherwise mostly problem free apart from a tendency to rust; apparently regular spraying with milk helps avoid this. Pliny recommended twisting the stalks to stop the plants running to seed. Planting them next to carrots helps to protect the latter crop from carrot fly by masking the scent that attracts the pest.

Garlic is a member of the allium family, like onions, leeks and chives. It probably came out of central Asia about 7,000 years ago and has been used by civilisations from the Ancient Egyptians onwards.  

Garlic has a place in mythology, keeping vampires at bay. Medical research includes some positive studies of garlic impact on blood pressure and cholesterol; but no proven effect on the common cold.

You can eat the bulbs, shoots, leaves and the young flower stalks, or scapes. If dried after harvesting it should keep through the winter if kept cool, dry and frost free.

Katharine Whitehorn said that if your friends don't like garlic you should get some new friends.