Flighty’s plot

I’ve not been to the hut for a few Sundays but I went this morning as I needed to buy peanuts and seeds for the birds. I had a mug of coffee, and a couple of dunking ginger nuts, whilst chatting to several folk mostly, and not surprisingly, about the weather.

From there I went to the plot where I weeded for a while then took some photos before calling it a day as it was starting to drizzle again.

There were several Californian poppies out which are surrounded by Love-in-a-Mist.

Bees were on the Cornflowers and the Comfrey

There are lots of poppies which will look wonderful in flower.

Here’s the well hidden pond , I’m still undecided what to have in the stone feature

and I can’t remember what I sowed in the trough

What is noticeable on the plot is the number of grasses, some of which are several feet tall, all with differing flower heads.

I really don’t have to say what the forecast is for the next couple days , but it does look better beyond that!

are both much better today I’m glad to say!

It’s sunny and warm so I went to the plot. My neighbour Brian confirmed that it was too wet to really do anything so I just topped up the peanuts in the bird feeder, the mixed seeds having hardly been touched.

The pond is now well hidden by grasses , and although I looked there was so sign of the taddlers just an insect water skimming.

There are lots of buds on both the Pretty Lady

and Valentine Heart roses.

Bees were buzzing round the comfrey which is now in full flower, some ladybirds scurrying about and a blue tit flitted by.

Not surprisingly I’ve really enjoyed watching Springwatch this week! It’s not on tomorrow but it’ll be worth watching Gardeners’ World on BBC2 at 8.00pm as Simon King will be at Berryfields to assess the garden’s wildlife credentials. Springwatch is back from Monday onwards on BBC2 at 8.00pm.

It’s National Wildlife Week from this Saturday to 21 June, and yes these dates are correct!

Have a good weekend!

is one year old today, and I’m sitting here looking out the window just as I did then at the same weather!

The plot has given me much pleasure since Week 1 back at the end of last June.

The past couple of weeks I’ve not been, or done much, there for one reason or another and it looks like it’ll be Thursday before I next do any further plotting!

I was there briefly yesterday morning, soon after 6.00am, and was delighted to see one of the lilies in flower

a few splashes of colour in the jungle and that there were bees on the aquilegia

Plot 124 certainly looks very different now to when I saw it for the first time!

My thanks to everyone who stops by to read this blog, and especially to those of you who comment!

Unusually for me I’ve been sneezing, had a runny nose and a sore throat for a day or two. What with that and the fact that I don’t like it too warm, say over 25C, I went to the plot early this morning and did an easy few hours.

I sowed some more flower seeds, continued weeding and took plenty of breaks for a tin mug of tap water whilst trying out my new log seat which Joe gave me, along with a fewer smaller ones for the log pile.

I’ve let the area at the top right-hand (north-east) corner of the plot get rather overrun with grass. However there are plenty of poppies there as well as some knapweed, meadow cranesbill and other wild flowers. I’m going to leave it pretty much alone until the autumn when I’ll dig it over properly then probably sow a packet of perennial plants mixture.

Some of the lettuce and beetroot that I sowed have appeared, there are some well hidden flowers on the rosemary and two of the roses have the beginnings of flower buds on them. A blue tit put in a fleeting appearance at the peanut feeder and there were ladybirds everywhere.

I hope to be there Tuesday, Thursday and Friday next week when apart from taking it easy I’ll be making good use of the log seat!

it looks like the weather here is doing what we want it to do!

I spent the morning both yesterday and today on the plot. Much of the time I was weeding, but even after all that effort it still looks as though I’ve hardly touched it, mind you it seems that I’m not the only one!

Whilst removing the empty plastic compost bags that cover the compost heap I was surprised to find a mouse that decided it didn’t like being disturbed and disappeared down into the far corner. The only other wildlife of note were a number of spiders scuttling over the log pile.

The grape vine is showing signs of growth, and in the same planter are some seedlings which I didn’t sow!

