Flighty's plot

It rained all day on Saturday so needless to say the plot is not only looking rather bleak but extremely soggy as well. I guess that for the next few weeks I’ll be doing little more than refilling the bird feeders

and checking the pond

That’s a Starling on the nut feeder, and in the second photo you can just about see the pond to the middle right. I presume the the flattened grass to the middle left was made by a fox curled up and resting.

The horticultural society held it’s Christmas party in the hut on Sunday morning. There were around 40 people there chatting, eating and drinking for a couple of hours. Towards the end a raffle took place with Santa handing out the prizes. I actually won one of them much to my surprise.  It’s a cast resin(?) decorative which can be hung on the wall  with hooks for keys or whatever.  It’s on a sheet of A4 paper to give some idea of size

The frogs aren’t part of it but were inside Christmas crackers that I, and someone else, had!

I also got given a large paper bag full of various bulbs, mostly daffodils and some hyacinths.

Yesterday morning I was back there to help with stock taking which didn’t take more than a couple of hours. I came home with a very generous  doggy bag which included a big slice of very tasty Christmas cake.

The hut will be closed for the next two Sundays so I had to buy lots of bird food to hopefully last until it re-opens.

Next year I’m on the rota of hut helpers which means being there one Sunday morning a month for the couple of hours that it’s open.

Sunflowers were such a delight to see on the plot that I intend growing lots more next year.

There’ll be the classic Giant Singles (above) and some multi-headed Autumn Beauties (below),  which didn’t fare too well this year due to the miserable weather soon after they bloomed.

The Great Sunflower Project may be of interest to anyone in America or Canada.  My thanks to Tina who did an entry about it recently on her blog  Happy Hobby Habit.

Having enjoyed growing some vegetables this year and got a lot of satisfaction eating them I’ve been thinking about what to grow next year.

Seed Potatoes and onion sets I shall buy from the Horticultural Society in the new year, and I’ve got a couple of packets of tomato seeds – all of which I’ll write about another time.

I made a list of what I’d like to grow, and following a couple of recommendations I decided to order eight packets of vegetable seeds for just over £5 inc. p&p  from More Veg. As the  excellent website says they supply vegetable, and herb, seeds in realistic quantities at affordable prices.

I ordered online on a Thursday evening, got a confirmation email the following afternoon that they’d been posted and received them the following Monday. Not only was the service prompt but the packing and contents were first class.

This is what I got, and note that the figure in brackets is the number of seeds.

Beans, Runner White emergo (24)…has white flowers, a vigourous nature, withstands adverse weather and has a delicious flavour.

Beetroot Burpees Golden (50)…a sweet tasting orange-yellow root that does not bleed.

Carrot Little Fingers (150)…just 10 cm long, sweet and tender which can be harvested in 8/9 weeks.

Courgette All Green Bush (6)…a popular and reliable variety with dark green fruits best cut when about 10 cm long.

Cucumber Bush Crop (4)…a compact bushy plant with 15 cm fruits.

Lettuce Buttercrunch (50)…has small dense upright heads with a crisp and crunchy texture.

Spring Onion Summer Isle (100)…has a sweet mild flavour and is early maturing.

Sweet Corn Golden Bantam (20)…is a classic old variety with slender 18 cm cobs which is wind resistant.

I reckon that for anyone who cannot afford  to spend much on seeds or just has a small area, perhaps even a few containers, to grow vegetables in then buying them like this really does seem a sensible option.

I thought that I did quite well this year despite doing little more than just planting the seeds. Next year I shall be devoting more time and attention to them. With that, and hopefully some better weather, I should be eating more veg thanks to

Considering how much I like white flowers there were surprisingly few on the plot this year. I had high hopes for my Iceberg rose but although it grew lots of foliage it failed to produce any flowers, which was most disappointing.

There were only a few Mallow and some Love-a-mist

Looking at this list of White Annual Flowers there’s plenty to chose from including Candytuft Snowflake and Poppy White Cloud.

I bought two packets of the  Sweet Pea Swan Lake recently for just 30p each. Posie over on the Allotments 4 All forum says that she grew this one this year, it’s gorgeous and can definitely recommend it!

Among the various vegetable seeds that I bought recently is the white flowering Runner Bean White Emergo.

Of course I could be lazy and just buy a packet of white flowering annual seeds! Whatever I do it I’m sure that the plot will be a lot whiter next summer than it was this year.

Yesterday morning I was reading the online Guardian where the gardening section had an article by Carol Klein on  white hydrangeas which got me thinking, and wishing, again!

Next Wednesday sees the start of National Tree Week, through to Sunday 7th December.

In celebration of that here are my three plot trees.

(1) (2) and  (3)

They are a Hawthorn (1), Common Oak (2) and Common Ash (3). All are no more than a foot high so not very impressive yet.

Far more impressive is this willow tree that is to the left of the allotment gates.

Last Sunday I noticed a couple of broken branches on the ground under the canopy so on Wednesday I took a saw with me and the log pile has now grown somewhat! I also gathered some of the leaves from under there and added them to one of the compost heaps.

A good site for identifying trees is British Trees, and another good tree site is Trees for Cities.

On Thursday morning I spent a couple of hours doing some general plotting when I took these photos

and

The latter I should be able to find in British Bugs, which is an online identification guide to UK Hemiptera!