Reading the fascinating account of a hedge layer,who lived in a caravan and travelled around farms in Dorset and Somerset “Thorn and Briar” by Paul Lamb which I noted in my journal of READS as a ‘SHEER BEAUTY OF A BOOK, I started off this year by tackling my boundary to the allotment and attempting a DEAD HEDGE.
Since then it seems that every article in botanical missives seem to think these a a wonderful and innovative idea for providing a habitat that is beneficial to the biodiversity of a piece of land . I thought this up all my own I tell you, but Paul Lamb got me thinking about what a useful thing any hedge is for a boundary.
I am as all my friends and reader know an utter maverick on our allotment site.
- I have a ‘wild ‘ meadow strip planted 12 years ago, and just strimmed every August or September after the seeds have set.Im still hopeful for wild orchids, but have dozens of species of flowering plants and grasses, frogs, grasshoppers , and last year my first lizard was spotted . The insects and spiders are too varied to count. I read of naturalists on the FBOG page who can tell the difference between 38 species of bees in Filey Churchyard. I know they fly here too , especially when my Lavendar hedges are flowering.
- I aim to have some plants flowering during every month of the year, welcome Dandelions (if you are one of my fellow gardeners on the plots be aware I do not let them set seed If I have time to dead head them ), and tolerate creeping Buttercups, Hogweed flowering now , and Scarlet Pimpernel is in profusion, along with all the usual pollinators beloved of us botanists. My big success is to encourage my favourite wild flowers Crosswort and Tufted Vetch which now thrive in swathes in my more wild areas of the plot . My Woad plant flowers from April to June, from my time (now finished as have given away my spinning wheel )of growing DYE Plants. It is a brute to get rid off, and have just got my daughter to cut it right back before the seeds take over Filey. Ten years ago I was cautioned nicely by the chairman of the allotments for growing Echium wildpretii as my resident pollinator. Growing over 10feet tall, they must have alarmed the sedate ‘grow in rows ‘gentlemen on neighbouring plots. Now they are popular and am asked for seedlings. It seems most people now had seen them on One million years BC 1966 film with Ursula Andress , which must have been filmed in Lanzerote where the plant is a native.That dates the demographic of the plots then , but not now, as lots of young families and younger people now are on our site.Old Films are popular again.
- I have a Szechuan pepper tree in a pot , which had red peppercorns
- I Follow Bob Flowerdew who leaves his weedings as mulch .At present Im not able to go on site much as am not able to do much after 10am when all household chores are done and beloveds lunch ready. I hope the wonderful Dr Sharma will sort me out soon. So meanwhile my wild plants are grown so prolific I’m actually seeing if some are really edible , like Fat Hen, and Hedge Mustard.I do promise that as soon as I am fit again I will thin out all my plants growing in the wrong places.
- The frogs are everywhere , my own slug control, and this years tadpoles in my nature pond have already got their back legs. Last year was so hot that the pond got algal bloom and I had to start again.I thank friend Paul for giving me lots of his UK weed and a dose of a pond treatment .
- My greenhouse roof has partly collapsed now , this structure was rotten when I got it , and will have to be dismantled now.The family wont allow me inside. I shall find someone to deal with it and am saving to pay someone .Do not worry fellow allotmenteers , Im not repairing it ,but will do something when Im well again. Here I admire those fellow plot holders who are such great DIYers. They never cease to amaze me.
