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This year seems to have been a particularly good one for wild poppies.
Take a look at the picture, it is our veg patch. This year we have taken a different approach to growing mainly veg and surrounding it with borders of colourful flowers to attract pollinating insects as we have been doing for many years.
This year we have scattered Poppy seeds and Cornflowers over the soil and let them take on the main growing volume of the soil. As well as planting border flowers around the patch.
This has meant we have planted some veg later than usual (Beans, Courgettes and Leaks) while at the same time we have planted Parsnips, Beetroot and Onions at the normal time and let the Poppies take over during the time of germinating for the latter crops.
The Poppies grow tall and so take up light, but when they are in bloom they attract a multitude of Bees and insects, on the day this picture was taken the whole veg patch was literally buzzing with activity. As the Poppies flower they throw one or two flowers per day, so it is easy to thin them out as soon as the buds have all flowered and then we have saved the seed pods and will use them again next year.
The photo above was taken on the 8th July, and as I write this on the 24th July the Poppies are nearly all gone and just the Cornflowers remain, so during the last two weeks, as we have pulled the Poppies and cleared ground, we have set more veg seeds in sequential planting, this will mean the crops will be staggard at harvest and give us an extension to the season.
Do try planting Poppies, it is not always a good year, but the seeds are readily available and once you have had a crop you can save the seeds for next year. You can plant Poppies anywhere, but they do like disturbed ground, so anywhere that gets dug is good.
Happy planting. (for next year)
