Everybodys’ favourites!

This is often said of one of the most impressive flowers, which is surely worthy of a place in any garden or allotment. It is the Sunflower(Helianthus annus) which is also a favourite for children of all ages!

When I was chosing what seeds to grow I found that there were plenty of varieties to choose from, with Chiltern Seeds listing around 20. I’ve gone for Autumn Beauty which grows to 6 feet tall and has branching stems freely producing flowers 6 inches across in colours including bronze, cream, lemon, mahogany and old gold.

During the week I was given a packet of Giant Singles which are likely grow over 12 foot high!

One bonus of Sunflowers is that the attractive seed heads are loved by the birds.

Another favourite flower has to be the Sweet Pea(Lathyrus odoratius) of which there are numerous varieties. Among the seeds that Nikki was kind enough to send me were three different packets. They are Early Multiflora Blend which has dainty flowers on long stems; Heirloom which is the original sweet pea that can be traced back to the 1690’s, is purple & deep blue bicolour and very fragrant, and Bouquet Blend which has heavier, longer stems and larger flowers ideal for cutting.

I’m assured that sweet peas are a sow and forget, easy to grow flower. I’m told that all I need to do is insert my forefinger an inch into the soil, cover and that’s it. I shall grow mine two each at the base of four 6 foot canes tied into a wigwam.

I’ve always said that I intended to sow all my seeds direct on the plot however I have sown some into plastic containers as I was given a bag of seed compost a couple of weeks ago. Among these are some sweet peas which after less than two weeks look like this The seedlings on the left, which appeared in a couple of days, are Eucharidium breweri ‘Pink Ribbons’ which Nikki may well recognise as it’s from California. It has narrow leaves and in summer bears countless, beautifully scented, deep glowing pink flowers with narrow, ribbon-like petals. It’s a sow and forget annual which makes a delightful little pot plant.

Happy gardening!

A new friend

It’s always nice when I make a new friend here as I’ve done this week.

There was a comment from Glo on my Easter Sunday entry last Tuesday. She didn’t blog and hadn’t commented here before so it was most welcome.

Following that she sent me a couple of emails with links to some of her wildlife photos such as this eagle landing.

I thanked Glo and suggested that perhaps she should start a blog. She did just that with Porcelain Rose, and as you can see she’s already done several entries with some lovely poems and photos. I’m sure that it will prove to be a popular blog and is already one of my favourites.

On my entry The pond last Tuesday lawn lounger Louise asked if the frogs had found it yet. Well have a look at this It’s not quite what it seems but it’s thanks to Glo as you’ll see if you read this!

Thanks to all my friends as yesterday was the best day yet for visits here. I’m especially grateful to everyone who not only stops by but also comments.

Tigers, wolves and birds

If like me you like big cats, and especially tigers, then we’ll all be settling down on Sunday evening to watch Tiger – Spy in the Jungle on BBC1 at 8.00pm. This is a new series of three programmes that looks like it is going to be absolutely brilliant viewing. Sir David Attenborough says “The most extraordinary portrait of tigers yet seen.”

Lobo – The wolf that changed America is next Wednesdays Natural World on BBC2 at 8.00pm. It is slightly different as it is more of a history programme than usual.

The RSPB has published the Garden Birdwatch 2008 results earlier this week. This Guardian article about them makes interesting reading.

It’s a shorter entry that I’d planned but as I’ve done a few more than usual recently then I hope that you’ll excuse me. The weekend weather forecast for London is wet and windy so it’s looking likely that I won’t be allotmenteering. If that’s the case then as well as at least one entry I’ll probably redo my Flighty page to include a bit more detail.

Have a good weekend!

WordPress problems!

Please note that I, and others, are having a few problems with WordPress.

Some comments that I made on friends blogs, including Daffy and Nikkipolani, have not appeared on the entries as they’ve been treated as spam! This has been happening with Purplephreak’s comments for some time.

Daffy also lost her photos yesterday for no apparent reason, Nikki’s comments here over the past few days haven’t been linked when they should have been and last night I also noticed some hiccups with the stats.

I’ve emailed WordPress, and Akismet, about these and hope to receive a prompt response. Meantime if things seem a little strange here I apologise but it’s entirely due to circumstances beyond my control.

