This week I forked over the compost heap before I cut the comfrey,which had finished flowering,  back to ground level then added it to the heap. This will also give me  a chance to reach the raspberries. If the onion Sturon leaves are anything to go by then it looks like being a good year for them. That will hopefully make up for last year when most were only golf ball size, rather tennis ball, and had hard cooked skins.   The potatoes first earlies Pentland Javelin and second earlies Charlotte are both showing lots of flowers.  These purple ones are the latter, and the for ..read more

I was pleased to see that the first few dwarf Runner beans Jackpot have apppeared which I sowed a week ago yesterday.  There was no sign of any dwarf French beans Sprite which I sowed at the same time, but hopefully they’ll start showing within a day or two.  Even more pleasing was seeing about twenty sweetcorn Sundance seeds, sown at the same time, have also appeared. I’ve now got nine tomatoes planted out, as I was given another one during the week.  They’re looking okay but could certainly do with some warmer sunny weather. I’ve got one more, a Golden Sunrise, on the windowsi ..read more

any Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damescena) seeds for a couple of years but plenty of flowers have appeared this year. They’ve mostly grown through the Poached Egg plants which have now finished, and I’ve left to self-seed. The above picture is from June 2010 , and I’ve certainly sown and grown them most years.  This year they help to make up for the candytuft and cornflowers which I sowed but never showed. It looks like it’s going to be a good year for blackberries if the amount of flowers is anything to go by. When I took this picture earlier this week it was buzzing with bumble bees. Over ..read more

It was chilly,drizzly and windy on Friday to see spring out, unlike today which is summer sunny. Yesterday I sowed two short rows of dwarf French beans Sprite along with one of dwarf runner beans Jackpot. I also sowed the sweetcorn seeds Sundance. I planted out a handful of tomato plants, and will do the rest in a few days time. That’s about all this year’s planting and sowing done apart from another three rows of beans towards the end of this month. This coming week I’ll be spending most of the time working my way through the flower patches, mostly weeding. I’m growing a couple of dwarf sunfl ..read more

I see that when I did the first post here back on Sunday, 27th May 2007 it was a grey, wet morning but I didn’t actually have the plot then. A month later on Sunday 29th June I joined the local horticultural society and detoured on the way home to have a look at the plot but it was another damp and dull morning.  It seems like nothing much changes as it’s the same again today. This picture, taken yesterday, shows the potato patch.  At the bottom are the strawberry plants with some nasturtiums on the left, and over on the top right is where the sunflowers are growing. Looking round t ..read more

As well as the tomato plants I was given, which I mentioned on Thursday, I was also given this cucumber plant as that was something else that failed to germinate. I don’t know the variety but was told that it’s a common ordinary green type, so I would guess that it’s probably a Marketmore. Yesterday I earthed up all the potatoes, then hoed and weeded all round the patch.  All I planted are showing and doing well so far.   I also prepared the areas where I’ll be direct sowing dwarf French and Runner bean seeds, as well as the sweetcorn, which I hope to be doing during this coming ..read more

every year on the plot, usually the red variety Gardener’s Delight and yellow Golden Sunrise.  I only grow a handful which I start off in pots on the windowsill at home, then plant out on the plot around this time of year.  This year the seeds either didn’t germinate or did then hardly grew so it reached the point where I’d decided to throw them away and just buy a few plants at the recent horticultual society plant sale. However I didn’t have to do that as I was very kindly given some.  They include at least one Moneymaker, a standard red variety, and some red and/or yellow che ..read more

didn’t do well this year with most of the stems no thicker than a pencil and flopping with the leaves dying back noticeably quickly. Plenty of other people seemed to have the same problem, if the online forums were anything to go by, and most blamed the weather, in particular the mild winter.  I cleared both clumps then covered them with compost and between now and the autumn will hopefully decide whether to leave them be, move them elsewhere on the plot or dig up and discard. This morning I finally finished rough cutting the grass paths edges around and across the plot.  It’s one of ..read more

The small English Daisy (bellis perennis), in a 3.5 in//9 cm pot(shown above), has been flowering almost continuously for well over a month with a couple of flowers and several buds showing at any one time.  Apparently they’re at their best from from March through to October but can be found in flower all year round.  The seedlings I showed last month went to some one else to grow and I’ll be sowing some more. The Common Forget-me-nots (Myosotis arvenis) I showed in this post lasted several weeks after which I replanted it out on the plot where I hope it will have self-seeded.  ..read more

What a difference a few weeks and some recent good weather has made to the plot.  I started planted and sowing just over a month ago and so far everything is doing well. The onions Sturon all have several inches of leaves and, apart from a handful, all the potatoes are now visible.  Even the carrots Short and Sweet, which I only sowed a couple of weeks ago, are now appearing. All the annual flower seeds I sowed are showing, except the nasturtiums Tom Thumb which I only sowed early last week.  Cosmos corner has lots of seedlings,  as has the area where I sowed the sunflowers ..read more