Flighty’s plot – Page 2

It would be nice

I had a quick look round the plot after lunch yesterday for the first time all week. Thankfully everything was okay but I didn’t linger as it was still bitterly cold and the ground too soggy to do anything. Next week is looking a bit better so I may hopefully get to do some plotting.

This year I’ll be growing two types of dwarf French beans. One variety is Martini, a pencil variety with short, 4 in / 10 cm, pods. The other one is a flat variety Nassau, with pods about 6 in / 15 cm long. Both get good mentions on the MoreVeg website, where I got the seeds from. I’ll direct sow a short row, about ten beans, of each around mid-May then repeat in June and July.

I’ve got plenty of Nigella / Love-in-a-mist Persian Jewels seeds, mostly collected and saved from last year’s flowers, which I’ll be sowing during April. It would be nice if a few of the flowers are pink or rose, like this one from July 2012, rather than the usual blue or white.

Have a good week, and take care!

I haven’t been…

to the plot at all this week as it’s been bitterly cold with hard frosts and mostly windy. There was even a dusting of snow one morning which turned icy. Thankfully it’s looks like turning warmer by Monday with the temperature reachimg 10 C / 50 F, but mostly damp and overcast. There’s heavy rain due this afternoon, which is set to continue overnight and throughout tomorrow.

I ate the last second early potatoes Charlotte over Christmas and New Year, and now only have a couple of weeks worth of maincrop Desiree left. This year I’ll be growing Charlottes again, but the first earlies will be Pentland Javelin and the maincrop Picasso, both of which I’ve grown before.

Here’s an archive picture of some sunny sunflowers back in July 2011

Have a good weekend, and take care!

It was even…

colder last week with the feels like daytime temperature staying several degrees below 0 C / 32 F. Although mostly sunny there was a bitterly cold northerly wind at times. Thankfully there was no snow but the hard frosts lingered all day in the shade.

I’ve only been to the plot a couple of times, once early in the week and yesterday after lunch, to take a quick look round. The ice was thick on both ponds, which I broke up and removed before refilling them.

I was pleased to see the robin appear briefly yesterday, and that the English Daisy is continuing to flower.

At home there are still a couple of flowers on aptly named Iceberg rose outside the living room windows. This picture was taken last Tuesday.

One morning I looked out the kitchen window and was delighted to see a Grey Wagtail bobbing about on the back service road. I often see the black and white Pied Wagtails on the pavements by the local shops but don’t recollect having seen one of these before.

It looks like getting slightly warmer, but overcast, towards the end of the coming week. Meanwhile I’ll be mostly armchair gardening or sofa flying.

Have a good week and take care!

It’s been cold

I hope that everyone had a good Christmas and enjoyed themselves. Mine was very quite and I mostly spent it indoors reading, drinking tea and eating biscuits. I only went to the plot a couple of times for a brief look round and certainly didn’t linger.

Following my recent post Plot and windowsill, about tomatoes fellow blogger Sharon, My Slice of Life, very kindly offered to send me some dwarf Red Robin seeds which she had saved. I received them a few days later along with this lovely, and very appropriate, card.

I look forward to growing this variety along with the dwarf yellow Aztek that I mentioned in the post.

The weather next week looks like being much the same as it has been, except not quite as cold or windy as it has been. I’ll probably take a look round the plot some days but doubt if I’ll be doing much, if any, plotting.

Have a good week, take care and I’ll see you all next year!

(Please note that my next post will be on Sunday 4th January)

Season’s Greetings, 2025

The Christmas cards I sent this year I got, as I generally do, from the gardening for health charity Thrive. The design is Winter Allotment, picture courtesy of Louise Cole.

Have a good Christmas, and take care!

(Please note that my next post will be on Sunday 28th December)

Something of interest…

on the plot at this time of year is always a welcome sight, esprcially as it’s mostly devoid of plants and/or foliage.