My usual Thursday entry will be posted this afternoon after I get home.

The pond

Having spent most of yesterday indoors sofa flying with a good book, along with lots of cups of tea and too many biscuits I needed to get out today.

As it was dry, although cold and windy, I went to the allotment this morning to have a look round as usual. I ended up moving the pond, as I’ve never really been happy with where I’d put it. I’ve only moved it a foot so that it now partly nestles next to a clump of grass which I feel is a much better place, being far less obvious.

I then lighty forked over the wild flower area, which has the pond at one end and the log pile at the other, with the recovering globe artichoke in front of it.

As I put things away in the shed I’m reminded by my small collection of flowers of sunny days to come!

Easter Sunday

Yesterday morning following on from the entry I did I decided to venture out in the cold to the horticultural society hut and the allotment site.

Not surprisingly I was the only customer at the hut whilst there so I chatted with the guys on duty. I had a cup of tea, bought some peanuts for the birds and two different sized plastic screw-top spray bottles then went on to the plot.

By that time the snow had mostly gone but you can see how bleak it was
Note the still upright daffodils and you can just see two starlings on the right-hand feeder. The brown and white box, at top left, is a beehive.

After refilling the feeders, clearing the ice on the pond and taking this photo I watched a couple of coal tits on the peanut feeder then came home to warm up and have lunch.

This morning when I pulled back the curtains in the living room I saw a chaffinch perched on the wing mirror of a car parked just a few feet away! The forecast for today, Easter Monday, is cold and sunny but so far it’s been grey and now at 10.00am it’s snowing.

One hundredth

This is the one hundredth entry that I’ve done here on Flighty’s Plot. I’m going to leave a proper celebration for a few months until its first birthday, and when Plot 124 will also be one year old.

Hopefully the weather will then be nice and summery. I’m sitting writing this before 9.00am on Easter Sunday looking out the window at the snow not only falling quite heavily but settling on the rooftops!

Clearly no allotmenteering is going to be done today, or for the next few days, so I shall enjoy some sofa flying instead. After lunch I’m going to settle down to a good read, along with a cup of tea and some plain chocolate biscuits.

Stay warm and take care…Flighty

My new header!

Over recent weeks I’ve been enjoying looking at the superb images on NiC’s London Daily Nature Photo.

I’ve always liked photo blogs and this one has become a favourite, especially as the pictures have been taken about 15 miles down the road from me.

I particularly like one image and asked NiC if I could use part of it for my new header! He thankfully agreed and I think that it looks terrific.

I have also changed the theme which I hope you like as much as I do!

Happy Easter!

Tomorrow, Good Friday, heralds the traditional start of the gardening year, which is early this year. It also sees the welcome return of Gardeners’ World on BBC2 at 8.30pm.

On Sunday, Easter Day, there is a real wildlife TV treat with My Life with Animals:Simon King on BBC2 at 6.10pm. He looks back over thirty years of making wildlife films and relives some of his most astonishing moments.

Wednesday sees the return of the always excellent wildlife TV series Natural World with Elephant Nomads of the Namib Desert on BBC2 at 8.00pm.

The forecast for the holiday weekend is, typically, not looking very good. If you do venture out to the British countryside then the When to Watch Wildlife site is worth looking at before you go.

Happy Easter!

Too many seeds ?

For the record here is a photo of the 60 plus packets of flower, herb and vegetable seeds that I will be sowing on Plot 124 over the next couple of months

Bear in mind that the plot is no more than 30 by 60 feet and has a pallet patio, woodchip paths, a compost area, a soft fruit patch and so on. There’s also various bulbs, corms, tubers, onion sets and chitted potatoes to be planted. On that basis I reckon that the area for seed sowing is reduced by around a third.

Even taking into account that many won’t germinate, and some eaten by the birds, I really do think that I have enough. So I must stop browsing through the catalogues or looking at the seeds in the hardware shop and horticultural society’s hut.

I went to the plot this morning as I’d not been there since Friday. There was a cold wind so apart from topping up the bird feeders and putting up some wire trellis for the grape vine I did little else.

On my usual tour of inspection I did notice that there’s plenty of signs of growth including some tiny leaves on one of the raspberry canes! I’m also happy to say that the globe artichoke is recovering, just as I was told it would.