Simon's Allotment

If I can make my plot of use to the wildlife as well as feeding me then so much the better.  Knautia macedonia and phlox - good for...

Seems like I spoke too soon. The sun has disappeared and it's back to the wet and windy... ...not that it really matters in the sch...

Harvesting broad beans, cabbage, peas, carrots, lettuce and wild rocket from the plot. I've taken up the garlic too for drying. Lovely t...

Am I eating peas? Yes I am.

One effect of the weird weather this year is that the pictorial meadow seeds I sowed back in April totally failed to germinate. Not a sausa...

And speaking of gardening rags, or rather the aforementioned Gardens Illustrated, in the July editon they've published a photo of mine f...

Yeah the foxgloves are back: And a moths-eye view at night (or how I imagine it):

Back in the middle of May I took the first cut of comfrey and piled it up to let it wilt: A couple of weeks later it was looking like t...

Bread and Circuses is a metaphor for a superficial means of appeasement. It was the basic Roman formula for the well-being of the population...

Finally the weather seems to improving. Eating rocket, carrots and broad beans from the plot. Most things are a bit slow this year, not surp...

Growing away nicely:

When the ground is as wet as now it's a good time to get a mulch on to keep the moisture in the ground. It'll also suppress weed gro...

Nettles support over forty species of insects and the peacock, red admiral, comma and small tortoiseshell butterflies all rely on them for f...

First one I've seen this year, feeding on jacobs ladder in my garden and looking very healthy. It would be the offspring of ones that ov...

From upcycled pallets:

Whoop de jubilee. Hope you had a good one.

First of the year:

Ah lovely rain. Just what we needed for the gardens. Asparagus, salad leaves and rocket for the plate; broad beans and the first carrots nea...

Sprouts and broccoli. If you've been paying attention you'll recognise these as the ones I potted up at the end of April: