Ace pollinators

 The heat this summer has given my Lavender bushes a boost. I have never appreciated before just how , being Mediterranean natives , they prefer dry and hot conditions. Similarly the Rosemary bushes are thriving, and we have olives on the potted Olive tree, my friend Ann is harvesting figs, and our Oleander in the yard continues flowering. I am hopeful for bananas on the small Banana plant , but it only has 4 leaves yet as it is only young. 

This year I have sat longer on my plot, enjoying the bee loud glade. I’ve pulled out unwanted plants and laid on bed to act as mulch, anything to keep the soil moist.

Barbara on next plot is harvesting her Lavender today. She cuts carefully into even sized bunches and hangs in her light and beautifully made greenhouse/shed that husband Terry built for her. She was widowed recently after a being a full time carer, and she gradually brings the plot back to its usual perfection as she restores the years the locusts have eaten . She is leaving some of her lavender , as I am , for the bees. My daughter has just messaged me to ask if we should get a beehive. She can forget that idea. I do however love to drive round these Wolds and spot hives hiding in the fields of Borage , Oilseed rape and Linseed, purple, citric yellow and blue. My honey is produced by a local beekeeper, a Mr Danby of Seamer. I buy it at Reighton Nurseries. The borage honey is the palest yellow. 

I let Borage and Nasturtiums seed freely all over my plot. No dig gardeners like the soil all covered with beneficial plants, bringing in insects and keeping down the unwanted  but not unloved Sow Thistles , and Spurges, the delightful Scarlet Pimpernel . I like the Dandelions and love the chickweed (beloved of Budgie keepers). I have a favourite wild plant which adores my plot, but it is wind pollinated I think, as it is green. I know its not Good king Henry, Chenopodium bonus henricus, I wish it was, I wasted seeds every year and still not managed to get even one to germinate .This is an annual relative , Fat Hen, but my Wild Food Book says it can also be eaten. The leaves are a lovely gray green and this  amongst my 3 sisters planting of Sweetcorn , Sunflowers and Mangetout managed to sneak up to 3feet high in as many weeks.

Echium is 12ft tall , still covered in bees, and cucurbit  flowers are beloved by tiny pollinators. I have succeeded , she says proudly of having something to attract pollinators during every day of the year, letting my brassicas go to seed, allowing dead nettles to grow through winter, and never hanging on for the bulbs, as there is always a wild flower arriving to fill in any gaps.

Trying not to cf.

Nothing to compare with this 

Here in the lea of the South Downs garden of  my youngest daughter is a flourishing Ginger plant, well thats what she says.  I am wondering whether its actually Tumeric as the leaves are quite broad, and the last time I did manage to get ginger growing from a rhizome it grew to about 30cm but had narrower leaves. I've got 5 bits of rhizome of Ginger in the greenhouse at the allotment today, and am hopeful. I have nothing to compare the plant with until the next time I get to the Chelsea Physic garden where both plants thrive in the new beds by the beehives.

This year the weather for growing things requiring high temperatures has been better than in 2015 , and we have had lots of night rain . I am hopeful that the row of Italian plum tomatoes which I have companion planted next to the Asparagus , will bear much fruit, they are doing so much better than all the greenhouse ones around. And I only planted them to ward off Asparagus Flea Beetle, have not watered them , nurtured them or fed them . I am disappointed that I've not managed to grow aubergines successfully either, I did have some fruit last year. The effort of actually growing them , feeding them and nurturing them to produce 3 tiny fruit was not worth it compared with buying 3 for 69p each in the local greengrocer. 

From left, Broad beans, Asparagus (hidden) Tomatoes, Asparagus, Broad beans

And so to Echiums.

I can happily report that the ones in the garden of other daughter are doing so well, and are so high that people are knocking on the door asking what they are.

