A Scented Heaven

Lots of flower excitement on the allotment today – the most thrilling thing of all though is that the tulips are out in force, hurrah! First of all, here are some at home!…

And here are the allotment ones …

Plus those that aren’t supposed to be there, LOL!

Then there are the glorious daffodils, plus the incredibly scented narcissi (the smaller ones): the yellow narcissi are very pungent indeed and the lighter yellow ones smell just like sweet lemon. Bliss indeed.

Our rows of new sweet williams are coming along too …

… as are the lilies:

Whilst there today, I did a hoe round and K mended the shed guttering which has been battered by the winds. I also planted 2 rows of gladioli – these are the older ones, though we have some new bulbs too. We’re planning sessional planting so we can extend the season so will put some more in next week, and so on, until they run out.

I’ve also planted five purple sunflowers which we’ve been growing at home but are now big enough to go in. They’re very spiky though so you have to wear thick gloves whilst planting …

The rhubarb is coming along well, though the oldest plant now has a head of flowers on it (you can just see the pink towards the top of the picture) – which apparently can happen if it’s feeling stressed or if it’s been a warm spring, so we’re hoping it’s the latter reason. K cut them off so we hope it will carry on fruiting so we can get a decent crop from it.

Today’s harvest is narcissi, daffodils and the tulips:

And here are the flowers at home – the narcissi scent is just incredible!

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Anne Brooke Books

Daffodil Delight and a Fabulous Frog

Lots going on at the allotment today. Next week, we get our annual inspection so I’ve trimmed the edges to make it look a lot neater – lots of fun with a pair of shears and some very dirty trousers now!

Anyway, it’s daffodil city on the plot, which is just lovely – even the narcissi which we thought were over have rebloomed:

The little narcissi with the dark orange centres (the pic immediately above) smell absolutely amazing so we can’t wait to get more of those.

The tulips are also on their way now and some even have buds showing. I’m convinced everything is arriving a month early at the moment whereas last year it arrived a month late. All very strange …

The tulips above are growing where they shouldn’t be growing so obviously we weren’t as good at removing all the bulbs as we thought we were! But the ones below are definitely in the right place:

The alliums and the aster are making a showing:

And we also have lilies and the lupin, hurrah:

We need to sort out more flowers for summer as the last thing I want is a gap – perish the thought! We have some purple sunflowers at home which I think I’ll plant on the allotment, and of course I can plant more yellow sunflowers too. Plus we have the dianthus and the sweet williams still on the allotment, so hopefully they’ll put in an appearance at some point.

The rhubarb is on its way and there are now definitely shoots on the autumn raspberry bed:

Today, K also planted a row of early peas, as Monty Don was doing this on Gardeners’ World so we thought we’d give it a go. Here’s hoping the mice don’t get them first!

And we discovered a frog! Isn’t he cute – we left him well alone and hope he finds a home under the shed rather than under the bags of compost where he was actually hiding …

Just a harvest of those glorious daffodils today, though we’ve also bought home the rest of the peas to save them from the mice.

And here are the flowers at home:

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Anne Brooke – Biblical Fiction & Prayer

 

Narcissi Delight

Lots of the little narcissi tete-a-tete on the allotment today – very cute indeed, if tiny.

There are other taller daffodils coming along too, but they’re not ready yet!

Maybe next week, eh, LOL!

The tulip bed is looking grand and I’m really excited about that one. Can’t wait to see them in bloom.

We were also surprised to see some of the alliums I planted on the off chance are on their way too, which is great. I do love alliums.

No great changes in the autumn raspberry & summer soft fruit area, but I’m sure the rhubarb is coming along:

Can’t wait for the first rhubarb crumble of the season, but I don’t think it’s going to be soon.

Our harvest today has been the leeks (which haven’t done very well but smell amazing) and those narcissi (which look really lost in that tea towel …):

However, at home, I found a tiny glass and now think the narcissi look pretty good in it – I’ve put this vase on the dining room table to brighten up mealtimes.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Anne Brooke Books