Allotment - pollination

It occurred to me that in the two years we have had the allotment, I have never blipped a photo from it. I usually leave the camera at home, or else it gets covered in dust, and I get distracted. So I took it with me on my first visit today.

Last Autumn I planted one section with Phacelia as a green manure, it is supposed to help improve the soil though it doesn't have nitrogen fixing nodules like the legumes. In theory it should be dug in before it flowers, but I couldn't bring myself to do that, knowing how much the bumblebees like it. Here's a worker of the early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) visiting. The long stamens and styles of the individual flowers mean that the bee has a more complex docking manoeuvre to reach the nectar than with many flowers, so there is a chance to snap them hovering.  

The dilemma now is what to do with the bed as the Phacelia will flower for a good few weeks yet, and this is where my Brassicas are destined to go when they are big enough - which will be in the next week.  I have other plants growing to attract the bees, but if I take the Phacelia out too soon, there may be nothing ready for them.  Most of the other allotment holders operate a scorched earth policy, only the planted crops are encouraged and there are few nectar sources on the site.

The cold winds this last few days have taken their toll with my Belle De Fonteney potatoes, they've had quite a setback, with a lot of young leaves burned. A frost was forecast for the early hours of Thursday morning, so we took the precaution of covering the sweetcorn and the potatoes, and as I write this early on Thursday morning, we were wise to do so, as there was a ground frost.