August Wildness

August Wildness, a set on Flickr.
Too much gossipping on the plot left me deflated and dejected today.  You have to be diplomatic with everyone on the allotment or things soon go wrong.  And it's usually the older men who are doing the bad mouthing or causing the trouble in my experience .  And these hardy perennials are difficult to avoid at times. 

Weeding is prolific in August as everything is in high flower or has gone over and all need attention.  Today was spent mostly removing marigolds which have now become the biggest weeds on the plot and discarding carefully any diseased or decaying foliage. 

The soil is in much need of some good organic fodder and will need to cut back raspberries and thin strawberries.  The compost needs a good turning too, the water butt needs to be set up and all the beds need to be re dug and edges defined.  I need an army of helpers in other words, anyone will do except the old men of the allotment. 

Weeds and Aliens

Weeds and Aliens, a set on Flickr.

I'm off the plot for some of August and I'm collecting weeds, well names of them. Where ever I go there seems to be someone talking about common ragwort, or woody sage or the medicinal properties of the dandelion flower and burdock thistle. In Yorkshire I've been trying to capture some of these roadside aliens on film, and the results are below. Some I don't know the names of and could do with some help with. The Rosebay Willowherb is common enough and I must have seen literally thousands of them in the last two weeks was finally identified in the Michelin I Spy Wildflowers book. In the same book however they have for I Spy 50 points the common nettle or Urtica dioica and Lords and Ladies only at I Spy 15 points - how can they justify that!