Saturday 1 October 2011

Re-birth and Rejuvenation


The allotment garden in the early morning sun

One of the advantages of being a lazy gardener, which I freely admit to, is that it gives the plants a chance to do what comes naturally to them.  If I was a perfectionist, I would have dug out plants that have finished cropping, consigned them to the compost bin, dug over the soil and re-planted, which I have done in some cases.  But, with the Calabrese, I have left the plants to do their own thing, and this is the result:-

We have had many servings of Calabrese in different forms from these plants - firstly, the main head, then all the tender stem broccoli  that came after - this basically left just a stump, which I never got round to removing, as I didn't really need the space for anything else.  This morning I noticed that a whole new plant has formed at the base of the stump, which looks as though it will produce even more tender stems.  How good is that.  So my advice is, don't be too hasty to clear the ground - you never know what will happen next.
I have mentioned before that I have been gradually clearing out the squash and courgette patch, as you can see it's looking pretty awful with rotting leaves and thistles growing - but even though the plants look terrible they are still pushing out baby squashes, and even the courgettes are producing new leaves and baby fruits:-

You can just see a small courgette at the side of the new flower.  So although the plants may not be very nice to look at - don't be too hasty to clear them away.  Sometimes a little laziness goes a long way.



11 comments:

  1. When I saw the title of your post, I thought you had gone all religious...!
    Lots of the plants we treat as annuals are actually perennials, or at least self-propagating if you let them. If you left your Calabrese to its own devices I dare say you would soon end up with a whole patch of them.

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  2. Interesting that this late warm weather is keeping the veg productive - at least I assume what this is. A quick look round this morning shows that the two courgette plants I also haven't got round to clearing are still forming baby (and perfectly edible) courgettes, same with my squash, peas still productive, lavender reflowering! Tra La La! x

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  3. Beautiful photography...now I'm hungry :0)

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  4. I am glad you have shown thistles in your squash bed - makes me feel better as my squash bed and in fact my whole plot is a martyr to creeping thistle

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  5. This is definitely the way I plot as I'm just as happy to leave things alone as I am to do any tidying up.
    I like the first picture! Flighty xx

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  6. patient gardener - I'm glad my weeds make you happy. elaine

    flighty - the early morning sun makes the allotment look more lovely than it actually is but who cares. elaine

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  7. It's great when a plant produces a second harvest, they do work so hard to keep us in veggies.

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  8. Love the first picture, your plot looks lovely. I love the mixture of vegetables and flowers. Fantastic!

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  9. Thanks Annie much appreciated.

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  10. Lovely pic with the sun lighting up everything. I'm a firm believer in giving plants a chance to realise their full potential.

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