The allotment is a work in progress. This bed is closest to what I have in mind. It contains various plants that thrive in the conditions and with each other. No maintenance is required other than a clear up in autumn and spring (and no watering). They create sufficient groundcover to keep the couch grass and bindweed at bay.

 The species are mainly perennials including Thyme, Babbington's Leek, Sage, Greek Oregano, Lemon Balm, Lovage, Chives, Fennel, Globe Artichoke, Garlic Cress and Rosemary. Several self-seeders have made their own way in: Spinach Beet, Garlic Mustard and Hedge Woundwort.

 The soil on the allotment drys out quickly, is fairly grainy and not high in nutrients which suits plants like these. In fact the more usual annual crops don't do well here. Lots of watering, weeding and soil improvement helps but I prefer to plant to the conditions with one or two exceptions (e.g. trench composting for Runner Beans). Having established the principle I will aim to expand this bed with more of the above and other species with similar requirements.  

 

 Arable weeds aka wildflowers have been largely eradicated by intensive farming. Annuals like White Campion (Silene latifolia) and the Field Poppy (Papaver rhoeas) still persist on the margins.

 

 Took a walk towards them thar Chiltern Hills from the outskirts of Hitchin. The fields on this stretch of the Chiltern Way are mostly large and intensively farmed so the hedgerows and field margins are the best place to spot wildflowers.

 

 

 There was a lot of Privet in flower, probably the native Wild Privet (Ligustrum vulgare). Garden hedges tend to be the Japanese/Korean species Ligustrum ovalifolium but L. vulgare was commonly used in the farm hedges of old. It is noted for being wildlife friendly.

  It was a bit cool and breezy for bees and butterflies but there are other pollinators. I noticed the flowers of the wild roses were crawling with some tiny insect with a hard shell. The Dog Rose (Rosa canina) is another native of old hedgerows.

  Common wildflowers like Ox-eye Diasy (Leucanthemum vulgare) were quite prolific. I've known this route to be more flowery and spotted some more unusual species at the same time of year but the wildflower season is very variable depending on conditions.

 

I decided to use up this compost because the bin has attracted the attention of a rat.

 

 The contents were not fully decomposed so I did some trench composting. Having buried it the soil does the rest. This strip will be for a row of Runners next year. In the meanwhile I'll sow some Radishes and Clovers on it.     

 

 The soil seemed quite decent and I think there is something to be said for not messing with the soil structure. After completing this exercise I watched a video by Charles Dowding, the guru of no-dig. Needless to say he fertilises the rows for his Runner Beans by mulching on the surface.

 As a little experiment I'll do that for the next row along to see if that makes any noticeable difference to the growth of next year's crop. However I'll use some compost that is more composted for that.

 

 

  I feel fortunate to live in a flat in London with a garden like this. In June the sprawling clumps of Geranium x oxonianum flower in great profusion. They hum with bees all day long.

 

 Flowering plants co-evolved with pollinators. In a sense they exist for each other. Some flowers are formed in such a way that they are only compatible with a certain kind of pollinator, for example a long or a short tongued bee.

 Umbellifers on the other hand attract many different pollinators. Both bumblebees and honeybees frequent them (as seen above) and a very wide range of insects. The umbels are a mass of tiny flowers and in effect function as a platform for pollinators to forage on.

 

 A short walk to mark the longest day.

 

 The plants I grow on the allotment are mainly edible but to be honest I'm not interested in eating some of them! The Globe Artichokes are starting to form the large buds which can be eaten when stripped of their outer scales. Actually it's a vegetable I've never really developed a taste for and I will let the buds flower. The bulging purple flower heads are magnificent in late summer and bumblebees love to rummage through them.

 NB I generally include the Latin name of plants. Globe Artichokes seem to be referred to as Cynara cardunculus or Cynara scolymus or Cynara cardunculus 'Scolymus group'. Globe Artichoke is fine for my purposes. 

 

 Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare) is beloved by bees. Like several other members of the plant family Boraginaceae Viper's Bugloss has flowers that morph through exquisite hues of pink to blue as they mature.

 

 The Trailing Bellflower (Campanula poscharskyana) is evergreen then smothered in violet-blue flowers in June. It does indeed trail and spreads and sprawls. Old brick walls suit C. poscharskyana, an echo of its natural habitat in the Dinaric Alps. Very good bee plant, it attracts both bumblebees and honey bees.

