Category: Flighty’s plot

The weather has been rather unsettled this week with plenty of heavy rain, so it’s not surprising that I’ve only been to the plot once, on Tuesday after lunch when it was sunny.

Everything was okay, and I could tell how much rain there had been the previous couple of nights as the composter lid pond, which I mentioned here recently, was full to the brim.

I hadn’t been there long when I noticed a red kite slowly flying across the site in circles at very low-level.  At one point it passed right overhead so I got a good look at it.  Later I was standing on the roadway looking at a young (?) fox also standing on the roadway not far away looking at me.  After a moment or two it turned and headed off down one of the grass paths between two of the plots.  On the plot the asters were buzzing with bees. There were a few white butterflies fluttering about, including two sky dancing in close formation.  As I told the robin it was far too soggy for me to do any plotting, but he didn’t seem to mind as he was finding plenty of insects to  eat.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

There’s been rain overnight and it’s a rainy day ahead so I’m staying indoors today, and after lunch I’ll be armchair gardening doing some seed more sorting.

 

 

The weather was good last week thorough to yesterday and I did quite a lot of plotting, including collecting seeds from the annual flowers.  There are still plenty of annual flowers to be seen thanks to the cosmos and sunflowers.

 

I’ve not showed many pot marigolds Flighty’s favourites this year as they’ve had a bit of an off year, and didn’t do that well.  However I was pleased to see a couple of almost white ones Snow Princess, rather than the creamy colour they usually are.  Here’s one from September 2016, along with a two-tone yellow one.

The week ahead is looking rather unsettled so I guess that if I go to the plot I’ll be mostly pottering.

Have a good week, and take care!

was the variety of dwarf runner beans I grew this year, for the first time, rather than a climbing one mainly because I didn’t want to faff around putting up, and later taking down, the long bamboo canes.

I sowed them direct, all germinated then grew well and I picked more than enough pods, and even gave some away.  With red, white and two-tone flowers the plants looked good.

Surprisingly they suffered almost no slug damage. I did have to stake them with short pea sticks.  Perhaps best of all the ones I picked and ate were completely  stringless. They finished a week or so ago and before pulling the plants up and composting them I picked the few remaining pods to save the seeds.

I didn’t use all the seeds I bought so with both I’ll have enough for next year.  What surprised me was the difference between the two, with the saved seeds being lighter in colour and larger.

I look forward to growing these dwarf runner beans Jackpot again next year.

 

Have a good weekend, and take care!

I’ve now cleared and weeded all three vegetable areas, except for the sweetcorn plants, and made a start this morning roughly forking over the ground.  I’m doing where I grew the potatoes, and not surpringly found a dinner’s worth.  My only complete vegetable failure this year was carrots.  I sowed several lots of seeds which didn’t germinate or got eaten by slugs.  Otherwise I did better than expected which was slightly surprising given that it was considered to be a somewhat challenging and difficult season by most growers.

The three blue asters are all flowering, and I’ve seen plenty of bees on them  along with a couple of white butterflies.

Next week looks like being mostly dry, sunny and heading back into the low 20’s C/low 70’s F  so I’ll be mostly working through the flower patches.  I’ll be collecting seeds, dead-heading flowers, weeding and removing finished plants.  There are still plenty of flowers, including the sunflowers.

Have a good week, and take care!

an old, Dalek style, plastic composter last week, which I’ve put on unused ground along side the compost bin between the blackberry bush and rose Pretty Lady so that it’s partially hidden.

I’ve covered the  hole at the bottom with a folded over compost bag with wire mesh behind to keep it secure.

 

The lid I was given with it is for a different type of composter and doesn’t fit this one. What I’ve done is upturn it and put in a couple of engineering bricks so it stays put.  I’ve also added water to make it a pond.

I’ve already half filled it with various vegetable plants which I’ve been pulling up this week as they’ve all finished, along with some grass and weeds.  I’ve put it all in the composter rather than on the compost heap to make it easier when I start digging out and sieving compost from the bin later in the year.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

Yesterday morning I wasn’t surprised to see that the tomato plants have blight as it’s been damp and humid over the the past few days, which is ideal conditions for it. I’ll pick any fruit that’s still okay then pull up and dispose of them.  I’ve been picking plenty of ripe fruit for the past few weeks so I’m not that disappointed.

I’ve now picked and eaten several sweetcorn Sundance cobs, and needless to say they were delicious.

Hopefully I’ll be picking more over the next week or two, that is unless the squirrels find them first.

 

 

The sunflowers have done well this year, and this was the patch yesterday with plenty of flowers still showing.

They’ve mostly been yellow ones, with a few red/yellow, and none taller than around 4 ft/1.2 mt.

Have a good week, and take care!

The cornus/dogwood tree is showing lots of small black berries, the leaves are changing colour from green to dark red and it’s flowering again. Talk about confusing!

The sedum/iceplant is now in full flower but has grown so big you can now see that the middle is showing so its not looking anywhere near as good as it should be.

I will dig it up either in the late winter or early spring, split it then replant.

 

I picked and ate the first sweet corn cob on Friday, but forgot to take a photo.  I’ve started picking a handful of small red tomatoes, along with a few bigger ones each visit.  The beans, both dwarf French Sprite and dwarf runner Jackpot, have now just about finished.

The sunflowers are still doing well, with more to come.

Have a good week, and take care!

It rained most of last Saturday but has made little difference to the dry, cracked ground as you can see by the carrot patch a few days later.  The cracks are at least 6 in/15 cm deep in places as I can get my hand in from finger tips to the wrist.

There are only a few carrots growing from three lots of seeds I sowed which is disappointing as I’ve done quite well with them in recent years.

 

The cucumber plant (variety unknown) now covers at least 4 sq ft/0.37 sq mt and has produced nearly 20 fruit so far with  more to come.

Since I only eat one or two a week I’m giving the rest of them away.  I picked these at the beginning of the week.

 

The rose ‘Pretty Lady’ has lost most of its leaves and is looking in a rather sorry state except for the flowers that are still appearing.

Have a good weekend, and take care!