allotment – Dragon goes Wild

Fennel flowers

Dragon — Sat, 23 Jul 2016 09:00:56 +0000

I bought a herb fennel plant in our first year as allotment holders – I hadn’t realised quite how readily it spreads its seeds! I now have multiple plants, but unless they’re in the way of other things I’m trying to grow, I let the new fennel plants grow too.

Normally the fennel reaches about 5 feet tall, but this one seems to want to smash that completely. It’s already taller than me when I stand on the pathway – if I was to stand at ground level, I think it’d be getting on for a foot and a half taller than me!

We don’t get many birds on the allotment site, so I don’t know if the seeds would be something birds would eat. However the fennel flowers do tend to attract the insects; of course as I went to take the photo, they all flew off!

#365dayswild

Hopping around on the allotment

Dragon — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 09:00:35 +0000

One thing you have to be careful of on the allotment, is where you put your feet. Not because the local cats might have left a deposit, but because the grasshoppers might end up underfoot!

This one jumped onto the rhubarb leaves as I was walking past, and I spotted the next one on a small patch of weeds and grass that I was about to stand on. It certainly pays to walk slowly, so they get a chance to hop out of the way!

#365dayswild

Wildflowers on the allotment

Dragon — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 09:00:05 +0000

On my allotment, I’m allowed to use up to 25% of the space for flowering plants. I’ve not got anywhere near that much space devoted to non-edible flowers, but I do have a small flower section to entice the pollinating insects.

As well as the lavender plants, there’s a fennel and some mint growing near the compost bin – mainly to give a fresher aroma when you lift the lid from the bin! Two years ago, I sowed some wild flower seeds in amongst the other flowers, and this year I’ve ended up with a fantastic meadow-like look to my floral area.

Despite the heat on the day I took these photos, there were plenty of flies, bees and butterflies about, all gathering up nectar from the plants.

The lavender plants have quite woody stems, but with the way everything else has grown around them, you wouldn’t know they were woody.

I think this was possibly a plant I put in a few years ago but this year it really seems to have taken off and grown like crazy!

#30dayswild

Daisy chain

Dragon — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 19:56:06 +0000

On my allotment, I’ve devoted one area to flowers; most of them are wild flowers from seed sown a year or two ago, but one in particular has taken a liking to that section, and grown larger than it ever has before.

The Ox-eye daisy flower looks just like a normal daisy you’d find in the lawn, but it’s considerably taller! My plant has started flopping over the path, so it’s been tied back slightly, just to support it and prevent anyone tripping on the stems.

I spotted several flying insects on the flowers, but unfortunately as I got closer to try and photograph them to be able to identify what they were, they flew off! But, I know that they like the pollen so it was definitely a good choice to grow on the allotment.

#30dayswild