Showing posts with label wildflowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wildflowers. Show all posts

Monday 15 May 2023

This Garden

Mmm, I made a floral focaccia again. And this time it was actually like focaccia rather than a big flat biscuit!

Garden bread

Reading back on when I made it before, I think it didn't have the right texture because I didn’t bake it in a high-sided tin so it just spread out - it was definitely more like a pizza base… This time, contrary to the instructions on the Tesco Focaccia mix, I proved it a second time after spreading it out in the tin. Here’s the pre-baked garden.

You can see that there is plenty of olive oil! Only chives and parsley from the plot. We had a little picnic on the plot in the Sun yesterday and had some red wine with this lovely snack. Mmm, the focaccia is so tasty dipped in that balsamic dressing. Perfecto!
Plot picnic
I could have done with a lie down afterwards but we kept on with our weeding and tidying. The recent wet/dry weather has been ideal for the weeds. Ivan taught me how to use a hoe for the edging rather than a spade - aah so that’s how to do it.
Plot3 is looking much better now the PSB has been removed, chopped and composted. The Spring onions and lettuce (Dark Roden) seeds have germinated after 1 week -  the cage is having a year off from brassica this year - and the lettuces will be planted out when they’re big enough. It looks like most of the pre-germinated parsnip seeds have sprouted; the other row hasn’t yet.
We're having a bit of trouble germinating our courgettes but we'll give them another week. Other seedlings continue to appear in the inner polytunnel, including florence fennel, but none are large enough to transplant yet. Some of the annual flowers will eventually be part of the flower patch in front of our bench which has expanded a bit on last year.
The flower patch has more perennials this year, including Geum, Jacobs Ladder, Leucanthemum and Scabiosa plus a few verbascum which Ivan gave us today and this lovely delphinium that Aimee gave us last year when she gave up her plot.
The HAHA Wildlife plot is fit to bursting with so much growth but is still mostly green at the moment, apart from some pretty Red Campion. I pulled some of the plantain and dandelions to make way for less invasive plants and whilst rummaging found lots of shield bugs and other insects.
Wildlife garden
We feel a bit in limbo with the waiting, waiting … but cold nights are threatened this week so it’s definitely worth waiting a bit longer - or at least having the fleece on standby… The Levellers provide this excellent song title.

Monday 27 March 2023

Walk on the Wild Side

British Summer Time is here - the weather doesn’t realise and it’s been mostly dull and windy plus we’ve had a lot of rain; 35mm in the last week.

Cowslips
That sounds a bit moany considering we had a pleasant few hours on the plot on Sunday afternoon and lots more flowers have bloomed in the last week providing such welcome spots of colour. Those cowslips in the above photo are putting on a lovely show on the HAHA Wildlife plot and there are 'common' daisies popping up in the grass paths.
Daisy
Plenty of pollen for emerging insects but I only saw one bumblebee. The grape hyacinths are appearing in various places where we thinned out the bulbs from our plot and planted them around the site. And we have lots in pots where other bulbs are also growing. I wonder if the succession planting will actually work for once..!
The blackthorn blossom has now opened in the hedge. Such a pretty little flower.
Blackthorn blossom

Along with 2 robins singing their tuneful ditty trying to drown out the church bells, there were several tiny birds flitting about in the hedge. It was difficult to see what they were but Jamie managed to get this shot - thanks Sue for the tip to use ‘photo burst’ on our camera. Lovely to see a tiny goldcrest!

Goldcrest

In the path alongside the hedge we have a lot of violets growing - white ones, and they don’t smell so must be common dog violets. 

White Violets
A little tint of colour on the petals to direct the insects in.
Violets
And here’s another common plant alongside the hedge which flowers at this time of year. Creeping Charlie or ground ivy. The flowers are tiny but bees love them. The leaves have a lovely minty scent and can, apparently, be used for various ailments and as a herbal tea (though I expect it tastes nasty like most herbal teas 😏). Apparently it has been used in cheese-making as an alternative to animal rennet!
Creeping Charlie
It seems to be treated as an invasive pest, but perhaps that's for people who want grass lawns - I prefer to see a mix of plants personally.
Writhing mass of tadpoles

Apart from scrambling around the ground taking macro shots of tiny flowers, I did get up-close (down-close) and personal to the writhing mass of tadpoles in the HAHA Wildlife plot - as you can see, they have their external gills. They do form quickly, these have grown in 12 days, although there are some which are still little dots or commas in their spawn bubbles. 

Frog spawn

Including the ones in our little pond. The spawn sunk when I added it to our pond and the spawn is still only at comma stage from what I could see in the murky depths. Quite interesting that you can see where they're eating their way out of their bubbles.

We did actually do a little work on the allotment too - our broad beans have been weeded, but left under their protective covers. The chocolate spot on the leaves is annoying but hopefully won't spread too far into the plant. It's probably caused by being under the covers but that offers protection from pigeons and heavy rain/snow.

Some of the plants which were sown at the end of October have flowers on, but many didn't survive the really cold spell. The plants are better where we popped a bean into the empty spaces more recently (was it before Christmas? Can't remember!)

