Flighty's plot

I’ve been making the most of the continuing good weather by doing plenty of plotting every day last week.

Part of the vegetable area now looks like this with the potatoes, onions and broad beans  all growing wellI shall be sowing more beetroot, carrots, lettuce and spring onions soon, then the runner beans and sweetcorn around mid-month and  the courgettes and cucumbers towards the end of the month,  but not transplanting my two  Gardener’s Delight tomatoes until early June.  By then my first early potatoes may be ready to start harvesting!  The yellow flowers at the top left are my plot neighbour Lesley’s wallflowers.

Much of last week was spent preparing the flower area then sowing lots of packets of seeds.  It looks pretty bare at presentbut the  aquilegias have started flowering including one with white flowers, unlike its parent which you can see is purple.  The yellow flowers around the pond, and towards the top right hand corner, are  creeping buttercups which are weeds! Incidently honeybees use the pond to drink from so there’s always some buzzing round it.

Here’s another view of the flower areaThe grape vine, just visible beside the log seat, seems much happier in the ground and I shall run it across the side of the compost bin at mid-height and along the top.

Brian, who has the adjacent plot,  gave me some rhubarb which I’ve not eaten for ages. Much as I like crumble I made do with simmering it,  making sure that it didn’t go mushy, then eating it with just a sprinkling of demerara sugar. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  Next year I should be growing and eating my own as Joe has several clumps of it one of which he doesn’t want and will give it to me when he digs it up later in the year.

My wildlife highlight of the week happened yesterday. I could hear a lot of quacking and looked up to see four mallard ducks, a female being pursued by three males, landing on a nearby plot. They then waddled off along one of the grass paths before taking to the air again heading straight for me at little more than head height continuing overhead and on towards the ecology park pond.

This post follows on from last Thursday’s Just vegetables.

The soft fruits  –  blackberries  (back),  raspberries (middle) and strawberries (front)  –  are all growing welland I’m hoping for a few more berries than I got last year!

The grape that my good plot neighbour Joe gave me hasn’t been growing well in the container it was in so I’ve replanted it in the ground by a corner of the compost heap where it’s sheltered and will get plenty of sunshine. The mini-daffs that were also in it I’ve replanted with others by the stone feature.

The container has been moved and I’ll probably grow a nasturtium or two in it. The bird feeders, which have hardly been touched recently,  have been moved across to the other side of the compost bin.

Beverley, a long-time hardware store colleague , kindly gave me this primroseShe’s promised me a couple more, one of which will join this one by the new pond and the other go by Frog’s pond.

Joe cut a couple of his plum trees right back last year and I took one of the branches and stuck it in the ground at the end of the log pile, hoping perhaps that a robin would use it as a perch. If it does I’ve never seen it do so but recently I’ve noticed that the branch is showing signs of growth!

The alder and hawthorn trees, now both around two feet tall, are growing well with plenty of leaves on them.

The three roses – Iceberg, Pretty Lady and Valentine Heart – have started growing new foliage and I’m hoping that they’ll produce plenty of blooms during the summer.  The Iceberg didn’t flower at all last year so it’s on notice to do well or else!

The weather is looking good for the coming week so I’ll be concentrating on the flower areas. That will include sowing sunflowers Tall Single and Pastiche, and sweet pea varieties Bouquet Blend and the white Swan Lake.

I’ll also be sowing  packets of Wild Flower Mixture, Field and Hedgerow Flowers and Annual Ornamental Grasses.

Many of the  other flowers I’m going to sow are traditional garden favourites. More about them another time.

Although I’ve been digging, weeding and tidying up all over the plot it’s the vegetable areas that I’ve been concentrating on.

I’ve now planted all four varieties of potatoes, of which the first earlies Swift * are  all showing

The onions are  showing signs of growth, as are most of the broad beans Masterpiece Green Longpod which grow to 120-150cm and mature July onwards.

Another broad bean Witkiem Manita* I planted later, and which are just starting to appear, only grows to 60cm and matures June onwards.

Yesterday I sowed a row each of beetroot Cylindra and Burpee’s Golden, carrots Little Fingers and Tendersnax F1 Hybrid, and spring onions Summer Isle. I’ll sow another row of each in a few weeks time.  I’ve also got lettuce Buttercrunch and  Lollo Rossa to sow.

The runner beans White Emergo won’t get sown until around this time next month. As last year I’ll use a wigwam of  eight canes and a double row of  eight canes. The sweetcorn Golden Bantam will be sown then as well.

Still to come are courgette All Green Bush, cucumber Bush Crop and tomato Gardener’s Delight.

I’ve also got some other vegetable seeds, including pumpkin Hooligan F1 Hybrid and butternut squash Hunter F1, which I may try growing.

* Georgie, in her Little London Garden,  is growing in containers a few of the same potatoes and broad beans,  which I sent her. It’ll be interesting to see how they compare given such different growing conditions.