Weed week

Heck of a lot of weeds at the allotment, today. Mind you, we didn’t do any weeding last week due to the Royal Wedding (couldn’t miss a thing!), so we only have ourselves to blame. In spite of that, it’s all starting to come along nicely. The asparagus is doing its thing and the peas are beginning to climb their poles.

We actually have gooseberries growing on the gooseberry bush so I took a speedy pic as next week they’ll all have gone as the birds will have got to them first, LOL – even though they’re not ripe yet! In addition, the soft fruit and autumn raspberries are really going for it – which means a lot less weeding, hurrah.

Meanwhile, the lupins are going absolutely insane – you wouldn’t believe that’s only one plant. Mind you, they are overrun with whitefly so I am spraying crazily to try to make the bugs disappear – wish me luck! I’ve put the vase outside at home and done some more spraying, but I don’t think the whitefly know when they’re not wanted, sigh … Oh and there are a couple of flowers on the Sweet Williams so that’s good news at least.

And there’s lots of rhubarb but all the stalks are a bit thin and green – not quite what we were hoping for, oh well.

While there, I’ve planted the rest of the gladioli we saved from last year – a lot of them were rotten so we’ve chucked them out and are only using the best. I really wanted to plant up until the end of June to give us more flowers into mid autumn so I may well get a few more new ones next month.

K has planted the climbing French beans around the gladioli that aren’t supposed to be in that bed as we didn’t have the heart to take them out. You can just see some of the beans near the poles.

And he also planted leeks into loo roll holders as you’re supposed to plant leeks in non-filled in holes and then fill the hole with water (rather than soil) – however when we do that, the soil just falls in, so K had the brilliant idea of using loo rolls instead. Let’s see how it works!

And here is the harvest of rhubarb, asparagus lupins (plus whitefly) and some verbascum (soon to have whitefly too, no doubt)…

Have a great bank holiday weekend, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books

Major Skin Care & Beauty Haul Featuring The Crème Shop, SpaLife, Global Beauty Care, Kina Cosmetics, Nature Love, Herbal Essences, Zatik & L’Oréal

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Hi there! Today’s post is about all the stuff I bought since mid-April. I’m not going to do a long intro. Here are the goodies:

The Crème Shop Tumeric Face Masks (pack of 5 sheet masks), The Crème Shop Rose Oil Overnight Gel Mask, The Crème Shop Charcoal Overnight Gel Mask, The Crème Shop Collagen Overnight Gel Mask, The Crème Shop Maca Root Face Masks (pack of 5 sheet masks). These were £4.99 each.

Kina Coametics Pure Volcanic Facial Sheet Masks (pack of 10 masks, £7.99), and Nature Love Hyaluronic Face Masks (pack of 5 masks, £4.99).

Global Beauty care Anti-Aging Collagen Face Masks (pack of 5 masks, £4.99), and SpaLife Hydrating Facial Masks with Volcanic Ash (pack of 6 masks, £4.99).

The Crème Shop Resveratrol Face Masks (pack of 5, £4.99), and The Crème Shop Charcoal Face Masks (pack of 5, £4.99).

I managed to get…

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Summer veg planting

Today, K took half a bed of daffodils out and we’ve planted beetroot in their place – striped ones which don’t stain red (hurrah!). We’re waiting for the golden beetroot (which also doesn’t stain) to arrive, but it’s not here yet. In another cleared bed, I’ve put the five yakons (Peruvian Ground Apple) we saved from last year, and also three courgettes which arrived as super-plug plants this morning. Yes, that’s only 8 plants in one large bed, but they’re enormous when they get going, and last year I had to move them twice to make space, so I don’t want to be caught out again.

Meanwhile, the asparagus have gone mad while we’ve been away on the Isle of Wight (a jolly nice holiday it was too!), and also the rhubarb has grown – enough for a rhubarb crumble for lunch tomorrow, I think.

In flower news, the alliums are now out and the lupins are doing very well, so have picked those today. Lupins do look a bit odd in the vase but I’ve done my best, LOL. I’ve also put slug-doom down on everything I can think of and bug-sprayed the lilies and the lupins so hopefully all manner of thing shall be well.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books

Peas and Chrysanthemums Week

Today, we’ve planted some early chrysanthemums as they’re such great cut flowers – colours this time round are red, purple, bronze, gold and white. In other news, K planted the peas in one of the beds that used to have daffodils in – and we put the slug doom round them to dissuade the slugs from having their usual party, LOL. We’ll save some of the daffodils for planting on the allotment later in the year, and we’ve taken the smaller ones (Narcissi Tete-a-Tete) home for planting in the front garden as we have a mini Tete-a-Tete “hedge” which has been very successful this year, and we need to add to it.

I did my usual hoe-round and we also trimmed the plot edges – as we had the annual allotment inspection last week (we passed, hurrah!) but untidy edges were noted (oh, the shame …), so we’ve got those under control now.

The last of the tulips have been harvested and look very nice in the vase. The type is Blue Heron which is a large fringed tulip which is just stunning and lasts a long time at home. We’ll definitely get more of these next year. K also cut some asparagus tips, some of which we’ve had in an omelette for lunch (very tasty they are too).

The alliums are also on their way, which is great, and I planted the remainder of the new gladioli (Wine & Roses). There are also last year’s gladioli to plant so I’ve made a good start on those – especially the ones that were already sprouting big-time in the bucket in the shed! Which just goes to show you can’t keep a good gladiolus down – it’s the gift that keeps on giving …

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend everyone – enjoy this glorious sunshine!

Anne Brooke Books