And finally, at last, some purple sprouting brocolli to harvest! Nearly 12 months on from sowing! Mmm, it is lovely though so worth the wait. This mostly wild blog post has the song provided by Lou Reed - do...do..doo...do..di.di...doo

Tuesday 8 November 2022

Bitter Tears

Anyone else had a rainy start to November? It was so rainy on Sunday that we had to shelter in the car when we got back from the allotment! The rain was streaming down the road.

Rain gauge

While we were on the plot it felt quite warm and we even saw the Sun for a short while. We went to the plot specifically to pull our last potato plant - Nicola. Surprisingly they’re not very scabby and don’t seem to have been slugged. Although they were rather muddy.

Nicola potatoes
I pulled up the Chinese cabbage which had been desecrated by slugs and snails. I was pleased to find a couple of cabbages that weren’t completely destroyed and had matured enough for form a heart. I think I'd try them again, under a sealed enviromesh net as they are very tasty. I like them raw but they're a nice addition to a chinese dish too.
November salad harvest
That's a nice harvest for November. The tomatoes are continuing to ripen on the plants and the Chinese Dragon radish are lasting so that was plenty to feed me for a couple of lunches.
Yesterday, I added some left-over marinated tofu to the plate.
Last week I roasted two small squashes for dinner. A Honeyboat and a Winter Celebration. I thought it was a bit too much for just me (Jamie's still refusing to eat my lovely squash) with the Spanish rice and grains but I’m glad I chose to cook both squashes. 
 
Roasting squash
The Winter Celebration tasted nasty, bitter (lucky Jamie didn't choose that day to try again with the squash!). I threw it away along with the two remaining ones from storage. I’m aware that cross-pollinated squash can develop a bitter taste, however these weren’t saved seeds and looked pretty regular. Apparently environmental stress can also cause bitterness, but that’s usually a result of temperature fluctuations rather than just the extreme heat of this year. Or, perhaps the lovely looking orange squash wasn’t entirely mature. Whatever, it was rather disappointing! Luckily the Honeyboat was as tasty as usual.
Tomatoes with everything
We’ve had so much rain recently and it’s been mild so there’s a lot of new growth. The HAHA Wildlife plot is looking good with plenty of ground cover with mostly welcome weeds and evidence of self-seeding from some of the flowers from this year. Very little grass and not too many thistles in evidence so far… In this photo I can see borage, foxgloves, allysum, daisies, evening primrose, golden marguerite and lots of nigella seedheads.
HAHA Wildlife Plot
I should have put this photo on my last post, which was titled Autumn leaves, it’s been so colourful this year. Just look at this lovely lot from a tree by our flat.
Autumn leaves
The song title is provided by INXS, partly due to the bitter squash experience, but also the bitterness I feel to the housing developer and landowner of our site. In February a 10-year lease was proposed, with a  1-year cancellation clause, and was verbally agreed - Hooray! - then in September they "changed their minds". So the Council have to cover the cost of legal fees every year. Appalling and disrespectful behaviour to the 80+ households currently enjoying the site and the wider community. The latest development plan showed the Marsh Lane site as being 'not currently developable' - for 15+ years but they're just trying to use the site as a bartering chip for other inappropriate building schemes.  They make me sick 🤬

Sunday 29 May 2022

Spread Your Wings

My 10 days off work started well, with some lovely, albeit windy, weather. Jamie and I lazed under the blue sky and had a barbecue on Friday.

Barbecue on plot
It really was too hot to work - not that we were intending to do any. Instead, we were delighted to watch the great tits fledge. Jamie noticed that the chirping had changed. We saw a parent fly to the nesting site with a green caterpillar which it ate rather than taking it to the nest. Then we watched as four chicks flew out in turn - rather wobbly flying, but not bad for the first trip out. Then one of the parents returned to the nest site, chirped a bit and flew off. Finally, the last of the brood made its way to the edge of the crate and flew over us to join its siblings and parents in the hedge. Such a pleasure to watch and perfect timing for us!
Nigella
The rest of the afternoon I mostly looked up at the beautiful blue sky and sweltered.
Valerian
Aah, blue sky! How happy it makes me!
Fennel
Saturday was still mostly sunny and warm so we managed to do some digging on plot3. Jamie’s dug and manured the hole for the melon, which is growing on in the polytunnel for the timebeing. I’ve dug the first trench for one side of the squash tunnel and filled it with manure. I’ve sowed the seeds in pots at home under the grow-light: Honeyboat, Festival, Winter Celebration and Sunshine. 
Squash trench
Talking of seeds, I’ve got some parsnips Sabre (hopefully) germinating on some paper towel so I can plant out if the seed proves viable… perhaps I’ll manage to grow more than 8!
I showed some newcomers around site yesterday - such a pleasure to show the site off when it’s looking so beautiful. Of course, they were enamoured with Ivan’s irises, so I can’t resist sharing some of the fabulous blooms here again. Just stunning.
Bearded iris
And HAHA has its first iris in the bog garden on the wildlife plot. There are plenty more buds to follow that one.
HAHA Wildlife plot
And the foxgloves have flowered. Loads of evening primrose is growing, so that will be good for moths, which will in turn be good for bats. We’ll have to have a Summer night visit with the bat detector.
HAHA Wildlife plot
Our Cleor pepper has arrived so is growing on a bit at home, along with the tomatoes. The temperature dipped to 3° In the polytunnel the other night, so we're still playing it safe and not planting everything out yet. The song title, provided by Queen, is dedicated to those five little great tits. Out in the wide world for the first time, how frightening and a frost is threatened for tonight 😖 They should go back to their cosy nest, poor little things.

