Thursday, September 18, 2008

Wild Day At The Plot

I went upto the allotment today to try and cut the grass and do some harvesting.The couch grass, other grasses, dock leaves, thistles, creeping buttercups, and nettles had grown all around the beds flopping over onto them. I hacked away for a few hours, and then dug up my second lot of Potatoes King Edwards, with their pink blush on the potatoe skin. (I dug up the Nadines last time but got confused). I had to pull up all the red and white Onions as all the foliage had rotted away in the rain. The damp conditions had begun to rot a few of the Onions, and the slugs had chomped a few Potatoes.
I usually hear the noise of a grasshopper or cricket in the long grasses, rubbing his legs to chirrup at me, like an insect violinist. I photographed a wild Evening Primrose when one jumped in front of my feet...

He moved around the grass a bit, before hopping off into the wild grass areas. He let me photograph him a few times before dissapearing.

These Speedwell flowers are so small (about the size of my little fingernail) but so delicate, and beautifully coloured like an oil painting with radiating blue stripes on a pale blue background, and a white centre. These are wildlfowers or weeds depending on how you look at them.

A dainty Dandelion type flower. The structure is so neat with the wing shaped petals, and stamen protuding from the centre. I was on my knees photographing this.
Wildlife, and wild flowers up at the allotment. Because it is locked it is like a mini wildlife sanctuary for birds, foxes, mice, and insects. Butterflys fly around landing on nectar rich plants that the allotment people have planted. Birds sing and feed off the dug soil.
I need to go up a lot more to keep on top of the weeds and grass. As soon as you are away the wildness claws a little piece of your plot back. I'm a perfectionist, and hate weed infested beds. It was a nightmare today how much tangle had spread along the whole plot.
I cooked a roast dinner tonight with my potatoes, runner beans, and cabbage. Eating it made me smile after a tough day cutting grass and pulling weeds up. Cooking the veg makes all the hard work worth it. My plot was total wilderness, so the years harvest has been amazing for a first timer..
There is winter veg to plant soon, and beds to revamp across the winter. Still growing on at the allotment is Brussel Sprouts (forming little baby ones now on my plants), Leeks, Radishes( that are being chewed at ground level by fieldmice i think), Runner Beans, Carrots, and Parsnips.
The Courgette plants have keeled over to powdery mildew, because of the rain.
It was a productive day, but now my muscles hurt..

2 comments:

joco said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Nice blog. Added it to my favorites !