The three amigos.

The three amigos: Fabes, Bunyard Exhibition and Crimson Flowered.

My runner beans went in the ground at the weekend, a weekend that started on Friday with me rescuing an abandoned, blue, plastic barrel from a field, then later staying with friends in Gorey where I received a gift of some precious, Asturian faba beans… thanks Mayte! And next morning, on the way home, buying another rhubarb plant at a farmer’s market, and five, not-so-small bales of barley straw at a disused brick factory.

On Saturday afternoon I dropped the straw off at the plot, covered it from the elements, and did a little bit of digging. Then on Sunday I planted two varieties of runner bean plus the fabes from Asturias (according to google, the faba bean is a member of the broad bean family, so that make it three kinds of broad bean then!). I planted two rows in a prepared bed, one row consisting of eight seeds of ‘Bunyards Exhibition’ and the second row – eight seeds of ‘Crimson Flowered’. The fabes went into two potato bags – four seeds per bag. I also sowed a few extra seeds per variety to use as transplants if required. Job done… now I’m looking forward to making Fabada in the summer!

The new rhubarb plant took its place in the rhubarb bed, and finally, I made space on the plot for my rescued water barrel.

On the way out I spotted the elusive Mr. Pheasant parading around the perimeter. I tried to sneak up on him for a closer shot but he was having none of it… one of these days!

Fabes in a bag… Fabada in the summer?

Filling a gap… the new rhubarb plant, ‘Timberley Early‘.

Come closer Mr. Pheasant.

Time to go home!

Band of Horses play at 100SquareMetres

Not much happening at the allotment lately except for the ongoing digging and preparation of raised beds. I don’t enjoy the drudgery of digging that much, so I find it helps to think of digging as a form of exercise. Something else that helps me dig is listening to music on my iPod. Mostly the rhythm helps me along, and sometimes I get lost in a song and forget I’m digging at all.

Last Sunday afternoon at the allotment I was listening to the album ‘Cease to Begin’ by Band of Horses. My hands were too mucky to fiddle with the iPod controls so it stayed on repeat. With nobody else about to hear me sing along I got through the digging in no time at all. Here’s one of the tracks called ‘No One’s Gonna Love You’… hope you like it…


Just checking.

Garlic makes an appearance.

It had been a few days since I visited my plot, so when Karen at Allotment Plot 4 posted about her new, green garlic shoots, I was eager to head over and see how my own garlic was getting on.

There was a cold wind blowing so I brought along a cup of hot chocolate to keep me warm. Normally I would do a little bit of digging or tidying but that morning I could only manage to take a few photos, drink my hot chocolate and get out of there before the wind froze my face off. Thankfully my fruit and veg were handling the adverse weather conditions better than this puny human and all looked healthy and content.

Shallots in the wind.

Rhubarb opening out.

A perky little onion.

Looking forward to strawberries.

Mmmmmm… hot chocolate!