Wednesday 27 April 2022

No Rain

April’s a tease; making us think it’s sowing time, or even Summer-time, then going cold and windy.

Tulip
We had a few hours on the plot last Saturday and Sunday. Lovely in the sunshine; chilly in the easterly breeze.

Hairy-Legged female bee
Hairy legged bee (female) on Dead Nettle

The wildlife plot is a year old this week. The bog garden plants have spread well and the cowslips will definitely need dividing for next year. There are seedlings popping up, along with a few more flowers, though mostly dandelions which we try to clear before they seed but the bees do love them.

Wildlife plot - one year old
The radish seeds sown last week have germinated and something is already enjoying them 🙄

Radish seedlings
We sowed some more sunflowers and rainbow chard - into modules so that I can plant on the coloured ones rather than the green leafed plants. Also, our grafted tomato plants have been delivered - Crimson Plum. We’ve potted them on and they’ll stay home until the weather behaves or the plants get too straggly.
Grafted tomato plants
Look at my Loves Lies Bleeding seedlings! They’re so tiny, like cress at the moment. I'm wondering whether I shouldn't have sown them in clumps.
Loves Lies Bleeding seedlings
Jamie put his new toy composter together. It’s a rotator and is meant to produce compost in 3-4 weeks! It doesn't hold very much, but if it's successful we could try a larger model.
Rotator composter
Beside the composter there is a pot of snowdrops. I planted those snowdrops about 20 years ago at home and they've never produced a flower or divided! I'm hoping it was their position rather than the actual plant. We'll find out next year...
Rotator composter
And I did a bit of digging on Plot3. Trying to keep up with our new neighbours 😀
Freshly dug

The strawberries are flowering around the site. The night-time temperatures are close to freezing at the moment though so those flowers may not make it into fruits - as happens most years. These plants are in the polytunnel so may get away with it, as the temperature is held up by about 1°

Strawberries flowering

The song title is brought to you by Blind Melon (although we did have a tiny shower on Monday, you get the gist!)

Monday 28 February 2022

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

Aah, what a joy to see blue sky and sunshine. Working on the plot it certainly felt Spring-like (ok, so I did need a big jumper and coat but still..!). The sunshine brought lots of plotholders out of hibernation and we spent several hours on site both days. You can see from the shape of the polytunnel that it was still extremely windy but even that cold wind wasn't too awful. We’ve partially dug and weeded various parts of the plots but it’s hard work compared to the working-week, when I only walk about 35 steps most days 😖

I showed some new plotholders around the site and they quickly snapped up a 3-pole plot which had been left in perfect condition by the previous plotholder - at 90, Ron had to give up his plot and I'm glad that it's gone on to an ex-gardener who should keep it looking well-loved. We have quite a few more plots to re-let so are just working through the waiting list now. I love showing people round, especially on such a beautiful day when the site looks welcoming, even in February.

The Wildlife plot gained a plot sign and another plant - an oxeye daisy which spreads easily and forms big clumps of tall flowers that the insects love. There were quite a few insects around including bumblebees and ladybirds, but they're fighting for the few spots of colour that are just appearing.

The Wildlife plot also gained some nice stepping stones from a plot which was recently released from another of our long-term plotholders. I'm sure she would be pleased to see them put to good use on a communal area.

This is the robin that hangs round the Wildlife plot. He (we think it is a male as he sings a lot) comes extremely close and took a mealworm from my hand, but wasn't willing to stand on my hand just yet. The robins near our plot are much less tame.

We had a nice taco meal the other night to celebrate our un-wedding anniversary. It was very tasty but they are a messy thing to eat - I wouldn't want to eat them in public 😀

Last week I had a couple of days off, but the weather was wet and windy so we couldn't do much. We picked some leeks and the single purple sprouting broccolli plant is still providing me with some tasty greens. The leeks went into a cheesy leek pasta dish and we had another lot in a stuffing for baked potatoes. 

I used the PSB along with mushrooms that I marinated in a harissa sauce - I really like the Rose Harissa flavouring, just spicy enough for my palette and it's a great colour.

Today I'm working so don't mind that the weather has returned to grey drizzle (I am on my lunch break at the moment - avoiding watching the sad depressing news about Ukraine. For goodness sake, Putin! Haven't we got enough to put up with, with COVID-19 still hanging round?!).
Florence and the Machine provided the song title.