This is my Lotti looking absolutely luscious at the height of its growing season. To begin with I’d just like to reflect on what I have achieved here. I had a friend round the other day to the lotti and she commented that she was amazed that my Lotti was chemical free. Yes as far as I know it’s chemical free and yet here we are looking at the abundance it has produced with a bit of effort to minimise weeds. I have had some slug damage on tender young plants but otherwise everything is growing strongly.
Something else about the lotti thats worth mentioning is that everything in terms of hardware has been scavenged or up-cycled. All the wood that the beds are made of was either found lying around or donated to me. The chicken wire that was put in place to protect the lotti from the deer was salvaged from the existing plot and also bits were donated to me. The tree bark that lines most of the lotti now was scavenged from local trees that had been chopped down and chipped. All of the wildflowers that are growing were from seeds, that I had collected or young plants that were heading to the compost bin. A lot of the cultivated plants were given to me, eg raspberry and strawberry plants. The bramble was already there and was just trained to grow through the fencing. So I guess what I am getting at is the idea of resourcefulness, use what you have got is a good place to start.
As gardeners we work abundance and the spirit of generosity. I am particularly loving the flowing exchange of plants, seedlings, gardening tips and tricks, it really demonstrates how the ‘ gift economy’ works. 💚
I can’t remember what this pretty blue flower is, think it might be some sort of Geranium, what I am showing here is that it has Chocolate Mint growing in beside it.
The peas had a brilliant harvest this years we had 3 good pickings from them. A lot were eaten on the spot and we discovered the dog liked to chew the spent pods, which felt like no part of them was being wasted.
My giant Sunflowers must be around 7/8 foot, way taller then me. I cultivated around 30 from seeds that were collected from a flower head last year. I kept 4 and passed the rest on. Hopefully they will get a chance to ripen and seeds will set in them.
I put in Calendula a few years ago and every year lots come up. I carefully picked these ones and put them in this bed alongside yellow courgettes. The smell amazing 😍 and are now starting to set seeds ready for harvesting again. This plant just keeps giving .
My onions were looking like the they were about to bolt so I pulled them up. Not the biggest onions I have ever grown but look big enough 👍 I leave them to do they’re thing for a few days before I attempt to pleat them 🤞🏼
2 new additions to the lotti, Lovage and Horseradish, both plants you can eat the leaves. You can also harvest the Horseradish the root for making Wasabi. I was given both of these plants from a friend who in early spring was tidying up her garden. Both plants were small but as you see have grown well for their first year in the lotti. I came to realise that I need to have a bed available for instances like this where new addition were coming in. So I have designated this bed to that cause. I also have decided to have this as a No Dig Bed after watching a vid about it.
Not Broad enough Beans. I never really know when to harvest the broads beans. Sometimes the pods are huge but the beans inside aren’t as big as anticipated. This year am leaving them longer in the hope that the beans take up as much room in the pods as possible.
Here I have 2 compost bins, one in the process of composting the other being filled up. An old dust bin someone gave me with comfrey tea brewing in it and my new leaf mulch tower. The tower is waiting on the leaves falling in the Autumn, when I will do a bit of gathering to fill it up and make leaf mulch.
