The Camomile Lawn, and other allotment tales

I was busy at the plot last week. I’d been waiting and waiting for a biodynamic ‘leaf’ day in which to plant out the precious lawn camomile plants that Russell kindly gave me a few weeks ago. You may recall that I’d already prepared the planting area and marked it out with white string. The auspicious day fell on Thursday, having been beautifully preceded by sunshine and showers, perfect weather for planting. The soil was just damp enough but not wet, and the small weeds that had appeared since preparation lifted out with ease. So precious are these plants to me (I’ve tried to grow lawn camomile myself from seed several times and it’s very unpredictable, which is probably why the plants are so expensive to buy) that I Reiki-ed them and the planting bed before, during and after the planting ritual.

Summer may be coming to an end but there is still much growing to be noticed and admired:

Cayenne Peppers

More courgettes! These are Gold Rush

This one is Italian Green from Franchi seed

And is as long as the compost bin is wide!

The Turk’s Turban pumpkin I’ve been showing you recently has put on a lot of growth in just a few days.

There are now several more pumpkins forming and doing well.

But the Marina di Chioggia has reached a smallish size and stayed put. Last year I was quite over-run by this delicious orange-fleshed variety. Sadly there is just this single fruit so far this year.

The blight finally hit Magic Plot Number 7 and I had no choice but to pull up all the affected tomato plants at the base of the bank and on the tomato frame, originally the bean frame and now transformed yet again into a support for the pumpkins. The silver lining though, has been discovering that heritage tomato variety, Red Pear, appears to be quite blight-resistant. Its fruits are clean and now starting to ripen. I haven’t been up since Saturday but imagine these will be red-ripe when I go to pick them tomorrow.


Concerned by the threat of blight a few weeks ago, I’d cut back the foliage of my Edzell Blue potatoes. Last week I lifted a couple of plants to see how they were doing.

Not exactly a bucketful but good enough for me.


Love Growth
Love Life
XXX