The tulips aren't the only plants claiming squatters rights in this bed. In early summer the bed bursts into colour.

 

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The first flush of flowers is provided by a mass of candytuft which I think started of life when I sprinkled a few seeds flower some faded seed heads cut down elsewhere on the plot - just to see whether they would grow. Now each year I just leave the plants until the dead remains have scattered there seeds and then pull them up and leave the cycle to continue.

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Other plants have sneaked in on the act. I remember planting one or two aquilegias as I had some left over from planting some raised from seeds in the garden. I didn't plant different varieties though or as many as the varied plants that have colonised this bed. Foxgloves, cyclamen and Californian poppies have migrated from other areas of the plot but I can't remember every sowing or planting any of the yellow flowers in the photo above. I don;t really know what they are.

 

The only assistance that I give is, once the young plants are recognisable, to carefully weed out as many weeds as I can in spring.

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The cyclamens that I said have migrated from elsewhere crop up all over the allotment. I've never planted any on the plot but years ago I planted a couple in the garden - one pink and one white. Since then they have seeded themselves all over the garden and lots have been dug up and given away. I guess some hitched a ride to the plot at some point and have since gone on to spread.

 

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They seem to grow in the most inhospitable of places including in any tiny nook or crevice they can find. The ones below are growing on our garden.

 

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The pear bed isn't the only place to have self sown occupants. Years ago I bought a packet of native primrose seeds. Germination wasn't particularly good and I ended up with half a dozen plants. Since then the plants have made a better job of sowing and germinating seeds by themselves.

 

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Not only do we have a row of primroses along part of our plot but plants have appeared in other beds and grass paths. Some have also been dug up and moved into out garden. I have gathered seed from the plants and successfully germinated them. I think the secret is that the seed needs to be really fresh which is why my attempts at germinating bought seeds wasn't very successful. We had the same sort of experience with cultivated primroses planted in tubs in our garden self seeding into pots.

 

Another prolific self seeder is the poached egg plant or limnanthes. with which I had a similar experience to with the primroses. I managed to raised about half a dozen plants and those plants went on to multiply prolifically.

 

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Poached egg plants are so prolific that each year after flowering I have to treat them harshly and also weed out many seedlings that could smother plants growing close by.

 

Dotted around the allotment we also have clumps of foxgloves of a variety of colours.

 

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I never planted a foxglove of the colour above but I really like it.

 

Poppies also pop up all over the plot and in the garden too, like the one shown below.

 

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I guess technically all these plants are really weeds but,unless they are growing in inconvenient places, I just let them get on with it and enjoy the free displays they provide.