Tulips Encore

Just back from a glorious holiday in Amsterdam and on the Rhine and I now have total tulip mania. However, by the looks of our allotment after a week of being away, I really didn’t need to go to Amsterdam to find the tulips!

Not only that but I think we have a couple of gladioli shoots on the way up – the ones that K planted a few weeks ago:

You have to look very closely to see them though! I also think that we might have a dahlia on the way though it will be very early if it’s true …

Meanwhile, the lilies I’d forgotten I’d left in their bed are doing well, and we have one of our sweet williams almost in bloom too:

However, the main focus of our visit (apart from catching up with the weeding, lol) was planting the first of our sweet peas next to the shed. Here they are in situ:

The soft fruit area is doing well too, and we’re particularly pleased with the gooseberry:

The spinach is also growing fast, as is the rhubarb:

And, finally, the asparagus is now definitely on the way, though still small.

So, today’s harvest was the tulips, a few stray narcissi, leeks and the spinach:

And here are the tulips in their vases at home – I’m very pleased with them indeed, especially the red ones!

 

 

Tulips in Bloom

The allotment was a riot of spring flowers today, including daffodils, narcissi and the first of the glorious tulips!

Also, last year, I thought I took the lilies out but obviously I didn’t, as here they are in force:

The asparagus is also getting larger, so we harvested it for tomorrow’s lunch:

And the rhubarb is coming along:

We did our usual hoe-round today, and K also trimmed the plot edges, so it looks very smart indeed. And we pruned one of the autumn raspberries that is not yet in leaf to give it some encouragement. Our harvest included the flowers, the asparagus, leeks and some spinach:

And at home the vases look amazing and the smell of the narcissi is once again out of this world. I love spring!

 

Have a great weekend!

Anne Brooke Books

Spring at last!

Am well enough to get to the allotment this week, and had a hoe round. Mind you, I took it slowly as this post-viral thing is really exhausting – had to have a sleep when I got home! Anyway, the allotment is a riot of daffodils and narcissi and the narcissi smell is amazing. I also love the fact that the narcissi are multi-stemmed so there are loads more to come.

There are some leeks next to the daffodils too, and I harvested three of those for eating during the week. Actually there were loads of people at the allotments today, which was lovely, and one little boy was fascinated by the amount of flowers on our plot, so I gave him a few smelly narcissi for his mum – shame I couldn’t remember which variety they were though, as they came amongst a bag of others!

And we have our first tulips, hurrah! Can’t believe it and the colour is wonderful.

Talking of produce being early, our first asparagus is on its way too – a FULL MONTH earlier than last year, well gosh.

It looks faintly rude (LOL!) but that’s asparagus for you … The rhubarb is also doing well, but the funny thing is that the plants that are doing the best are those we can’t harvest this year, as they need to be left until their second year – so I hope the rest of them get a spurt on as well:

Finally, I gave the peas K planted last week a quick water – they seem to have survived the slight frost earlier in the week, hurrah. Oh, and the autumn raspberry experiment is going well, I think.

Here’s the harvest, which includes leeks, spinach, daffodils, narcissi and the tulips – plus a kitchen roll holder for planting pea seeds once we’ve cut it in half(!):

And here are our lovely allotment flowers in their vases at home:

Have a great weekend and stay healthy!

Anne Brooke Books