Mostly marking time

I went to the horticultural society trading shed this morning to buy a few items, including a bag of compost and some Growmore general fertiliser. I’ll be using the compost in the pots at home, both ones which will be staying on the windowsill and others which I’ll be taking to the plot to plant out. The fertiliser I’ll be scattering over where I’ll be planting and sowing the vegetables, and around the soft fruit.

I only had a quick look round the plot today as the ground is still a bit soggy following the rain there has been recently.

I was pleased to see new growth appearing on the red valerian in the stone feature as I thought it may have died over the winter.

 

Next week it looks like there’ll be some light rain at times with the temperature reaching around 15 C/60 F, and hopefully I’ll be doing some plotting after mostly marking time the past couple of weeks.

Have a good week, and take care!

It’s been warmer,…

wetter and windier this week but I’ve done little on the plot apart from digging out and sieving a couple more barrow loads of compost. I also hoed the area where I’ll be planting the potatoes, which are presently chitting in plastic trays on the windowsill.

I tend to grow most of the cosmos in the area I call cosmos corner. I’ve grown various varieties over the years, and try to keep to ones that are shorter at around 2 ft/60 cm or less. I prefer the white and bi-coloured pink/white ones.

As with all the annual flowers I grow I let some self-seed and also save seed to sow in the spring.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

It was bitterly cold…

last week, especially on Friday, but thankfully there was no snow. I only went to the plot on Tuesday for a quick look round.

Yesterday and today have been slightly warmer so I had a plot potter both days, but I couldn’t do much this morning as it had rained overnight.

Temperatures look like being into double figures centigrade next week but it will still feel rather chilly some days with the wind gusting to over 40 mph at times. The clocks change in two weeks and hopefully as well as being lighter it will also be warmer and more settled.

One job I did recently was to prune out the old flower stems on the sedum/iceplant.

Have a good week, and take care!

 

Tree following, March 2023

The weather has been really miserable this week but late Tueday morning, although still cold, it was dry and  brightened up slightly so I went and took a quick look at the Elder tree I’m following this year. It’s located just outside the allotment site gates at the other end to where my plot is. It’s certainly not an imposing tree but close up an interesting one.

 

As well as being covered in ivy, it has mutiple trunks with roughly ridged bark and many of the branches have lichen growing on them.

I’m looking forward to brighter, warmer weather when I’ll go and spend longer having a good look at it.

My thanks to Pat, The Squirrelbasket, for hosting Tree following. If you want to find out more, and perhaps join in, please have a look at this Tree following post.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

A touch moochy

It’s continued chilly and dull, and looks set to get even colder with the possibility of some sleet or snow mid-week so it’s little wonder that I’m a touch moochy.

I took a look round the plot this morning for the first time since Thursday just to make sure all was okay, which it was thankfully, but didn’t linger as it felt cold.

I was pleased to see new growth on the raspberries and rhubarb I recently replanted, along with plenty of new leaves on the rose Pretty Lady.

 

Here’s a couple of pot marigolds Flighty’s favourites from 2018 as a cheerful reminder of what’s to come in the summer.

Have a good week, and take care!

 

New and old

It’s been dry again this week and I see that February was the driest one for thirty years.  It’s concerning that there’s already talk of a drought given what last year  was like.

I was kindly given a packet of carrot Short N Sweet seeds a few days ago.  It’s a relatively new variety which has an orange core and grows to about 4 in/ 10 cm.  I’ll grow them between the onions and tomatoes, sowing some each month from mid April to mid June.

Sweet corn was one of my failures last year so I’m determined to do much better this year.  I’ll be growing the old, and still very popular, variety Golden Bantam, and will start them off in pots on the window sill at home towards the end of April before planting them out a month or so later.

I’ll be growing nasturtiums Jewel this year and I wonder if they’ll still be flowering in late October as these ones were on one of the other plots back in 2014.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

More pruning

On Thursday I drastically pruned the dogwood (cornus) tree. It had three main trucks one of which I sawed off close to the ground as it was leaning out towards the roadway. I then slightly reduced the height and generally pruned all round.  I kept checking that it looked okay and wasn’t lop-sided.  The photos below show before and after.

The weather has got noticeably colder over the past couple of days with a north-easterly wind keeping temperatures close to 0 C/32 F.

To stay warm I’ve started digging out and sieving compost from the heap. I did the first barrow load yesterday and will continue over the next few weeks.

 

 

I hoping that among the various sunflowers Evening Sun I’ll be growing this year will be a few like this one I grew in 2010.

 

Have a good week, and take care!

Pruning the roses

Earlier in the week I finally pruned the roses which I’d kept putting off mainly as I needed to wear gloves, which I don’t normally, and my arthritic fingers now make it harder to handle the secateurs.

On Monday I tackled the rose Pretty Lady, which was really in need of a good prune. I cut out the dead stems, reduced the height slightly and then generally all round. I don’t remember the last time I gave this one such a good prune and it now certainly looks much better as seen below.  It’s the plot centrepiece, especially in late May or early June when it’s in full flower as in this photo taken in 2017.

   

I did the dog rose on Tuesday, which was thankfully much easier.  I pruned  it the same as above, and also cut it back from the grass path.

It was a job well worth doing, and I’ll hopefully be rewarded with lots of flowers on both of them in the summer.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

It’s mid-February…

and I’m now almost twiddling my fingers waiting for this time next month to hopefully start planting and sowing.   I don’t think that the plot has ever looked so good at this time of year as it does at present.

Plot neighbour Fran has very kindly given me a couple of rhubarb plants, one of which is shown here. I’ll be planting them in the area towards the bottom left of the picture below so I can still get to the ready to use compost which is partly under the blackberry on the right. Foxy, nestling in the ivy under the rose Pretty Lady, will be keeping an eye out as usual. The two big pots contain the spare raspberry plants I mentioned in my last post.

Have a good week, and take care!

The raspberry patch

I’ve spent the past two days sorting out the raspberry patch, which has needed doing for some time.  I dug up all the plants then forked over the area and added plenty of compost before replanting fourteen in a double row.  There are already signs of new growth on some of them which is good to see, and I’ve also kept some spares in a large container just in case any don’t grow.

I hope doing this will rejuvenate them and I’ll get a decent crop of raspberries this year, like these back in June 2017.

If I don’t then I’ll replace them in the autumn.

It rained last night, and it’s damp and dull this morning so I won’t going to the plot for the first time in nearly two weeks.

Have a good weekend, and take care!