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Our Wildflower strip has been maturing and as it does we have had many wild visitors from the animal kingdom. Here are a few that help with our vegetable growing in so many ways, from pollinating our fruits and keeping the slugs and aphids down, to looking after our soil by eating soil borne pests, aerating the soil and spreading good natural soil biology to encourage a healthy soil biome.
We have been leaving a strip of grass uncut along the wesst boundary of our allotment the last few years and I want to share with you some of the floral delights that have emerged. We haven't planted any seeds (although we plan to plant 350 spring bulbs this coming winter.) So everything here was always here, it just needed us to stop mowing it so it could flourish and we can appreciate it.
Here we have two lovely pink flowers. At the top is the Cut-Leaved Crane's-bill (Geranium dissectum) and the one at teh bottom is Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) Both in the same family so they probably whisper in-jokes together.
Thyme-leaved Speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia) This beautiful tiny flower which looks gorgeous in abundance, would have repeatedly had it's head chopped off and we'd never see its white flowers with blue lightening marks on them.
Lesser Trefoil (Trifolium dubium) This plant can be found all over Enderby on the pavements and in lawns, look out for its bundles of tiny yellow pea-like flowers. Here it is showing off it's great climbing ability and can get to grow over a foot tall if it is allowed to.
This is the glorious Red-Dead-Nettle (Lamium purpureum) which we saw earlier in the year. Now it is growing only slightly taller, but it's leaves look more sturdy and aging and we can see the pretty, spikey calyx whorls, like Queen Victoria's ruff, left behind after the flower falls.
Common Nettle (Urtica dioica) But surely there's nothing common about this plant. It has it's very own distinct sting for one! And it's leaves make a wonderful tea to cure all ails from colds to upset tummies to stress. And if you put them in a bucket of water for two weeks they make a fabulously stinky plant food!
Have you ever seen the tiny, white, four-petalled flowers of Cleavers AKA Sticky Weed (Galium aparine)? Well you have now! Take a look at their delicate beauty. The four petals are fused together into a tube which falls off as one as the seed pods grow and turn into those balls that stick onto everything!
You may think this is a thistle - but look at the flowers - they are yellow and thistle flowers are purple. This is Prickly Sow-Thistle AKA Sun-Kiss (Sonchus asper) Same family, different genus.
This is some type of geranium that I don't know! Possibly a cultivated Hedgreow Crane's-Bill. It was possibly planted and forgotten about as it was mowed all the time, now it's thriving.
Forget-me-nots and Creeping Buttercup looking not creepy at all but joyful!
A buttery view of the strip down to the gate.
Softly blowing in the breeze, this is Barren Brome (Anisantha sterilis)
We all know how good Ladybirds are at eating Greenfly, Whitefly and other veggie "pests", and avoiding use of chemicals of any kind, pesticides, herbicides and even inorganic fertilisers, is the perfect way to encourage a healthy environment on your plot for Ladybirds to thrive in. If there is a broad diversity of insects, they're all more likely to keep each other in check so we can enjoy growing healthier, less nibbled, less diseased vegetables.
Field Damsel Bug having a walk in the sun on my freshly dug soil. This little patch of soil previously housed some poor strawberry plants which had become overwhelmed with couch grass. I spent the morning removing as much of the grass as possible and I planted an artichoke root cutting. There were a couple of these little fellas, enjoying the sun, or annoyed at me disrupting their home. https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/field-damsel-bug
This beautiful Millipede was out in the sun after being forced out of bed by some soil disturbance, poor thing, although it's always nice to see a millipede. I believe this one is called Cylindroiulus caeruleocinctus... but I'm going to interpret that very broadly and give it a common name the "Blue Cylinder Millipede"https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/cylindroiulus-caeruleocinctus
This is a centipede. Now I started very conscientiously, to learn which species of centipede this is, but, wow, there are many many species that all look the same on a photo! So I'm leaving this one up to you!https://www.naturespot.org.uk/gallery/centipedes
This gorgeous shiny black beetle is a Ground Beetle (Carabidae) I believe it is of the Amara genus ..and that is where I will leave the rest up to the professionals (I may even be wrong with Ground Beetle - I only have my eyes, the internet and a book I don't really understand to help me with ID.) What I do know about this one is that he wasn't alone and was spending some quality time on my plot. (Actually I don't know that either, but he looked pretty chilled out to me and any time on the plot is quality time don't you think?)https://www.naturespot.org.uk/family/carabidae
A Budgie!Latin name Melopsittacus undulatus. This little dude was found walking around on the allotment! Walking! Just taking in the ambiance. As he was so friendly he was brought into the greenhouse for a drink and then taken to a rescue centre where his owner came to collect him. We named him "Chico the Wanderer, Bird of the Wild Wind, Lover of Sunshine, Protector of the Growers". But I'm not sure that was the name his owner gave him.
A Pheasant!Sorry I must write something more interesting here. Latin name for pheasant.. anything!
Speckled Bush-Cricket on a Broad Bean leaf.Usually bush-crickets are found at the edge of woodlands rather than on the allotment They eat a range of plants though and today this one fancied beans. That makes them sound like a pest, but they are not, as, not only do they love to eat seeds of wild plants, but they are omnivores so will probably munch on a few aphids while they're there too.
Ladybird hiding in a Cornflower. Cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus) look beautiful flowering on the veggie patch, they are also great at attracting pollinators and other beneficial insects. The flowers on my plot are secret army barracks for a hoard of free, environmentally friendly pest killers!
Bee enjoying nectar from a Borage flower. Borage (Borago officinalis) flowers are edible and taste a bit like cucumber. They make a salad or pudding look fantastic. There's something about the splash of blue on food that is exciting! The leaves are also edible but I find them off-puttingly prickly when eaten raw. Borage is annual herb and grows to up to 60cm and produces an onslaught of flowers which is constantly visited by bees.
Brown Tail Moth caterpillar composting some Broad Bean leaves.Broad Beans, also known as Vicia faba, are one of the first veg of the year to plant, are very easy to grow and are a great source of vitamins and protein. This colourful caterpillar here usually eats the buds and young leaves of trees and shrubs, but obviously these beans looked too good to miss!
Robins just love the allotment. They can sense when a spade is about to come out of a shed! In the nice summer months on those occasions when you can come to the plot to just sit and enjoy seeing things grow, why not spend some time feeding your friendly visitor from your hand?
A Gatekeeper butterfly on Shasta Daisy. This butterfly gets its name from it being commonly seen on the flowers growing in gateways and hedgerows. This one spent a long time on this flower taking nectar from between each of the yellow disc florets and along the bases of the white ray florets.
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