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Begonia Destiny
A strong, upright and profuse flowering summer bedding plant that provides wonderful double flowers

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This stunning red Geranium has large flower heads and is good in dry conditions

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When I dig on my plot I tend to keep the ‘interesting’ things I find. If there’s bits of pottery that look interesting I put them on one side.
I’ve found a few quid in total in chance and a couple of pound coins. I’ve found some plastic toys too and three keys. Some bits of old clay pipe, two penknives (one much rustier than the other), some spoons, lots of broken glass (which I don’t keep) and lots of other bits.
I found a huge chunk of glass that someone suggested might be from a plane.

I’m not 100% sure this isn’t an april fool. Why would you hand your hose in only to have to claim it back?

Story on hosepipe amnesty in the independent

OK, so I was 100% right! It was an April Fool!

I’ve never grown garlic before.
Here it is!
Photo taken today.
The soil has dried like it’s in the middle of a drought with huge cracks!

A talk on propolis by James Fearnley

Pigeons will eat everything you plant if you’re not careful – they love cabbagey type plants and can make cabbages unusable.

How to keep them away? We’ve tried netting but they can get through this by just sitting on the netting until it gets to the plant. They don’t mind most bird scarers. I’ve been told balloons with eyes painted on can help.

A sparrowhawk can help although most people don’t have one on hand! We are lucky to have a pair nesting in a nearby building and have seen the sparrowhawk feasting on a pigeon in our garden. It’s a bit gory to watch though!

Can you shoot pigeons?

PIGEON SHOOTING AND THE LAW
Woodpigeon shooting is controlled by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in Britain and the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 in Northern Ireland. Woodpigeons may be killed or taken by authorised persons at all times. It is strictly prohibited to use any sound recording or live bird as a decoy. Currently woodpigeon shooting continues under an open general licence issued by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions for England and Wales, the Scottish Office Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Department for Scotland and the Environment and Heritage Service for N. Ireland. No individual application is required for any licence.
In Britain the shooting of Collared Doves (Streptopelia decaocto) and the feral pigeon (Columba livia) is also permitted all year round but the Stock Dove (Columba oenas), Rock Dove (Columba livia) and Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur) are all protected species and may not be shot at any time. In N. Ireland the Collared Dove is protected and no pigeons can be shot either at night or on Sundays. The legality of shooting pigeons in Scotland on Sundays remains unclear.
The Stock Dove is often mistakenly called the ‘Blue Rock’ and great care must be taken as these birds often fly with woodpigeons and come readily to decoys.
The feral pigeon is a direct descendent of the Rock Dove (which is usually only found on western coasts), and will be mainly seen close to urban areas.

Note: wild-living, former racing and homing pigeons often fly with feral pigeons but these birds are strictly protected. Whilst they normally have leg rings to show their ownership, identification in the field can be difficult so, if in doubt, do not shoot.”

I rang the local pallet yard and asked if they had any pallet collars. He had, but they were £6 each although he would deliver them for that much. I bought some and he delivered them within 20 minutes!

I got some cardboard we had saved and put that underneath and laid the pallet collar on the cardboard. I decided I’d used them one high only. The man who delivered them said some people use them three high.

I filled the barrow with muck and tipped it in. It took about a barrow and half of muck to come over half way up. I then got some beautiful top soil and put that on top. My raised bed is now ready to go. I actually have two ready to plant into.

So what do I plant in them?
You can plant lots of things in them – salad veggies, onions, beans, garlic, shallots. You can plant sweetcorn, cabbages, strawberries, beetroot and lots of other things. You could try root veggies like carrots and parsnips too.

It’s going to be fun planting seeds in my brand new raised bed.

Picture to follow!

Pallet collars are used on top of pallets for allowing things to be stacked. They can be used stacked on your allotment although I’d want to put plastic in around the gap between them to avoid soil washing out.