Flighty's plot

Over the past week I’ve spent most mornings on the plot and I’ve now reached the stage where I’m twiddling my fingers waiting to start planting and sowing in a week or two, weather permitting. On Sunday I cleared and dug round the dustbin lid pond, which I re-levelled and put new stones in.  The bright green foliage are self-seeded poached egg plants (limnanthes douglasii). Today is a lovely sunny and warm spring day. The daffodils have started flowering, with these mini ones the first to appear and lots more to follow. Other welcome signs of spring are tiny pinheads of new growth all over the blackthorn which will grow and burst into blossom before too long, and the hydrangea that I acquired last summer is showing welcome signs of new growth. Happy gardening! [Click on any picture to see a larger image]

My thanks to Glo (Porcelain Rose) for this Q & R Award and Recipe which looks rather delicious so I’ll be giving it a go in the summer.

The rhubarb has just started to appear despite something, a fox I would guess, digging around over the top of it some days recently.

I’ve been doing some plotting most mornings this week as it’s been dry and sunny, although the wind has remained rather chilly.

On Tuesday I could hear a robin close by but couldn’t see it for ages until I realised that it was sitting in the hawthorn just a few feet away from me.

The white and yellow crocuses are still doing well with lots of bees on them.  The daffodils won’t be long as the buds are now appearing.

The forecast is looking good so it looks like I’ll be doing plenty more plotting right through into early next week at least.

Have a good weekend!

[Click on any picture to see a larger image]

continues the sort of Plot A to Z  occasional series of posts.

Among the Pollen & Nectar Meadow mixture seeds I mentioned recently is the ornamental grass Briza maxima which has the common name Quaking grass.

If I had a garden then I think that one of the shrubs in it would be a flowering Quince.

Moving on to R which includes my favourite soft fruit and a really lovely flower.

I love Raspberries so have about twenty plants, a mix of summer and autumn fruiting varieties which give me plenty of fruit over a long period.  I see that they are reported to be an especially healthy food according to various websites including this one.

Rhubarb is a plant that is seen on most allotments and mine is no exception.  At this time of year the stems are just starting to appear above ground, although mine have yet to do so. Once ready to pick I usually take home just a few stems to cut up, gently stew for a few minutes then eat with a sprinkling of demerara sugar.

The Rose Pretty Lady is the plot’s star plant as it starts blooming during May, or early June, in time for rose lover Nikkipolani’s birthday, then continues through to late autumn.

Have a good week!

Edited Wed, 4 March to thank Glo (Porcelain Rose) for her Q & R Award and Recipe for this post which sounds delicious, and which I will try in the summer.

Much as I would like to grow more dahlias I am constrained by a lack of space so generally I only grow one or two.  In the past I’ve grown colourful decorative types which have fairly large blooms but this year I’ve bought a couple of white Snowflake pompon tubers which have smaller globe-shaped flowers.

I also always grow some gladioli and usually buy new corms year to year. This year I’ve chosen the variety White Goddess.

It’s been an unsettled week with plenty of rain at times so the only day that I’ve been to to the plot was Tuesday to have a look round to see if I could decide where to grow these.  I think that they’ll all go together on the flower patch alongside the grass path just beyond the hawthorn.

The weather looks like remaining changeable through to at least early next week with more rain and very windy at times.

Have a good weekend!