Autumn Colours

After another chilly and drab Autumn week, but with a beautiful sunny day yesterday, which cleared away the dampness in the air and on the ground I decide to spuddle off to my plots today in the late morning. With not a great deal to do around my allotments, the intention was to make a short visit and do a cursory inspection of everything. Most of the ground areas were reasonably dry, except where the fallen Autumn leaves were strewn around, holding in moisture, mainly across the southern lower parts of my plots, close to the hedgerow. The grass areas of the plots were also a little damp, as only recently has the grass stopped growing to any degree. As I wandered around my plots checking the beds, borders, paths, cloches and ground covers, I noticed a surprising and varied amount of new growth, despite the recent cold, damp weather. Many spring flowering bulbs were showing well above soil level. The autumn sown veggies which would be expected to develop were doing well and even my mixed lettuce, (uncovered as yet), was growing away, unaffected by the recent frosts. 

Passiflora Still Flowering End of Nov 2014

 Seven or eight other plot holders were working away on their plots when I arrived and were in the process of some rough digging or clearing decaying vegetation from their planting areas. By about midday most of them had left for home. I dug over a few feet of soil at the top end of No1 bed. After about forty minutes of digging, I decided to remove my runner bean plants, which were still in situ on the L-Shaped bed and still growing, although they were looking bedraggled, having been ravaged by a recent heavy overnight frost. This task took me longer than I anticipated. After cutting away the plants ties, removing the supporting canes and cleaning them of soil and sooty mould, salvaging some beans for seed, disposing of the foliage onto the compost heap and putting away the hundred or so canes, into my shed, 2 hours had gone by. I then cleared the ground, on the drainage ditch bank beneath my fruit trees, of more fallen leaves, depositing them into my "leaf mould bin". By the time this task was finished I called it a day, locked up the sheds and spuddled off home.

Camelia In Full Bud End of Nov 2014

Groundsel Flowering End Nov 2014

Inkcaps Like It Damp Dec 2014

More Inkcaps Dec 2014

And More Dec 2014

(This One Usually Dies Back in Late Autumn) Dec 2014

Feverfew Flowering Dec 2014

There's Always Tomorrow!!!