Flighty's plot

Despite the miserable summer there were still plenty of flowers to be seen when I looked round the plot on Thursday morning.

The annual mallow (Malope trifida ‘Grandiflora choice mixed’) is still flowering profusely – mostly crimson, with some rose and a few white

Other bright spots are the nasturtiums

and French marigolds

I’ve been well pleased with the aquilegia, poppies, roses, cornflowers, daffodils, love-in-a-mist, linaria, sweet peas,  virginian stocks, sunflowers and others.

I’ve collected some seeds but left others to self-seed. So next year will hopefully see lots more of all these plus plenty more. I’ve got lots of packets of seeds that I didn’t use or have been given. They include Calendula officinalis ‘Sherbet Fizz’,  Coreopsis tinctoria ‘Quills and Thrills’ and Zinnia ‘Peppermint Stick’ – which all have such fun names!

Whilst putting the tools away I turned round to see that this stranger had made his/her self comfortable on the wood chip path out of the wind and facing the sun!

Happy gardening!

The plot looked like this just over a week ago.

Much of what you can see are the various grasses I let grow around the plot, the runner bean covered wig-wam in the middle and a few sunflowers.

On Thursday morning, which was sunny and warm, I spent a couple of hours digging and weeding the south western corner where I grew onions and potatoes this year. It’s the bottom left area in the above photo but looking the other way. Over the coming months I shall be working my way towards the top (road) end of the plot ready for next spring and starting again!

I’ve not forgotten that I said I would do a Plot flowers entry and it will appear in due course. Meanwhile here are a few to look at until I do.

1) 2) and 3)

There are several 1) Nasturtium ‘Tom Thumb’ scattered around the plot some, like this one, having variegated leaves.  By the pallet patio is this 2) Love-in a-Mist ‘Miss Jekyll White’ and I’m definitely going to grow lots more lovely 3) Sunflowers next year!

After a dull, drizzly start to the day on Thursday it had brightened up considerably by lunch-time. On reaching the allotments I found that Joe was mowing the grass areas around his plots. I put one lot of grass cuttings on my compost heap and then trimmed some of my plot edges using the hand shears.

I’ve been considering a second compost heap for a while as the first one, which is tucked away behind the shed, is now full. The new one will be a similar size, about 4x2x2 feet, and down the bottom end of the plot near the dustbin incinerator. Like the first it will have hardboard sides which with grasses encouraged to grow up around it and a runner bean or sweet pea wigwam in front of it next year will make it unobtrusive. I’ve already got a wheelbarrow load of grass cuttings, another of fine wood chippings and several bucketfuls of weeds ready to go in it.

It was a pleasant afternoon in the welcome sunshine so Joe, John and I ended it by sitting for a while for a beer and a chat. Also there were the girls…

Say hello to Jodie

and Lucy

They’re my plot neighbour John’s affectionate and well behaved nine year olds. Jodie tends to say hello then settles down to wait, whilst Lucy is a real fidget who tries to snaffle my biscuits!

I’ve not even been to the plot very often the past few weeks let alone done much when I’m there! Times when I’ve been able to go it’s been raining, and of course when I haven’t it’s been okay.

I was there this morning picking the last of the sweet peas, lots more runner beans , a courgette and just a few blackberries and raspberries.

It generally looks a bit bedraggled now. I shall start to tidy up, weed and dig over the vegetable areas once, or rather hopefully, when it dries out a bit.

Other areas I shall leave as is through to late winter, which may look untidy but will be beneficial for wildlife.

Several plot neighbours, all long-time allotmenteers, have said what a dreadful year it’s been so I’m happy with what I’ve achieved. The few vegetables that I did grow, and eat, were potatoes, onions, broad and runner beans, beetroot and courgettes.

I’ve started pondering on what vegetables I’m going to grow next year and will certainly make a bit more effort to improve on this years somewhat modest results. They will include all the above, plus carrots and a few other things.

I’m not planning on making any major changes on the plot but I do have one or two ideas that I might put into practice.  Mind you if it keeps raining then I’ll be digging out my plan to turn the plot into a rice paddy!

My next plot entry will probably look at the flowers I grew and what I’m thinking about for those areas next year.