Bitter Vetch

29/12/2017

Please see earlier post for details

29/12/2017

I thought I'd finish the year with this beautiful, work in progress, botanical illustration of a tuber by Sarah Roberts (pictured) and the intermediate stages of its creation - this is to feature in an exhibition of native plants at the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh and to go as an illustration for a book being written by Greg Kenicer who is the lead botanist at the RBGE. You'll find details of the exhibition at http://sbac.org.uk/ You can also find further examples of Sarah's work at www.sarahroberts.net.

The tuber used for this illustration (which you can see on Sarah's drawing table was harvested at the same time as the sample. I have to say that I'm bowled over by how detailed and accurate the illustration is - I've tried to capture this level of detail in photographs and score 20/100 to Sarah's 100/100. The light green shoots are foliage, the white or black fibres with nodules on are the roots (the nodules contain nitrogen fixing bacteria) and the light brown thicker shoots are the radial stems that lead out to satellite tubers - you can see where one is forming on the middle left hand side of the picture - the shoot has split and the node has then thickened up and is sending up its own foliage, in time a separate root system will develop.

I wish you and yours a blissfully Happy New Year and look forward to the Spring and getting my hands back in the soil. If you've got any questions please don't hesitate to ping me an email.

Kindest regards

Mark

art

10/08/2017

It's not the best photo - the latest one was taken in the evening with the sun against me. Despite this you can see the difference 20 days makes to Bitter Vetch in straw bales -

17/07/2017

Lucky to be visited by a ruby rose wasp - poor photo but the colours are metallic

12/07/2017

The bitter vetch I planted in straw bales appears to be thriving - strong new shoots are beginning to emerge everywhere - in this photo you can see four shoots at the bottom centre poking through the bird netting. As a rule wild birds aren't a problem but a flock of chicken like to sit on the bales so it's to deter them!

29/06/2017

One upside to the awful weather we're having - there was a leak in the potting shed roof and the dripping water has washed the soil off a seedling to reveal a developing tuber. In case you're wonder the white feather duster is a root.

29/06/2017

If you've got seed pods ripening then aim to pick them when they start to blacken - the photo on the left shows how they ripen from the bottom of the stem upwards. Do watch out because the early season pods can get lost in the later flush of foliage. You need to keep an eye on the weather because if it's warm and dry the black pods burst and scatter their seeds - it was mild and damp when the left hand photo was taken. If it's dry and warm then be vigilant because sometimes they can go from green to brown and then burst - then the best way to tell is to feel the pods and if they feel dry and brittle pick a few and see what the seeds are like.

I've put the photo on the right in because these are beginning to turn - I'll aim to post more shots of them over the next few days so you can see how they mature.

29/06/2017

Nearly July and its tipping it down with rain and cold - last week we had blue skies and the hottest day on record since 1976. Fortunately the big flush of flowers coincided with a spell of decent weather so the bees could do their work.

21/06/2017

Lovely shot of straw bale doing its stuff - Bitter Vetch has grown through the netting with mushrooms popping up in front left foreground.

05/06/2017

Bales all planted up - I've put a loose covering of compost on the surface and covered the face with some artificial grass to stop chicken from pulling the bales apart. So far, so good!

25/05/2017

My microbes at work - I have quite a sense of proprietorial ownership of these bugs! The smell coming off the bales is now quite sweet with a hint of chocolate!

24/05/2017

Phone battery died as I was about to photograph the thermometer - tonight it read 52C!