Lmst

Off on a road trip north to escape the next heatwave. I hope it rains when we are there because except for a few light showers we have had nothing for 2 months and I've missed the normality of spring early summer season. Leaving these little guys to look after the plot. Have a great weekend everyone.
#allotments
#roadTrip

A red adult ladybird and a late larvae stage sitting on nettle leaves.

Here's a wide view of the pond I saw the fish jumping from in my previous post. Magical ain't it! I feel privileged to have a key this year to visit it when I like! #Faversham #Allotments #Kent #England

A wide slow-moving stream, which resembles a pond, in the centre of an allotment grounds. The trees are green, the sun is blue (well, partly) and the birds are singing. A small bit of paradise five minutes walk from my house! 🏞️❤️

I was glad to see yesterday that the few remaining sweetcorn are holding their own against the cucurbits 👍🌽 #AllotmentGardening #VegetableGardening #VegGardening #Gardening #Allotments #Kent #England

A close-up of young sweetcorn plants (about a foot high) growing amongst courgettes and gherkins.

The courgettes and gherkins are coming along nicely! I'll soon have to start cropping them! 🥒 #AllotmentGardening #VegetableGardening #VegGardening #Gardening #Allotments #Kent #England

A small wood-edged vegetable bed thickly planted with an assortment of courgettes, gherkins, tomatoes and sweetcorn.

A close-up of the centre of a courgette plant with flowers and early fruit showing.

A close-up of a runner from a gherkin plant showing a discarded flower and a young fruit.

In contrast to my last post, this was my first encounter with my Foxy, 14th May 2023. You can see how unperturbed she was. That litter had 4 cubs and she was the only one who would squeeze through the railway fence onto my plot. This video taken on a mobile.
#allotments
#foxes

Meet the new cubs on the plot! These photos were captured on the trail camera. Two very healthy older cubs. Who ever the mum is (my foxy?) has done a good job. These two are very secretive and it's taken a long time to see them out in the open. One of them has a very distinctive dark tail so should be easy to distinguish. Going by their size I think this must have been a very early litter.
#allotments
#foxes

An almost fully grown fox cub probably around 3 or 4 months old.it isalert and looking for the source of the trail cam noise.just perceptible is a very dark bushy trail. This is the smaller of the two cubs

The second cub sniffing the ground. It has a much redder coat than its sibling.

Given the state of the world I feel as if I should be growing food on every available piece of the plot, but I couldn't bring myself to pull up these opium poppies just yet. I'm rewarded by watching the antics of bees and hoverflies squabbling over access to the pollen.
#allotments
#gardening
#SpaceForNature

A wooden edged raised bed full of bright pink opium poppies. In the foreground is a row of feathery fronds of fennel and bush bean plants. A single pot marigold plant stands out with it's bright orange daisy flowers. Behind the poppies is a row of heritage Carlin peas with pods developing.

Unfortunately, it was a case of grabbing my phone and clicking. No time to compose or check the focusing, but I managed to capture the vixen who visited the allotment this early evening (around 5.30ish)! She came right onto the plot, but skedaddled quick when she saw me 🙂 #Fox #Foxes #Allotments #Kent #England

A tightly-cropped and unfortunately out-of-focus photo of a female red fox (Vulpes vulpes) checking the allotment path was clear before making her getaway.

Another cropped photo of the fox. This time going down the path she checked in the previous pic.

An uncropped photo of fox leaving the allotment to give some illustration of how close she came to me! ❤️🦊

I thought it was about time I posted some pics of my friend's allotment that I'm helping out on this year. It's tiny (probably only an 8th of a full-sized one!) but it's in a lovely and peaceful location, and I'm going to have to be careful that I don't end up living there! 😅 #AllotmentGardening #Allotments #Gardening #Kent #England

A small, somewhat overgrown, allotment garden with wood-edged beds and chipped-bark paths.

A small wood-edged vegetable plot with an assortment of (over-planted) courgettes, gherkins, sweetcorn, and tomatoes.

The same bed as in the previous photo, but after weeding, and when the sun came out. Things always look so much better when it's sunny! ☀️🙂

@DarkSheepArts @stsresident

I really feel for you on this. Trying to run an organic allotment - I keep getting **!@* emails from the **#%* Thought Police

You have to wonder who they think is pollinating their beans

#allotments #organic #pollinators

Finally got an allotment last year after waiting eight years. Early days, but great to get some veg in the ground at last. :)
#allotments #gardening #nodig

Newly planted beds on an allotment with sweetcorn, kale, lettuce and rocket.

#photography #allotments #fediverse #heffalupmians #help #experts #colour I have many hidden disabilities. 1 is maxed out red/geen colour sight. I shoot in Raw and then convert. I need to know how far off the normative this is. Please describe what needs tweaking. Ta!

Looks like I will be enjoying my first courgettes by the end of the week. Not surprising given the warm temperatures we had in May. It was worth a punt planting out early. But now I have half a dozen standby plants to find a home for.
#allotments
#GrowYourOwn

A courgette plant showing bright yellow flowers and immature fruits. There is a white collar around the base of the plant which protects while young and helps ensure water is directed to the plant roots.

#BookReview - 'The Allotment' by Crouch (#landscape historian), & Ward (prolific 20th century advocate for practical #anarchism) explores #allotments as sanctuaries for personal growth, community, & connection with the land.

Tracing their origins to 17th-century resistance to enclosure, this classic study blends oral narratives describing pigeon-fancying & leek competitions, with the history of British #land struggles.

Laing’s excellent new intro underscores its relevance today.

#Gardening

Picture of book 'The Allotment', placed against bean poles and growing vegetables in a community Allotment.

My home made nesting box on the back of the allotment shed is currently home to some bluetits. Yesterday morning one of the adults was flying in and out every 2 or 3 minutes with a caterpillar in its beak.
7 or 8 eggs is typical but they can have up to 14!
In the UK just 38% of juveniles survive their first year.
A plan for making a nest box like this and advice about entrance hole size came from the RSPB website.
#birds #birdsofmastodon #bluetit #allotments #gardening #wildlifegardening #RSPB

Adult Eurasian Bluetit entering a home-made nesting box, 1.8 metres above ground on the back of a wooden shed.

Collecting horsetail to make a "tea" to use as a natural antifungal that I will spray onto plants to protect from rust and mildew. It also can be used as a soil soak, containing lots of useful minerals. I also use the fronds around emerging dahlias to keep the slugs off. The high silica content is like crawling over shards of glass.
#allotments
#gardening
#naturally

Bright green Christmas tree like fronds of common horsetail Equisetum arvense.

The most gorgeous freshly emereged female broad bodied Chaser sitting at the top of a bamboo cane on the allotment today. Look at those wings! Just as I would imagine fairy peoples wings.
#allotments
#dragonfly
#dragonflies

A female broad bodied Chaser of the dragonfly group. Identification notes: a very broad fat dragonfly with golden brown abdomen with paler spots on the sides. Two pairs of wings. There are dark triangles at the base of the hind wings, the rest of the wings are delicately veiled and translucent.

Same individual side view against a blue sky

The warm dry spring has brought out the allotment pond damselfly emergence earlier than usual. Suspect this is a small red. I'm not an expert, but would be great as they are nationally scarce. If anyone out there can help out with ID that would be wonderful. Also resident in the pond are two frogs. Get hours of pleasure watching all the activity.
#allotments
#wildlife
#ponds
#damselfly