This year has been a year for much needed renovation work on the allotment. One such project was the renovation of a large flower bed at one edge of our plot.
Regular readers may be able to cast their minds back to the beginning of the year when the bed looked like this.
It was swamped with couch grass, bindweed and all manner of other weeds.
This was the allotment so we didn't want to spend a fortune, rather it needed a cheap and cheerful look. With this in mind we spotted an offer of 172 perennial plug plants at a very reasonable price. It was a pot luck collection which meant that we couldn't choose the plants to be included.
These arrived at the beginning of April. They were tiny plug plants and so they were potted up with three or more plugs to a pot.
By the 4 May we had removed as many weeds as possible. The black elders and roses had been severely 'pruned'.
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| 4 May |
Couch grass and bindweed are persistent and so I kept going over the bed to remove any pieces that were reappearing.
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| 11 May |
Plants that we wanted to keep were dug up, tidied and replanted.
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| 14 May |
These included centaurea montana - perennial cornflowers, some penstemon and some bearded irises.
We then planted out the potted perennials which although they had put on quite a lot of growth still didn't make much of an impression. We guessed that this year the bed would look sparse.
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| 14 May |
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| 30 May |
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| 3 June |
The new perennials grew surprisingly quickly and in June lupins and poppies were flowering but the bindweed was also making an appearance sometimes courtesy of the tiniest fragment previously missed.
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| 10 June |
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| 13 June |
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| 7 August |
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| 7 August |
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| 7 August |
I still keep spotting bits of bindweed but I am determined to stay on top of it - wish me luck.
If you have about 20 minutes to spare you may like to watch the video that I made showing this and other flower areas on our allotment. I recommend viewing in full screen. There is a commentary so turn your sound on.
Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/
author S Garrett
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What a lovely video:) My goodness, but you have worked hard and you thoroughly deserve the wonderful display!
ReplyDeleteGlad that you enjoyed it sweffling
DeleteWhere do you get the energy from Sue?
ReplyDeleteIt just shows that if you are sufficiently persistent and dedicated you can get rid of perennial weed - if you really have -yet
Most gardeners give up or become complacent too soon
No vompacency here, Roger. I know that bindweed doesn't disappear that easily. I'll keep on it's case.
DeleteHi Sue.. I've just returned to blogging. Your had work has paid off, the border looks lovely :o)
ReplyDeleteHi, Julie, I spotted you were back. It's one reason that I don't remove blogs from my blogroll. It's set to show latest posts first so you popped up at the top of my list, :-)
DeleteWow, I can't believe how quickly the bed filled out - it looks wonderful!! I have similar bindweed woes, in fact, I was out pulling it from paths just yesterday. Out of all the weeds, that one is definitely the worst of the bunch in our garden.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely the bane of our allotment, Margaret. It's certainly insidious.
DeleteIt's surprising how well borders fill out. That looks really good now. Bindweed is a nuisance, we have it on our allotment. Keep digging it out and it will weaken it
ReplyDeleteThat's my intention, Margaret.
DeleteYou have worked hard and it all looks amazing.
ReplyDeleteI face a similar task and you have actually given me hope that it can be done without chemicals. Couch is my worst, I actually like pulling bindweed, I find it therapeutically satisfying! I also have brambles and other nasty things that take over given the opportunity.
I know what you mean about pulling out bindweed, Deborah. We have brambles too. You name it and we have it with the fortunate exception of marestail
DeleteWow, what a transformation! How those tiny plugs have grown. It really does look wonderful. Bindweed is the bane of my life, I just can't get rid of it.xxx
ReplyDeleteWe were really surprised at how fast they grew, Dina. We didn't expect anything like a ful
Deletebed this year or maybe even next.
That area is knitting together really nicely Sue. I have bindweed too but the bane of my life is marestail :( I'm saving your videos for winter days.
ReplyDeleteThankfully we don't suffer from marestail. All our gardening videos are posted on our Video blog
Delete