At the Hill the Sunday before last, when I was vainly trying to whack parts of the plot into some semblance of order, I chopped down the haulms from the potato plants to stuff onto the overfull compost bins.
I stood back when I'd cleared the growth from these potato beds, ready for digging up the crop (this weekend for some of them), and gave a nod of satisfaction, then a shrug in the direction of the heap of compostable rubbish waiting for a new bin to be made & turned to come away.
Along with these, I cleared one or two sunflowers - which had all but blown over - some nasturtium & calendula, all of which had self seeded from last year & sprouted up in the potato beds - great armfuls of green leaves, flowers and stems.
I stood back when I'd cleared the growth from these potato beds, ready for digging up the crop (this weekend for some of them), and gave a nod of satisfaction, then a shrug in the direction of the heap of compostable rubbish waiting for a new bin to be made & turned to come away. I don't know what made me turn back - but I'm so glad I did. The flowers on one of the branching sunflowers discarded on the compost heap had seen better days, but I thought that they might cut & keep for a day or two in a big vase, & wielded the secateurs.
A week later, they are still adding sunshine to the kitchen - wonderful.
So pretty - my sunflowers have been over for weeks and if I don't get a shifty on and save some seed the Blue Tits will have had the lot (this is GYO with a difference - it's GYO bird food rather than GYO Hobbit food!)
ReplyDeleteI was quite happy to have these discarded self-sown sunflowers as cutting flowers for the house - but I'm keeping a stern eye on Ollie's sunflower to collect the seeds.
ReplyDeleteA tricky line to tread between leaving the flower head long enough for the seeds to ripen, but not so long that the birds scoff the lot!