2026/39 - Allotment Maintenance - necessary work

 After months of schlepping water, water and more water, it is finally cool enough to trust the occasional rainshower to provide water for my allotment. I still water the plants in the greenhouse, obviously.

Kruisspin/ Cross spider

   And yes, it is Autumn. This   morning, whilst planning to   mow my grass, I almost   walked straight into this   cobweb. The spider was busy   repairing it, but fled to the   safety of the Buddleia it had   attached its web to.

   

   As long as spiders sit still, I   admire their beauty. As soon   as they start moving, it is   another story entirely... I was   once bitten by a big one and it really hurt, but only for a moment.

   But this one was well behaved.

In between the showers, I did some maintenance. High time too, the grass on my paths was so high that I was afraid my old fashioned hand mower would not be able to get through. But it did, just...

Here you are; it looks much better! That pink Gaura is still doing her best, very sweet. The Hedera on the right is full of flowers too, a real bee magnet.

My tiny orchard is to the right, and most of the apples are on the ground now...I noticed there were no wasps there...quite surprising, as last year there were plenty.

Koolwitje / Cabbage Butterfly Caterpillars

Plenty of these, though! Here they are on the leaves of my summer bulbs (duds! Only leaves and no flowers!). I don't mind them munching my leaves; it is better that they eat my duds, than that they devastate the cabbages of my neighbour.

My garden is filled with Asters/Michealmas Daisies, so cheerful. There are white ones as well, but they are still in bud.

And my Cotoneaster pyramid is suddenly orange. It usually stays that way until the birds get really hungry, and then they pick it clean. It used to be up against an old broad bean fence, which blew over in a gale. So now I have given it a pyramid of three apple branches, which it seems to like.

I cut off the lower branches of my silver Pine a few weeks ago, and it looks much better now that I was able to mow around my tiny Lavender and Erigeron island. I have not finished mowing though...the area next to the fence still has to be done. 

And then the next project is to prune the Elaeagnus again. I do this in Autumn, to keep up the raised canopy. The endeavour is to cloudprune it...so far the bare trunks are nice, but the cloudpruning still looks very amateur. Especially now the branches have grown out so much. Never mind, I'll keep at it.

Those daily rainshowers have had another effect: my plants in the trellis planter on the balcony have suddenly decided to give it one last effort! I have watered them daily during those five (5!!!) heatwaves, and thus kept them alive, but flower? They stopped completely. Just look at them now though.

It reminds me of how nature is very resilient. And that is hopeful. We people make such a mess of things! At least the earth will survive us, I think.

Beneath the Oaks in my street, there is an abundance of toadstools, huge ones, I have never seen them get this large. My son says they are edible, but due to the also huge number of dogs in my neighbourhood, I will not try.

Right. From Puck and me both, I wish you a great week, wherever you are!

Spread the word about me, about both this blog and my writer's website  Renée Grashoff Schrijft

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