Flighty's plot

The unsettled weather through most of last week meant that I didn’t get to do much plotting but I’ve made up for it this weekend,which has been dry, as I forked over the three areas where I’ll be growing carrots, first early potatoes and tomatoes next year.  That just leaves the areas where I’ll be growing the onions and second early/main crop potatoes.  The recent rain has made the ground surpringly workable as I could push the fork in full depth without too much effort.

The nasturtiums at one end of the double row of strawberries are still flowering despite the leaves starting to die back.  I generally grow them here as I’ve never had much luck when I’ve tried elsewhere on the plot.  I usually grow the variety Tom Thumb as the plants are compact bearing flowers in a wide range of cheerful colours.  I always smile at the Chiltern Seeds description for these which says…If you can’t grow these, you better give up gardening as a hobby.

Both photos are from the archives, the top one was taken in July 2020, and the yellow flowers in July 2014.

Have a good week, and take care!

was dry and sunny so I spent both mornings doing some plotting.  I finished roughly forking over the potato patch and found plenty more second early potatoes Charlotte which I hadn’t lifted the first time round.  Next year I’ll be be growing the beans and sweetcorn in that area so it can be left until the spring, apart from hoeing off any weeds that appear.

The sweetcorn will be the variety Sundance, which I grew this year and was well pleased with.  Here are the last cobs I picked a few weeks ago, the top one being around 6 in/15 cm long.

I’m slowly clearing the flower patches as I’m working round the still flowering cosmos and sunflowers. This picture was taken last weekend.

The past few days have been damp and dull again, with some heavy rain at times. I looked round a very soggy plot after lunch yesterday and it’ll take a couple of days to get dry enough for me to resume plotting.   Today it’s dry and sunny with a similar forecast for the weekend and into next week.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

Earlier in the year I was beginning to wonder if I’d lost my favourite aster/Michaelmas Daisy, which I call Twinkling Stars as it has masses of small white flowers.

Thankfully I hadn’t and it’s just starting to flower.

 

The clump by the shed comprises two different varieties as there are both purple and light blue flowers (the later appear white in the photo). I’m undecided if I should seperate them or leave them be.

The large clump between the pond and grass path has been covered in flowers for at least several weeks.

The pond isn’t visible at present as it’s hidden under the long grass just showing on the right in the picture.

 

My original blue clump between the cornus/dogwood and the roadway is just starting to flower.

Have a good week, and take care!

The weather has been rather unsettled this week with plenty of heavy rain, so it’s not surprising that I’ve only been to the plot once, on Tuesday after lunch when it was sunny.

Everything was okay, and I could tell how much rain there had been the previous couple of nights as the composter lid pond, which I mentioned here recently, was full to the brim.

I hadn’t been there long when I noticed a red kite slowly flying across the site in circles at very low-level.  At one point it passed right overhead so I got a good look at it.  Later I was standing on the roadway looking at a young (?) fox also standing on the roadway not far away looking at me.  After a moment or two it turned and headed off down one of the grass paths between two of the plots.  On the plot the asters were buzzing with bees. There were a few white butterflies fluttering about, including two sky dancing in close formation.  As I told the robin it was far too soggy for me to do any plotting, but he didn’t seem to mind as he was finding plenty of insects to  eat.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

There’s been rain overnight and it’s a rainy day ahead so I’m staying indoors today, and after lunch I’ll be armchair gardening doing some seed more sorting.

 

 

The weather was good last week thorough to yesterday and I did quite a lot of plotting, including collecting seeds from the annual flowers.  There are still plenty of annual flowers to be seen thanks to the cosmos and sunflowers.

 

I’ve not showed many pot marigolds Flighty’s favourites this year as they’ve had a bit of an off year, and didn’t do that well.  However I was pleased to see a couple of almost white ones Snow Princess, rather than the creamy colour they usually are.  Here’s one from September 2016, along with a two-tone yellow one.

The week ahead is looking rather unsettled so I guess that if I go to the plot I’ll be mostly pottering.

Have a good week, and take care!

was the variety of dwarf runner beans I grew this year, for the first time, rather than a climbing one mainly because I didn’t want to faff around putting up, and later taking down, the long bamboo canes.

I sowed them direct, all germinated then grew well and I picked more than enough pods, and even gave some away.  With red, white and two-tone flowers the plants looked good.

Surprisingly they suffered almost no slug damage. I did have to stake them with short pea sticks.  Perhaps best of all the ones I picked and ate were completely  stringless. They finished a week or so ago and before pulling the plants up and composting them I picked the few remaining pods to save the seeds.

I didn’t use all the seeds I bought so with both I’ll have enough for next year.  What surprised me was the difference between the two, with the saved seeds being lighter in colour and larger.

I look forward to growing these dwarf runner beans Jackpot again next year.

 

Have a good weekend, and take care!

I’ve now cleared and weeded all three vegetable areas, except for the sweetcorn plants, and made a start this morning roughly forking over the ground.  I’m doing where I grew the potatoes, and not surpringly found a dinner’s worth.  My only complete vegetable failure this year was carrots.  I sowed several lots of seeds which didn’t germinate or got eaten by slugs.  Otherwise I did better than expected which was slightly surprising given that it was considered to be a somewhat challenging and difficult season by most growers.

The three blue asters are all flowering, and I’ve seen plenty of bees on them  along with a couple of white butterflies.

Next week looks like being mostly dry, sunny and heading back into the low 20’s C/low 70’s F  so I’ll be mostly working through the flower patches.  I’ll be collecting seeds, dead-heading flowers, weeding and removing finished plants.  There are still plenty of flowers, including the sunflowers.

Have a good week, and take care!

an old, Dalek style, plastic composter last week, which I’ve put on unused ground along side the compost bin between the blackberry bush and rose Pretty Lady so that it’s partially hidden.

I’ve covered the  hole at the bottom with a folded over compost bag with wire mesh behind to keep it secure.

 

The lid I was given with it is for a different type of composter and doesn’t fit this one. What I’ve done is upturn it and put in a couple of engineering bricks so it stays put.  I’ve also added water to make it a pond.

I’ve already half filled it with various vegetable plants which I’ve been pulling up this week as they’ve all finished, along with some grass and weeds.  I’ve put it all in the composter rather than on the compost heap to make it easier when I start digging out and sieving compost from the bin later in the year.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

Yesterday morning I wasn’t surprised to see that the tomato plants have blight as it’s been damp and humid over the the past few days, which is ideal conditions for it. I’ll pick any fruit that’s still okay then pull up and dispose of them.  I’ve been picking plenty of ripe fruit for the past few weeks so I’m not that disappointed.

I’ve now picked and eaten several sweetcorn Sundance cobs, and needless to say they were delicious.

Hopefully I’ll be picking more over the next week or two, that is unless the squirrels find them first.

 

 

The sunflowers have done well this year, and this was the patch yesterday with plenty of flowers still showing.

They’ve mostly been yellow ones, with a few red/yellow, and none taller than around 4 ft/1.2 mt.

Have a good week, and take care!