This Calendula has been growing by the retaining wall just underneath the Fir Trees that run along the right side of the garden. The soil is bone dry and compacted, but this plant has grown despite unfavourable conditions.
I have collected some seed heads (like crabs claws) for sowing next year. I find orange flowers very therapeutic to look at. It reminds me of Hare Krishnas singing on their parades through the streets of Cheltenham...
I spent five and a half hours down the allotment in the warm sunshine. Clearing more grasses and weeds away, and weeding the Leek and Courgette beds.
I think it will take me around nine more days to complete the clearance. It has been very hard, laborious work doing it by hand. I see grasses and thistles growing behind me as i work my way across.
The digging over is still to be done, before I can mark out the beds and paths around them. The clearing of the neglected plot is the evil task. The marking out and preparing for next years growing season is the better bit.
I have got to know the soil, the weeds, and the bugs that live within my little plot intimately as I have looked at them on my knees. I have marked the limits with canes and string tied between them.
I found a gift today of Raspberry Canes in a pot near the Blackberry bushes. I need to plant them somewhere on Saturday.
The highlight today was sitting at the end of the day drinking a cup of coffee watching the House Martins diving and soaring acrobatically catching insects. Flying past me and Cat so we could see their white under belly's. All the rest of the allotment people had gone, leaving us to witness the spectacle..
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