Tuesday, June 27, 2006

# 0206# 0205Total Allotment Time: 3 & 1/2 hrs
Principle Tasks: Lightly forking over soil newly exposed from under plastic sheeting to remove any remaining weed roots as in recent posts. Grubbing up phacelia green manure from first temporary growing area and adding to compost bin. Cutting four Iceburg lettuces.

2 comments:

Jimmy said...

Hi Tim

Your pictures get better and better as do the vegetables. I love the phacelia too, it looks great. I would love to grow some if it is as good as you say for the bumblebees. You might need to remember it will set seed though, so dig it in before then or risk an infestation. Can you identify all the bumblebee species yet?

The panorama from the corner shows a view I don't think I have seen before, it is a lovely part of the country. I await the picket fence with interest as I am not sure what it is. I vaguely remember Tom Sawyer letting the other boys paint his fence if they gave him something worthwhile. He was an enterprising lad! Have you thought of charging people to weed your allotment?

All the best
Jimmy

Tim Hopper said...

Thanks, Jimmy. The phacelia really is amazing as an attraction for bumbles and I highly recommend it for this alone (if not for out-competing perennials :o) ). I've looked and looked since it's been flowering for honeybees and I'm still to spot one (although a friend said he saw one) yet the bed literally buzzes with the furry ones. A little worrying this, as I would of thought both kinds would like a similar food plant. I've been unlucky so far in the windy weather we've been having of late - makes photographing/id-ing that much harder, but I do want to keep trying.

I've decided to grub up the phacelia and compost it (already one of my bins is full of it - I'll need to watch it doesn't stagnate like grass, as it's pretty sappy) which is painfull to do as it's so beautiful. Over the weekend I expect to have cleared that first bed I sowed - it's coming into flower elsewhere, and hopefully in succesion, so the bees won't go hungry :o)

Yes, I'm waiting with slight anxiety over what my neighbours new fence will look like. Not really, they really are nice folk and whatever they go for it can't be as bad as the pallet fencing preceeding it :o)

A penny a horsetail shoot, maybe? :o)

Best Regards,
Tim