I’ve noticed a few flowers on the strawberries and some of the early potato leaves are appearing

I’ve transferred the sweet peas, the aquilegia is about to flower and the lilies(?), that Joe gave me in autumn, which died right back have reappeared.

I’m letting this tree(?) grow at least for a while, and here’s the first flower on the plant in the stone centre feature.

Birds(?) ate all the leaves on this plant when it was in the grape vine planter but is now regrowing, and I do like daisies!

I hope to spend at least an hour there most mornings during the week when I’m working from now on and should be sowing some seeds each time I’m there, as well as doing a bit more weeding!

Happy gardening, and relaxing lawn lounging afterwards!

A combination of continuing unsettled, wet weather and working extra days/hours in the bookshop has meant that I’ve not managed to spend as much time on the plot as I would have liked.

This updates happenings since my last Plot 124 entry Rain stopped play two weeks ago!

On the vegetable areas I’ve planted my well chitted maincrop potatoes and as you can see put the canes up for the runner beans

I’ve got the varietyPainted Lady which has white faced flowers with bright red lips. I won’t be sowing the seeds until around this time next month.

The comfrey which died right back over the winter is now growing well again

The strawberries that John gave me last autumn not only died back but rotted away in the wet ground. Joe noticed that they’d gone so kindly said to help myself to a few of his. This I did and have planted these in a different place where he thought that they should grow okay. You can see them at the front of this photo The light coloured area is where the raspberry canes are, most of which are now showing good signs of growth. The blackberries, top right, are also growing well.

Because I’m going to to grow more vegetables than I originally intended I’ve sown the packet of mixed herbs in an area that I was going to have flowers.

My single Iceberg rose has woken up at last but has a long way to go before it looks like this!

Dotted around the flower patches are this aquilegia

, several clumps of this , some daisies which are growing at the left hand end of the log Note the self-seeded poppies growing along the edges of the wood chip path.

Ladybirds appear to have colonised my original log as I’ve seen several sunning themselves on it recently. As you can see the mild, wet weather has certainly made the grass grow. I clipped it where it’s growing down the plot edges but left it long the pond, wild flower and log pile area. I also left any of these for the bees but will pick them before they get the chance to do this!

I had a good look under the shed on Friday and there’s no robin’s nest there. I’m glad to see that there are still a few tadpoles taddling in the pond. It was also good to see some of these fluttering around.

It was a really nice day and there were quite a few fellow allotmenteers there who all wanted to chat, which I was happy to do. Today it’s wet yet again, and the forecast is the same for most of the coming week. I don’t mind too much as I’m working extra in the bookshop again so won’t have time to do more than take a stroll there for a quick look round. However I do hope that it improves for the Bank Holiday weekend.

After lunch I shall be settling down to sofafly with a cup of tea, some biscuits and a copy of Sally Hinchcliffe’s first novel Out of a Clear Sky. You all know her better as Disgruntled Commuter/City Exile.

Thursday was sunny and warm so as I wasn’t working I spent all morning on the plot. I planted my early potatoes and the onions in the far corner of the plot beyond the log pile. I also planted the gladioli bulbs in three places around the flower areas. The rest of the morning was spent pondering and pottering.

Today it started out bright and sunny, but I was slow to get going when I got up lingering as I did over breakfast before heading off to the plot.

I found another lychnis, which is bigger than the one I mentioned the other day, which I’ve planted in the stone feature. If I get something else for there then I’ll take it out and plant it elsewhere. I also planted a small aquilegia in the front of Nikki’s corner, and some variagated leaved vinca by the smaller log.

I then planted a row of each Leek ‘Musselburgh’, Beetroot ‘Boltardy‘ and Lettuce ‘Little Gem’.

