With all the sun our largest street plot is getting into its summer stride. It was great to have sucession flowering of iris retic. for many months. Scilla and tete a tete successions did well too. We didn't lose anything to the snows but the erigeron took a hammering.
Poppies are just coming out now, planted as seed last August. Now blooming are centranthus ruber alba, geranium, white campion, ground ivy and erigeron. Feverfew, sedum and verbena bon. lollipop will not be far behind but have taken ages to get going.
I'm taking shepherds purse and chickweed out just because it takes over too much. Managing the heights is interesting. The ground is not rich but the campion has reached chest height and shows no sign of stopping any time soon. Anything over knee height is tricky as it tends to flop on to the pavement or road, I have a piles of cuttings nurtured over the winter, that are ready to go in. There's quite a bit of self-seeded field plantain which I am not sure is that useful.
The main colour palette is white (for moths and other night fliers) and purples for day fliers (though colour limits may go out the window at some point as the project evolves). The plants chosen have to be pretty drought tolerant and look after themselves in the longer term. Self-seeders like poppies are welcome. I'm hoping the erigeron and verbena will seed all over the place, though that last might turn out to be too tall to be useful.
An ever increasing team of neighbours have been caring for it,
offering plants, picking up litter and chating over and about it. So yeay for the green
team! 🌱
The big pavement community plot is coming on well. I've grown on some plants for pollinators in my garden over the winter and have just put them in. So it should look in full summer dress in a month's time or so. Ex-forgetmenots and plantain out. Salvia and Verbena bon. Lollipops in.
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A hairy footed flower bee on Rozanne. Rozanne is entwining gently through other plants in a subtle way at the moment, but I'm keeping a close eye on it. It generally has more insect life on it than any other plant.
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Honey bee on erigeron. I've not noticed bees on erigeron before - so it's good to know that it is of use.
There are some really lovely pavement plantings popping, well tended.
Lychnis, valerian rub. and alcoholic mollie.
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Poppies are everywhere...
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More and more front gardens in our community are reclaiming their front gardens and planting wild. This garden made my heart lift - ox eyes daisies, love in a mist, lavender, veronica, roses among others. It was absolutely buzzing with insects - great to see among the streets' concreted ex-garden drive ways. Some front gardens on the road have begun to grow veg in raised beds.
The council are talking about bringing parking schemes in locally that might convince more people to rip out their generous front gardens, to avoid paying. It would be such a shame to lose more of them.
The main plot is filling out with summer, which is great.
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Verbena rigidga and bon. is starting to flower
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New pavement plots are appearing now in the neighbourhood, often with fairy gardens and stones painted by children. The tenders seem very serious about it
Today's triumph: a newly made over front garden has appeared in my streeet - with a small pond, insect hotels, mass of bird feeders, plus a shed and bin structure both with green rooves; not posh. The plot is well thought through, over an area of about 2m/2m. This is the first pond I have seen on the street, out front, or so indeed in the whole area. So hurrah! Neighbours are getting braver to try out things. Even if it only last six months, it's great to see experiments and a reclaiming of front gardens.
There is a slow move to growing food in the front locally - like chard and tomatoes - some pics below. (Having a front tap really helps).
Thanks @LG. It's cool to feel like a little ripple a larger wave. It does feel like has been a real gathering of momentum for pavement growing here in the last 18 months. I might include our front gardens under the heading 'pavement growing' as it seems like it's the people who tend their front gardens, who then spill out their growing under the trees. Of course, it's the kids who love it most. ☺️
You can spot the fairy gardens led by kids as there is a mass of weeds, a solitary foxglove, a loads of shepherds purse in among cornflowers and poppies and dandelions. They wouldn't have it any other way. Some times I come out in the morning and find kids have left their fairy toys under 'my' street tree. I'm not sure whose. I have permission to plant surprise bulbs and seeds at some fairy gardens further down the road.
It's lovely to have kids planting and playing that have no fear of 'getting it wrong' or fear of judgement or making a mess of things. The don't know what a 'weed' is yet. And hurrah for that. The adults tend to be much more serious about the thing.
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“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”