See one peeping over the wall, at moment is at least 15' high. I see that someone in the Echium Plant sale business has started a website where people post their stats and compare their plants. I know that daughters one is tall, and she has four others , a veritable forest. I have considered that we need to keep  my daughter supplied with plants for the next 3 years, when the thousands of seedlings from the ones in the picture have germinated all over her garden . They take three years to flower, and then they die, a triennial rather than a biennial like Foxgloves. I have a tray of seedlings coming on nicely. A few years ago seedlings were coming up all along the path edge seen on this photo, but the first frost got them , as always happens , which is why I have to fleece them , and even then I sometimes am unsuccessful at getting them through the winter. I have a small Facebook Group called "WE got and Echium through the winter" where we encourage one another . Compared with all the other sites on Facebook its not in any way viral , just very Niche , if not Exclusive.

Just settling into winter

Echiums ready

I am wearing wool again this year. Now that I am 3 sizes smaller than last winter I am cold. Last year I wore M and S thermals , only I have had to wear them most of the year. I still have one back up item or 3 for my winter layering system . I have bought some sports tops that rugby players wear to keep warm on the field, presumably when the ball is down the other end . They do such lovely colours and are much cheaper then thermals from M and S. So I am really thrilled that the temperature is dropping . 

I shall wear M and S thermals, rugby tops (close fitting)and my new wool polo neck sweaters, and a thin fashion garment over all , from Primari  to make me look fashionable. I have never given spouse much sympathy for being cold all year as he is on Rat Poison to thin the blood. I am having sympathy for all those children in refugee camps who are now facing cold nights in the middle east. It has taken me this much to cotton on. I remember life before central heating very well, ice patterns on the bathroom window, hot water bottles the only bedroom heat, and doing homework with my two sisters  round a coke fire in the dining room. If you were too near the fire your legs went red, and you felt sleepy, if you were too far away from the fire you were frozen and couldn't do any work, but at least you were alert. These days no one would  bat an eyelid if one wore fingerless gloves and a hat indoors and a pashmina drape. Remember Chilblains!!

Echium Lurking behind the leeks 

I've looked at the weather app and tonight we might have the first frost of the winter. I had to nick a roll of fleece from Bernard's half of the allotment shed and have wrapped my Echium Pininana . I haven't had a decent 13foot inflorescence for 5 years now. I get them through all winter and they are caught in April, or the top dies out and it branches or I have a sorry sight one morning as my lovingly tended crop are all died one night when I was sure it wasn't as cold as I thought . I have not put any in the greenhouse this year. I am trying to go au naturel. I am using the Chelsea Physic garden wrapping method, more or less. Theirs are neater. At Kiaora I have found last years fleece bags and used them over the wrapped echiums .So , I'll keep you posted. I'm a nerd I know.

Fileygardener becomes a real one again

This is me a few weeks ago with Bernard my allotment partner .A year ago we were talking gardening after church and I said I would love an allotment again (22 yrs since my Surrey one). So we agreed that we would share one  as neither of us could manage a full one. A year later and we have it. 

Colin and I went to see it and I was overwhelmed! It is fantastic. It had been maintained up until back end, the soil is good loam, and it has a shed, two baths for rainwater, an incinerator ,an apple tree, gooseberries, raspberries, and 6 crowns rhubarb. Bernard is already negotiating the transfer of a greenhouse. He is going to be a great mentor for me, as I am a gardener of the slapdash sort , and he is neat rows and level ground, and everything in its place.

My mind is reeling with plans. 

On Friday I went for another look with all the grandchildren. (4 ,aged 6-9). They already know lots and were asking for their own bit for sunflowers, and doing the I Spy Garden book. I had forgotten just how enthusiastic small children could actually be, spotting wheelbarrows, chickens, cabbages,lawnmowers and compost heaps. I nearly forgot ; we have 2 compost heaps.  Today after lunch Colin and I , 2 small boys, Daughter and her Husband, the Filey domiciles, came for  a look. I and N have offered to dig my portion over for me.(!!) So I showed Nick how to do Double Digging. We will all go on Saturday next. I will have to give further instruction on removing all couch grass rhizomes. I saw that Bernard had already started a heap of not allowed on compost heap. We'll have a burn up in the incinerator when its dry. Daughter has asked for pumpkins. I am planning Asparagus bed and  a Lavender hedge. 

I am nestling up now with my Chiltern Seeds catalogue. I wonder if I'll get done if I try a few Echiums.