I mulched round the raspberries with the last of the wood chippings, which will keep the weeds down and help retain moisture. The strawberries I was given and planted in the autumn clearly haven’t survived so I’ve dug that area over and will think about what to do there instead. I’m not so concerned about losing those as I’m not that keen on them, much preferring blackberries and raspberries.

I chatted with Trevor who was going to do his stint at the hut and he said that it looked like I wouldn’t be doing much more. He was right as I’d just about cleared up when it got very cloudy indeed and rain stopped play ! It was forecast but at least I had been there a couple of hours.

It feels good to have got a few vegetables planted and sown, and I’ll now consider which flowers I shall sow first and where.

Earlier in the week at home I transplanted the sweet peas so that they’re now two to a square pot, and thankfully they all seem to have survived that okay.

Two days on from snowy Sunday with a lovely sunny springlike day today Last Thursday and Friday were just as nice so as I wasn’t working either day I spent some time here plotting along! I didn’t do much Thursday as I started the day with a headache which was slow to clear so I pondered and pottered.

Friday was a much better day. I started by taking my new feature to the site in the car then using a borrowed wheelbarrow to get it to the right place, which is just about the centre of the plot. I wasn’t sure that I’d even be able to move it let alone lift it but the third Weetabix that I had for breakfast made all the difference! It’s about 12″high, 15″square outside and 9″ inside. Now all I’ve got to do is decide what to grow in it. Any suggestions?

I dug in a few plants that I dug up from the so-called garden outside my flat including this lychnis , and some periwinkle (vinca major) and yellow fumitory (corydalis lutea) both of which I like, but I know do tend to be rather rampant if left alone. Earlier in the week I put some aquatic weed and a plant into the pond along with a few taddlers, which I got from my plot neighbour Lesley’s pond. The unknown flowering bulbs I mentioned recently are some kind of narcissus

Today I was happy to see a handful of ladybirds sunning themselves on the original log, which presumably they’ve made their home. The good weather is forecast to last another couple of days so hopefully on Thursday I shall finally get to plant some onions and potatoes, and do some much needed weeding in one of the planned flower patches.

I thought that it was very quiet when I woke up this morning. It had that silent sound that a covering of snow gives. Sure enough I opened the the curtains to a snowy Sunday!

I had a quick cup of tea and a biscuit before donning my coat, cap, gloves and wellies. This time I wanted to photograph Plot 124 in the snow.

There was perhaps an inch of soft snow underfoot, and big flakes falling as I walked along. I reached the gates and could see that no one else had been here this morning.

I’m glad that I was here during the week doing some work. In fact it was very pleasant in the sunshine on Thursday morning, which was the warmest day of the year so far!

Thankfully the bird feeders are okay and there’s no ice on the pond, so it’s a few more photos then home for a another cup of tea and some toast. Much of the rest of the day will most definitely be spent sofa flying!

Plotting along the entry planned for today is all about what I’d been doing here during the week and which I’ll now post in the next day or two.

Sunday morning was sunny and warm, which wasn’t what had been forecast. I called into the hut to buy peanuts for the birds and some rose food. I also spent £1 on five raffle tickets but forgot to ask what the prizes are!

It was very pleasant on the the plot but the under the surface the soil is still on the sticky side. The forecast is for dry and warm weather from mid-week on so hopefully next week will see me planting onions, potatoes and the various bulbs, corms and tubers I bought a few weeks ago.

I lightly forked some rose feed in around the roses which are all looking good with plenty of signs of growth. The aquilegia which almost disappeared during during the winter is doing well. It’ll be interesting to see which one it is as there’s lots of varieties. There are some bulbs I planted that are about to flower but I can’t remember what they are!

I repositioned a chunky sized log that I acquired last Friday, and which I’ll point out when I next include a plot photo showing it. I hoed over the area where I’m going to plant the potatoes. The original blackberry has grown considerably so I’ve now supported it. Whilst doing that I saw this really tiny plant flower which was no bigger than a small finger nail. Isn’t it lovely!

So now I’m all set to go!