Underneath the now dead crocosmia foliage there is already new growth showing well above ground so I’ve cleared some of away to give the new shoots some air and light.

This picture was taken towards the end of October before the leaves had completely died and collapsed.

The leaves on the strawberry plants are only now beginning to change colour from green to yellow then orange-red before turning brown as they finish dying back.

Best of all is that there is one plant which has just started flowering. It’s an English (or if you prefer Lawn) Daisy (Bellis perennis) tucked away at bottom edge of the main flower patch opposite the shed. On Monday there was one flower fully open with another bud visible.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

A sunny weekend

It’s been a sunny weekend so I’ve made the most of it and done some plotting both days. Yesterday I tidied up the top corner where the cornus/dogwood tree is, then weeded and hoed all round. The clump of brown stems on the left in the picture below are asters/Michaelmas daisies.

This morning I cleared the main flower patch of any pot marigold tap roots which had remained in the ground when I cleared the foliage recently. I was thankful that the crocus Romance were showing so I could work round them without worrying where they were. They’ll need carefully hand weeding, as will the the crocus Snow Bunting by the dog rose.

OnThursday I forgot to mention, and show, the vinca/periwinkle flowers out front at home.

This picture is from March 2017, as it’s much better than the one I took during the week.

Have a good week, and take care!

Mostly armchair gardening

The weather so far this month has been rather unsettled with plenty of rain so it’s not surprising that I’ve only been to the plot once, after lunch yesterday, since last Friday. Meantime I’ve been mostly armchair gardening browsing through some of the 20 plus gardening books I have. One I’m going to read properly is The Small Garden by C.E.Lucas Phillips, which is a 400 page paperback first published in 1952. The edition I have, revised by the author, was published in 1956. Mum was a passionate gardener and had numerous gardening books, so I’m sure that a copy would have been on her bookshelf.

I took this photo of a rose Iceberg outside my living room window this morning, and it looks the same as the one I took a week ago. The photo on the right is a view of it from indoors.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

Plot and windowsill

This year was a really good one for tomatoes, especially as there was no blight, as there often is late August onwards. I grew the red variety Outdoor Girl and the yellow one Yellow Perfection, both widely recommended for growing outdoors. My only problem was that some of the yellow ones had split skins which was probably due to my somwhat erratic watering. I’ll almost certainly grow both of these again next year.

I have tried growing a dwarf tomato variety at home on the windowsill in the past but generally without success, although I see that back in 2016 I grew a Tiny Tim which did quite well as you can see.

I’m going to try again next year with the variety Aztek (note correct spelling) which has yellow fruit.

The Candytuft (Iberis umbellata) Fairy Mixed seeds I sowed on the plot this year was one of the flowers that didn’t germinate and grow. I’ll be sowing more next year which will hopefully do much better, as the pink-red, purple and white flowers are attractive to butterflies such as the common blue as seen in this photo from summer 2018.I’ve also tried to grow Candytuft at home in a pot on the windowsill a couple of times without success but will be trying again next year.

Have a good week, and take care!

Pot marigolds

I’ve only been to the plot once so far this week as there’s been plenty of rain. I had a look round but the ground is too soggy to do anything. The outlook through into next week doesn’t look much better so I guess that I’ll be mostly armchair gardening.

One of my favourite Calendula/ Pot marigolds is the variety Snow Princess which has creamy pale lemon yellow flowers with both dark and light centres, and occasionally there are white ones. This picture is from September 2016.

There weren’t many this year and I don’t know how many seeds, if any, I collected and saved so I’ve bought a packet of 100 plus. I’ll probably add half of these to the seeds I have saved, and sow the other half seperately.

I didn’t pull up the bright orange and golden yellow flowering Oopsy Daisy I had growing in the black plastic half barrel by the shed. I cut it back and hope that it survives the winter then starts growing again in the spring. If it doesn’t I will remove it and sow some more seed.

Have a good weekend, and take care!