I was glad to finish clearing the last of the cosmos and sunflowers, along with cutting back the other two big clumps of asters, on Monday and Tuesday.
As usual my feathered friend, the robin, was around and at long last I got a few worthwhile pictures.
It looks like we’re in for a another spell of wet and windy weather so I guess that I won’t be doing much, if any, plotting for a while.
Have a good weekend, and take care!
by doing some welcome plotting on Friday and yesterday. I cleared Cosmos Corner, then weeded and hoed it.
I’ve still to got clear the rest of the sunflowers, top left, and work over the flower patch, over on the right, again to dig up rather a lot of pot marigold tap roots which didn’t pull up when I removed the plants a while back.
I also cut back the stems on the two smaller asters to around a foot then covered the ground with a spadeful of compost.
I’ve never been that happy with the pond, a plastic trug basket without the handle, I’ve had in the ground by the big clump of asters so I’ve removed it. At the moment I’m putting some of the dug out compost there whilst I decide what, if anything I put there next year. The white flowering primroses, over on the right, I will dig up, divide then replant elsewhere.
Looking round I noticed that there’s new growth around the sedum stems and the crocus Romance have started to appear.
Have a good week, and take care!
I was relieved to find that all was okay on the plot after a weekend of very unsettled weather although, not surprisingly, all the remaining flowers had been finished off. The ground was very soggy and, as usual, there was some waterlogging in the corner by the crocosmia.
As we head into winter I’ll still be going to the plot, weather permitting, even if it’s just to have a look round. If ground conditions are okay I’ll hopefully do some plotting, including continuing to dig out, and sieve, the compost heap.
Over the next week or two I want to cut back all the asters/Michaelmas daisies to around one foot/ 30 cm and cover with compost. The stems will be removed in early spring once there are signs of new growth. This picture is from October 2014.
This year the big clump of sedums flopped in the middle so didn’t have the impact it usually do. One recommendation is to remove every other flower stem during May. I think that I’ll wait until early spring when new growth will be showing then dig it up, seperate then replant. This photo is from September 2019.
Have a good weekend, and take care!
This weekend the weather has been cold, wet and very windy at times so it’s little wonder that I’m a touch moochy.
I had a quick look round the plot after lunch a couple of times last week but the ground was soggy and, despite the sunshine, there was a cold wind so I didn’t linger.
These orange pot marigolds Flighty’s Favourites are from August 2012.
Have a good week, and take care!
this week with daytime temperatures feeling around 0 C, a couple of hard overnight frosts and some sleety rain but thankfully no snow.
With weather like this it’s not surprising that the remaining flowers haven’t survived and were looking very sorry yesterday when I had a quick look round the plot after lunch.
I’ve been mostly armchair gardening this week and this morning received the packet of sunflower Big Smile seeds I ordered a couple of days ago. One of these I’ll be growing in a pot on the windowsill, and the rest on the plot. I’ve not bought from RP Seeds before but I’m impressed with the packaging, and their website which I’ll looking through again.
I’ll also be looking at the MoreVeg website as they have a sale on for the next few weeks. I’ve always bought most of my vegetable, and some flower, seeds there and can highly recommend them, particularly if you only want small quantities.
This is an achive photo of sunflowers Ring of Fire I grew in 2019.
Have a good weekend, and take care!
On Friday I was digging out, and sieving, a barrowload of compost during which I looked up and much to my delight saw that the robin was having a splish splash in the composter lid pond.
It wasn’t surprising that he was around all last week as when I was forking over the vegetable patches I was turning up plenty of worms.
He gradually got closer to was almost within reach at times.
It was good weather all week so I made the most of it and got plenty done.
In complete contrast this coming week looks like being cold, frosty and windy with it feeling around 0 C during the day so I’ll be armchair gardening rather then plotting.
Here’s two pictures of the plot I took on Friday. The first one is from the bottom south-west corner looking up the plot, and the other one is from the top north-east corner looking across the flower patches. 
Sadly I’m sure that anything still flowering will be finished off during the week bringing this year’s season to a close.
Have a good week, and take care!
I’ve been to the plot every day so far this week as it’s been mostly dry and sunny, although a bit chilly early on.
I finished forking over the rest of the patch where I’ll be growing potatoes next year. That means I’ve now done all three vegetable patches and can leave them be now except to hoe off any weeds which appear. I’ve also dug out, and sieved, the first barrowload of compost.
I recently mentioned that my plot neighbour has a large clump of ox-eye daisies on her plot which have self-seeded. She kindly said I could help myself if I wanted any so yesterday I dug up three small clumps. I’ve planted two out on the flower patch and the other one in the large black plastic container which stands by the shed.
It may be mid-November but I’ve still got flowers and fruit on the blackberry bush, and there are flowers on the strawberries.
Have a good weekend, and take care!
Have a good week, and take care!
has continued all week and I’ve only been to the plot once so far, although I’m hoping to get there after lunch.
I really only pottered on Monday morning as I didn’t do much.
It’s good to see the leaves on the double row of strawberry plants changing from green to red then pale yellow.
Looking round I was pleased to see this English Daisy tucked away against the side of of the path by the shed. I think that it’s one I had in a pot at home on the windowsill which I later planted out on the plot. It’s grown since and looks to be doing well.
I’ll be trying to grow some from seed again next year as so far I’ve had no luck at all.
The gloomy weather looks set to continue through the weekend and into next week so here are some pot marigolds Flighty’s favourites from July 2015 to help cheer us all up.
Have a good weekend, and take care!
, and drizzly occasionally, here for the past few days but I have been to the plot twice. I forked over the vegetable patch where I’ll be growing the onions next year. It was still a bit claggy, especially near the croscosmia where it does get waterlogged when very wet.
Next year I’m going to try growing the sunflower Holiday again, having tried unsuccessfully a few years ago. This variety is only four feet tall but grows four feet across forming a spherical bush with plenty of long stemmed golden yellow flowers. Because of it’s size I’ll only be growing two or three plants. The sunflowers did well this year but were nearly all yellow and it would have been nice to have had a couple of different coloured ones like these two from past years.
Looking round the allotments earlier in the week I was lucky enough to see a wren, having only ever seen one previously. I also saw a moorhen again, this time just outside the site gates.
Have a good week, and take care!
Flighty's plot 