Self sown seedlings

1lettuce detailFreebies. I love freebies. And in my vegetable garden I have managed to get a reliable crop each year of some favourite plants.

No matter how much mulch I put over the beds each year I can guarantee to get a brilliant supply of the following:

coriander, cosmos, nasturtiums, lettuce, rocket, docks.

Just kidding about the docks. I do hate those deeply rooted things. They just aren’t welcome in my vegetable beds.

But the coriander and lettuce and rocket are perfect.   I just have to make sure I spend an afternoon weeding the beds and shifting the seedlings about. They tend to self seed in certain beds and I like to move them round.

And with the mulch already on the beds, the job takes no time at all. And it’s a sitting down job which is always a blessing after some of my more muscly jobs.1cosmos potted up 1

The cosmos self sows in just the long flower bed area at the far left of the potager, and some stray one bed over if they have been successfully blown by the wind.

I don’t actually keep these ones for myself as I can’t guarantee which flowers I have here.  But they do an ace job of keeping me in the good books in the village for the annual summer display.  And look at the bumper crop of ‘weeds’ I get out of just one bed.

1cosmos self seeders(Note the wine box with woollen sweater for the cat in the middle of the forest of plants. I have to offer him soft distractions otherwise he will insist on trying to fit himself onto the perfect rectangular trays.)

And I notice that I haven’t posted a shot of him for a while. So at the end of this rather mundane read, I shall offer you a treat of the cat plus our view out of the living room window.

I am less impressed with another returning feature of the vegetable garden. The mole rat.  Or in this case, the effing mole rat.  He has burrowed under my broad bean bed and is eating the roots.1molerat broad beans

This is going to be a race against time to get the broad beans from flower to pod without the rat eating the lot underground.

I have planted it in a few beds, so hopefully I will still manage a crop, despite my most annoying visitor.

I lost most of my fennel last year to this wretch. But the plant seems to have had its revenge as it is self seeding everywhere this year.  What a shame it isn’t dill. I do prefer dill over fennel.

But you do learn to love the self seeders.  In fact it is the one thing that we self-taught gardeners have to spend a lot of time learning. Or being taught.  You can’t really pick up just what is a weed or what is a valuable new plant without experience.   So either a few seasons or growing, or a casual visit from a friend will tell you that the plant you are about to pull out or step on is a good one.

And on that note, here’s a good one of Artur.

1cat plus view