A lottie visit.

It seems a long while since I featured our allotment plot in Greenbenchramblings and it was from the old green bench on the lottie that my blog was launched, so when I was nominated for a pair of blogging awards I thought it would be a good time to say thank you by taking you for a quick look around our plot.

Firstly thanks to aristonorganic for the 2Awards in 1! I am not a competitive person but I do feel privileged to know that someone appreciates my blog. It brings a smile to my face.

The awards are “Shine On” and “Very Inspiring Blogger Award”.

By accepting them I promise to tell you 7 things about myself and pass on the nomination to other bloggers I enjoy reading.

7 Things About Me

1 I am registered “Bionic”.

2 I want to know what is going on in our garden at night so have just got a live moth trap.

3 I keep a flock of hens at the bottom of my garden and talk to them regularly. I think they talk back!

4 I enjoy our monthly trip to jazz club.

5 I garden with wildlife in mind.

6 I am chairman of our allotment community.

7 I enjoy watching 20/20 cricket.

Bloggers who I wish to nominate are

mybeautifulthings

The Scottish Country Garden

lensandpensbysally

Penny’s Garden

grandparentsplus2

Catherine Howard’s Garden

pbmgarden

So let us go for a wander around our lottie plot. We welcome you through an archway where a “meeter-greeter” awaits your arrival.

Fruit grown as cordons line our paths and here red currants, almost ready to pick, are netted against the attentions of the local blackbird population. We grow flowers with our fruit to bring in beneficial insects which act as pest controllers and pollinators.

Our Runner Beans are in flower providing bright splashes of red whilst below them French Beans give us purples and mauves to enjoy.

We grow Sweetcorn and Courgette together as they are good companions. The large leaves of the Courgettes provide ground cover holding moisture in the soil and creating a cool root run for the corn. Of course it saves space too!

We welcome wildlife onto our plot to benefit us as gardeners and for us to enjoy watching and listening to. Our little pool is alongside our seats. We have little insect hotels dotted around to help us keep our crops healthy and free of pests.

We have a couple of wildflower strips to help our Brassica crops and Blackcurrants.

A barrier of fleece keeps Carrot rows free from the attentions of Carrot Rootfly and the flowers of Heartsease bring in beneficial insects. Growing members of the Allium family close by also helps fool them by emitting strong scents to mask the sweet aroma of Carrots.

You may remember me telling you about making our green roof atop our shed in a post a few months ago and as you can see it is slowly getting established. On the communal spaces near our plot we have at last got the willow dome complete. It has grown enough to train growth over to form a full roof. It is lovely and quiet, cool and shaded in there and it is a popular place for children to sit and read or to look through the woven window and watch the birds on the feeders. We hold our open day at the allotments this weekend, when we open for charity, under the auspices of the NGS, so we can proudly call ourselves a “Yellow Book Garden”.

9 replies on “A lottie visit.”

Thank you for mentioning us in your list of nominations, it is sincerely appreciated and made my day. I was actually going to ask how your allotment was doing this season so am thrilled to hear how great everything is growing. Can you tell me more about using the fleece with the carrots? And, I hope your open day is wonderful.

Hi Judy. We use fleece to keep the carrot root fly off. We build a barrier about 2 feet tall around the carrot rows. These flies apparently do not fly this high. It seems to work. Malc

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Malc, thanks for the mention and congratulations to you. It is great to see your allotment coming along so well. Would love to sit in the willow dome myself.

That willow dome is so popular in this hot weather. The sound of story telling always seems to be in evidence. Malc

Thanks for the nominations–I have been blessed by the receipt of these awards in the past. Mostly, I am grateful to you. More than that, you deserve the praise.