Still looking around the plot

Most of the nasturtiums so far this year have been red flowering ones.  Here is the variety Tip Top Mahogany.

The sunflowers are now all flowering, including the variety Holiday.

 

I’ve started lifting the second early potatoes Charlotte as the foliage has already died right back.  I will store the bigger ones to use through the autumn into the winter.

 

 

 

 

None of the climbing French beans Borlotti that I sowed germinated so I sowed more of the variety Sultana and runner beans Moonlight which  did.  The earlier ones have reached the cane tops and are flowering.

 

 

Have a good weekend!

Looking around the plot…

during the week I really am delighted, and just a bit surprised, at how good it all looks full of flowers, soft fruit and vegetables.

The cosmos patch has started flowering with a mix of red/white Velouette, white Purity and an unknown variety which is white with a hint of pink.

The gladioli Cha Cha are providing a wonderful display.

The onions Sturon are looking good with many of them being around tennis ball size. 

I’ve lifted a few beetroot Baby Beat that grow no bigger than golf ball size, so are easy and quick to cook, and picked the first cucumber Bush Crop.

   

The climbing beans are beginning to reach the top of the canes, the sweetcorn is looking good and there’s fruit forming on the tomatoes.

Back to flowers and the nasturtiums, sunflowers and viscaria are all flowering which I’ll show here next week.

I’m still still picking a few raspberries along with the first juicy, sweet blackberries.

There was some welcome, and much needed, rain overnight last Tuesday and yesterday there were plenty of light showers through the day.  The coming week looks like remaining dry so I’ll be having to water round again.

Have a good week!

Tree following, July 2017

Apologies for another rather brief post from both of us again this month.

Liz’s Tulip poplar – This tree in my garden over here in Lexington, Kentucky is doing well, looking good and has grown another foot taking to around seven feet.

I’m considering removing the lowest left-hand branch to give a strong leader and to make it look more balanced. Any advice here before I do so would be much appreciated.

 

 

 

Flighty’s Dogwood (Cornus) – This tree is now in full leaf which mostly hides the green berries that have formed from the white flowers shown last month. These  won’t get much bigger but will turn almost black as they ripen.

Our thanks, as usual, to Pat (The Squirrelbasket) for hosting Tree following.

Have a good weekend!

It’s always nice when

… I get to meet an online friend as I did on a Sunday morning at the end of May when I met Liz who regularly comments here and guest writes on the Sofa reading and Tree following posts. She was over from Kentucky, along with her daughter Mary, on a garden tour and before going home the next day I showed them round the plot then we went across to the horticultural society trading shed for a cup of tea and a few biscuits. It was a lovely morning and a real pleasure meeting Liz.

…other bloggers mention, and link to, this blog as Rich did a few days ago in his Sharpen your spades blog in the post 10 highlights from the grow your own blogs: June. His kind words are much appreciated.

…I see that Elaine over on The Rosebank Diaries has posted again after a break of several months. It’s always been one of my favourite blogs with wonderful pictures.

…I come across a new allotment blog that I really enjoy reading as I recently have with Faye’s Look what I dug up today. Her plot is in south-east London, and has a snazzy shed.

…I get home from the plot to find that Karen, who has a colourful sky garden on her 17th floor flat balcony, has sent me a delightful little gardening book. Her note said… I saw this and thought of you.  I’ll be doing a gardening books review later in the year and will include this one.

…I see that the weather forecast for the coming week is looking ideal for plotting.

Have a good week!

(My apologies for the lack of pictures in this post, and probably the next few as well. I’ve loaned my desktop PC to a friend for a couple of weeks so I’m doing this on my Chromebook where I’ve got to get reacquainted with Google Photos.)

Pottering rather than plotting

 

It’s been a dry and sunny week, and has got rather warm again.  I’ve been mostly pottering rather than plotting, and yesterday I made a start on dead-heading the pot marigolds.

 

 

 

This morning I went there early to water all round. I’d opened up the shed and when I turned round saw that Foxy had been resting under the nearby dogrose.  She stayed there quite unperturbed whilst I got the watering cans out.  I think that she was hoping to see my plot neighbour Fran who feeds her tasty titbits.

As you can see the knee-high sunflowers Music Box are flowering well.

 

 

It’s been good to see quite a lot of butterflies fluttering around during the week, and included Small Skippers,  Speckled Woods and Large/Small Whites.  This was the only reasonable picture that I managed to take, it’s a Small Skipper on the lavender.

 

 

The gazania Daybreak that I mentioned and showed in last Sunday’s post has been opening fully in the sunshine and is an amazing silky orange.

Have a good weekend!

Double delights

I acquired a nice china plant pot during May and then wondered what to put in it.  A couple of weeks later I was at the horticultural society trading shed looking at the charity sale plants where I noticed some gazania Daybreak.  I bought a few which I repotted, with the best plant going into a five inch plastic pot which fits perfectly into the china one. It’s grown well since and flowered yesterday.

A frost in late April  affected several plot plants including the hydrangea, but thankfully since then it has recovered. However I was resigned to having to wait another year for it to flower for the first time.  It’s partly hidden by cornflowers and pot marigolds so on Friday when I had a closer look I was delighted to see that it’s showing some flower buds.

 

It looks like being good plotting weather next week so I’ll be making the most of it.

Have a good week!

It was ten years ago…

this week that I signed the Form of Agreement for Letting for the allotment garden numbered 124A, otherwise known as Flighty’s plot.

At that time I was still working, although only part-time, and have since retired so over the past few years have been able, weather permitting, to spend a few hours most days year round happily plotting, pottering or just pondering. The benefits to my general well-being have been considerable throughout this time.  I live in a flat and don’t have a garden which has to be one of my few regrets, but the plot has certainly made up for that in most ways.

These two pictures were taken this morning and looking at them make me reflect on just what I’ve achieved in the past ten years.  I like to think that my mum, a life-long passionate gardener, would have approved.

Happy gardening, and have a good weekend!