The Veg Plot.

[garynortheast]

Thanks Martin, I’m quite pleased with the way it’s heading. I would probably not have got this far were it not for the lockdown, and now having done all this work, I don’t think I want to go back to what I was doing before. The garden and growing food seems like a far more valuable and worthwhile thing to be doing than all the endless tail chasing, trying to earn money, most of which was being spent on keeping systems in place that paid for me to go to work to earn money.......and on and on ad infinitum.

There is a lot more to do yet. The lack of proper edges and paths around this steep hillside garden is driving me nuts, so that will be one of the things to be dealt with before the summer is up. I don’t want to be skating around on slippery, muddy tracks in the winter. Hopefully a polytunnel will also go up this summer. Hoping to get a power supply up to it as well so that I can run heated propagators in there to get stuff going much earlier in the year. And a kettle so I can make cups of tea while I spend time er... working in there!

[Sir Trev]

You sound addicted Gary, in a good way of course.

[garynortheast]

I think I understand now why Voltaire retreated to his garden in the end Trev.

[Seeker]

Help, I'm a hopeless gardener. I planted some foxglove two years ago and they flowered the first year and disappeared the second year but have reappeared this year in a different place. Where the foxglove used to be this plant, which I'm guessing is a weed, seems to be flourishing. Does anyone know what it is?





Last year one similar plant grew in this spot - very tall (5 feet) and produced a tiny flower at the top, this year, assuming it is the same plant it's prolific.

[garynortheast]

That looks like willowherb Seeker. It’s what most people would regard as a weed, although a weed is only a wildflower in the “wrong” place.

Foxgloves will seed them selves happily all over the place, but you can help by collecting the seed and scattering it where you want them to grow. Don’t forget that they are bi-annual though. Leaves in the first year, flowers in the second.

Other plants which will happily seed themselves about the place, and look great doing so, are Aquilegia (grannies bonnets), evening primrose, and sweet rocket (which also has a great scent especially in the evening).

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

That looks like willowherb Seeker. It’s what most people would regard as a weed, although a weed is only a wildflower in the “wrong” place.

Thanks, I looked it up and I'll leave it in for now. I'd put the foxglove in to attract pollinators and the willowherb sounds good for that, too.

Originally Posted by garynortheast

Don’t forget that they (foxglove) are bi-annual though. Leaves in the first year, flowers in the second.

I didn't know that - but mine did the opposite by flowering the first year and then disappearing the second and have now reappeared in a different place.

I'd sowed some wildflower seeds around the back and only got poppies the first year which the bees liked. The next year I didn't get any poppies at the back but did at the front, so I collected the poppy seeds and sprinkled them over the back; nothing. Repeated the next year; nothing. This year I have poppies everywhere.

[Sir Trev]

It can depend a lot on the weather too Seeker so keep it up and you'll get some nice but varying results each year.

I have the opposite problem as I am getting an increasingly bad infestation of ground elder. Nasty stuff you can only get rid of by applying heavy duty herbicide when the plant is young. I've taken to painting on stump and brushwood killer with a small brush, but you have to do it in the evening when it's cooler so it does not all just evaporate. It's wrecking my back in the process but I'm slowly working my way around the estate and the first area I did is now a sea of dying leaves. Sounds harsh but this stuff clumps around the roots of plants you want to keep and starves them of water so they start to die.

On a happier note we're eating the first of my home grown lettuce of the year tonight. Hoorah!

[Sir Trev]

Hopefully this works... The veg plot at Trev Towers is now all planted up.

20200530_164750 by Trevor Laight, on Flickr

[garynortheast]

Not working Trev.

[Sir Trev]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

Not working Trev.

Now I know I cannot host pics on Google Pics then. Ah well, back to Flikr then.

Post above refreshed.

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