 

 Last year I wrote about the wonderful drifts of Wild Clary (Salvia verbenaca) on the steep banks that edge Windmill Hill in my home town of Hitchin. As seen above they really were a sight to behold. At the time I was slightly mystified how I'd failed to notice them before.

 Now I know why. This year those banks have been heavily mowed. I can see the stumps of numerous Wild Clary that would have flowered but they've been chopped down in their prime. That is probably what happens most years. A local wildflower enthusiast made the point that it didn't happen in 2020 because just about everything shut down for the first lockdown.

 I have noted in a couple of entries recently that the mowing schedule is crucial to the emergence of wildflowers in towns and cities. Indeed many local authorities are opting to have areas of long grass to encourage plants and pollinators. Unfortunately the opposite seems to be the case for the Wild Clary on Windmill Hill.

 

 Saw this flowery bank in Stevenage, one of the post-war "new towns". Red Clover, Dandelions, Buttercups, Daisies and Bird's-foot Trefoil create a pleasingly pastoral haze among the grasses. The council seems to have made a policy decision to hold off mowing some of their roadside verges and open areas. As a result the kind of plants associated with meadows and grasslands are getting a chance to thrive.

 Or perhaps it's just that nature is more rampant than the mowers at the moment. We had a lot of rain in May and plenty of sun in June and even urban areas are looking like Albion.

 

Starting to see lots of butterflies.

 

 I saw this big bumbler working a patch of Comfrey. It seemed so large and laden with heaviness that its wings were barely equal to the task of taking flight. And too large to stick its snout into the flowers of the Comfrey.

 Instead it was "nectar robbing". In the photograph below you can just about make out the bee's tongue piercing the base of the flower to get at the nectar. In doing so the robber gets its reward but bypasses the anthers and thereby pollination does not take place.

 

 

  Bumblebees are liking the Chives on the allotment.

 

 Shored up the beanpoles on the allotment. They were still standing from last year but needed lashing together with twine and garden wire. Broad beans should be planted as part of a crop rotation cycle but runners seem to do fine in the same spot.

 I sowed twenty one beans in pots from the dried pods I saved [see entry dated 15th. May] and fourteen are ready to go. Hopefully a few more will germinate as there are eighteen poles; also it might be useful to have one or two spares if any get slugged. 

 

 Laburnam trees are hard to miss in spring- they are covered in racemes of bright yellow flowers. They seem to be variable and adaptive in their growth habit. 

 My father planted three back in the day. The one shown above forms a branching, bushy low tree under the shade of Scots Pine. Nearby is one that grows between two tall Holly trees. It is narrow and must be about fifty or sixty feet high. At the front of the house is another that gets more sun. It is of medium height, the branches are thicker, the flowering more prolific and the foliage more dense.

 Wherever and however they grow Laburnams in flower attract bumblebees in profusion.

 

  The Balm-Leaved Red Deadnettle is generally referred to by its shorter Latin name: Lamium orvala. I have several in the garden though this year they have been rather swamped by surrounding plants. They are suited to partial shade so that doesn't seem to have affected them. This handsome member of the Deadnettle family from central eastern Europe is worthy of a place in any garden.

 The flowers are reminiscent of two lips with a lurid tongue. Indeed the family Lamicacae is also referred to as Labiatae (labia being the Latin word for lips). The tongue is a pattern that guides pollinators into the flower in search of pollen and nectar.

 

 Good to be back at the wonderful South London Botanical Institute in Tulse Hill. Needless to say it's been closed to the public for extended periods during the pandemic. They've kept up a full program of web based events but more recently have been able to welcome visitors again.

 I went along today to do some voluntary work in the garden and catch up with folks I hadn't seen since early 2020. The SLBI is in essence a large house with a large back garden but it's packed with interest; the plants are an interesting mix of "exotics" and natives. As botanical gardens go it's not huge but that's what makes it such a gem.

 

 I let the grass grow long then give it a high cut round about now. The garden is in some respects a wilder version of the typical English garden i.e. grass down the middle and herbaceous borders each side but I wouldn't call it a "lawn" as such. By this point in the year the surrounding trees are in full leaf and the effect is reminiscent of a woodland ride.

 NB I notice that the conservation charity Plantlife has a campaign called "No mow May" - my sentiments exactly.