Category: Flighty’s plot

I’ve not spent anywhere near as much time on the plot as I would have liked over the past few weeks due to various reasons. That’s meant that the flower area in particular has become a jungle of  mostly grasses and weeds. It’s great for the wildlife but not surprisingly my plot neighbours are less happy, although they do appreciate why it’s got overgrown and know that I will sort it out!

Where I’ve harvested my early potatoes I’m going to dig it over and sow some green manures Buckwheat which according to the packet is deep rooting to break up subsoils and makes a lot of growth to increase humus content.

In the area where I pulled up the broad beans I’m now going to sow six quick growing oriental crops – Chinese Broccoli Kailaan,  Chinese Cabbage Green Rocket F1,  Choy Sum Tsai Hsin,  Pak Choi Tatsoi Tah Tsai,  Radish China Rose and Mustard Leaf Osaka Purple.

On Thursday I pulled the first few carrots which were crunchy and rather tasty, and some spring onions!

I was also pleased to see the first sunflower

and these two pot marigolds Art Shades(?)

There were lots of butterflies fluttering around but this Meadow Brown was the only one that settled long enough for me to get a photo of

Georgie very kindly sent me some seeds recently including what she thought at the time were yellow pansies but which she now says are like this! If so then I’ll be delighted as that is a really lovely looking flower.

Happy gardening!

The Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris) is a perennial native wild-flower. The flowers have  darker stripes that act as nectar guides for visiting bees.

There are two on the plot which are covered in flowers as you can see on my new header picture and in this one

Much as I would have liked to have followed Glo’s suggestion that I visit Shoreham-by-Sea to get defrazzled I opted to spend a couple of hours  pleasantly pottering instead.

Thankfully yesterday morning the weather was cooler, and less humid,  so I harvested some potatoes, a couple of red beetroot, lettuce leaves, a bowl full of delicious raspberries and the last of the sweet juicy strawberries. Plot neighbour Lesley kindly gave me a carton of blackcurrants, which I shall eat later on with a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream.

There’s now lots of poppiesand pot marigolds Sherbert Fizz

The bees love the flowering teaselsand how about this jewel of a beetle

Whilst wandering round I also saw two sparrows on the nut feeder, butterflies fluttering overhead and ladybirds loitering.

Thanks to cooler weather, some pleasant pottering and looking at enjoyable posts like Glo’s  Bright and ‘Cherry’ I’m feeling positively defrazzled!

I’ve finished planting and sowing now until the autumn, but there’s still plenty to do such weeding, watering and harvesting.

So far I’ve had first early potatoes Swift,  lettuce  Buttercrunch and Lollo Rosso,  some finger-tip sized radish French Breakfasta few raspberries and, as you know, lots of strawberries. I’ve even had my first beetroot Cylindra and a couple of Burpee’s Golden which I lifted yesterday morning cooked after lunchand had for tea in a couple of salad sandwiches. Very tasty!

Colourful nasturtiums have started appearingas have some poppiesand how about this bouquet of blooms on the rose Valentine Heart

I’ve seen a few of these, which thankfully are rather smaller than shown here! Ladybirds are now apppearing all over the plot, and are one of many insects I’ve noticed on the teasels

As you’ve probably realised by now there’s nothing on TV next week that I think is worth mentioning here.

Have a good weekend!

I have to say that I’m getting to like my strawberries!

I picked some this morningto have after lunch and with my breakfast in the morning.

Anyway there’s plenty to go round so…strawberry anyone?

to say that the broad beans that I ate yesterday were ones that I grew on the plot.  Sadly that’s not so and it looks like I won’t be doing so either as mine are totally infested with blackfly. The first variety I sowed were so bad that I pulled them up during the week and got rid of them. In their place I’ve sowed  more beetroot and lettuce, and a packet of carrot Autumn King.

The other ones aren’t so bad, but that’s not saying much!  The ones I ate were kindly given to me by plot neighbour Joe, being ones he planted last November. Even these weren’t that good as despite having plenty of long pods they contained surprising few fully grown beans.

I had six courgette seeds, two of which I gave to Joe and of the other four just one appeared only for it to be completely nibbled away!  I’ve been given a few more  so I’ll try again.

On a happier note I’ve had potatoes, lettuce leaves, lots of strawberries  and today I ate my first raspberry.

It’s good to see the birds again now they’ve finished nesting, and last week a jay flew across the allotments and there was wren perched on top of a bundle of bamboo canes singing it’s heart out. I keep seeing sparrows on the non-flowering Iceberg rose,  presumably eating the greenflies.

Apparently Missy Fox had four cubs a few months ago, a bit later than usual probably due to the cold weather, but sadly one of them was found dead  during the week. It looked okay so we guess that it had been poisoned. Last year’s cub Digger is still around and certainly living up to his name!

Happy birthday Nikki

Flighty xx

I’ve now got lots of different grasses on the plot which look good

I’m also pleased to see two teasels growing in the wild flower cornerThey hold water in the leaveswhich insects drink from. They’re also a plant to stay well clear of as they are very thorny, on both the stems and the leaf undersidesLater on in the year I may even be lucky enough to see goldfinches extracting seeds from the flower heads.

I’ve given up trying to grow anything  in the pallet patio window box at present because as you can see a fox keeps on digging it up!

Last week I was pleased to see,  for the first time,  a couple of house sparrows foraging on the plot.

Tomorrow sees the start of the RSPB’s  Make Your Nature Count event which I’m sure that anyone who does the Big Garden Birdwatch will enjoy doing just as much.

The love-in-a-mist had started flowering by yesterday which Beginninghere will be pleased to see.

The Pretty Lady roses are on the way whilst one Valentine Heart is already blooming

On Thursday morning I was doing some weeding and kept noticing brown butterflies fluttering past me, although none settled on the plot.  I got the camera and went walkabout finding this one  sunning itself on a nearby path Once home I identified it as a Painted Lady which according to this have been seen in very large numbers over much of the country during the past week.  Whilst taking photos of the roses I turned round to see this one on the nearby perennial cornflower It’s amazing as I’ve seen more butterflies in the past couple of days than I have in the past few years!

My Swift early potatoes have now been in the ground ten weeks so this morning, after hut duty,  I went firkling and found these under one plant, of which the smallest one is about the size of a golf ball. I brought them home and for lunch had a few boiled along with a cod and parsley fish cake and some (frozen) vegetable mix. Very tasty! That was followed by some of plot neighbour Brian’s rhubarb with a couple of scoops of vanilla icecream.

I’m grateful to A Midwife’s Muse for giving me a One Lovely Blog Award. I shall do a seperate post about that during the next week or so.