An unexpected victory for the cosmos

Delighted to find I have two cosmos plants in the bed I was aiming to plant them in – a miracle really as I accidentally spilt the seeds everywhere when I opened the packet a couple of weeks back! I thought this would be an allotment disaster but apparently not:

Not only that but Nature obviously has her own methods of making the most of an idiot allotmenteer as one of the plants has even started growing on the stones between the beds!

Sometimes, I wonder if it would all be a lot better and more productive if I just left well alone, LOL! Anyway, we have our first flower head on the gladioli too which is nice:

And there are a few more sweet peas on the netting near the shed:

The roses continue to do well, though there aren’t as many flowers as last week:

On the vegetable front, the beetroot and shallot bed is looking good. One of the shallots has bolted (you can just make it out at the very back of the pic) but apparently if you just cut off the stems, the crop should be fine – you can eat the stems too which is great news:

Last week, K planted a second bed of Brussels sprouts and they are still there so the slugs haven’t found them yet:

Our lone courgette isn’t as big as those on some of our neighbouring plots but there are flowers on it:

The French climbing beans look a bit healthier than last week but still not much of a crop and the black fly infestation is hanging on, though not as bad – so I gave them another quick bug spray to put off the little beasts.

Whilst there, we noted a young sparrow had got caught in the fruit cage of another neighbour so K and I spent some time persuading the poor bird out. We got there in the end, thank goodness, and it flew out of its own accord. Phew!

Here is today’s harvest, which is French beans, mangetouts, assorted soft fruit, roses, sweet williams, sweet peas, and some gazanias and gerberas from the perennial flower bed:

Here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books
Anne Brooke Bodyshop Site

Roses and our first sweet pea

The roses are looking good at the allotment this morning:

And we have our first sweet pea! Which I foolishly forgot to pick so must remember to prune it off next week!

The soft fruit cage is doing very well, with lots of blackcurrants, redcurrants, blueberries and also a few loganberries:

The mangetouts are doing well also, and the French climbing beans are slowly getting there though they are battling a black fly infestation which is a shame:

Here is our harvest of asparagus (probably the last cropping of the season), mangetouts, some French beans, roses and sweet williams:

And here are the vases at home. The roses are just amazing!

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone, and happy Fathers Day to all who celebrate it!

Anne Brooke Books
Anne Brooke Body Shop Website

French beans and fruit

Lovely morning at the allotment today which seems to have suddenly jumped into summer. The soft fruit is looking amazing:

It’s particularly pleasing to see the gooseberries doing so well as usually they get stolen by the birds. But this year, they are safe in the fruit cage so hopefully we will have more of them.

The mangetouts are looking good too and we have our largest harvest of those so far this year:

Plus we have our first few French beans which is lovely to see:

Some of the French beans have a black fly infestation on them so we have cut off the soft tops of the beans to deter the wretched beasts and I have also sprayed just to make sure.

Meanwhile, the cabbages are doing fine:

As are the Brussels sprouts:

The roses have a lot of flowers, but they’re very floppy so I’m going to have to think of a way to contain them a bit better:

And the sweet peas are still surviving!

So today’s harvest is mangetouts, a few French beans, asparagus, roses and a couple of gazanias:

Here are the flowers at home:

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

Anne Brooke Books

Anne Brooke’s Body Shop Site

Roses and a lone courgette

For Jubilee weekend, we have planted a lone courgette – on the grounds that you only need one plant to feed the five thousand, LOL! Here’s hoping we get a good crop from it.

The beetroot and shallots bed is doing well:

And the Brussels sprouts look happy:

It’s a lovely day today and the sunlight coming through the mangetouts is amazing:

There’s a lot of fruit in the fruit cage, and we suspect it might well be a good year for blueberries:

The roses have a lot of flowers today:

Today’s harvest is mangetouts, asparagus, sweet williams and roses:

And here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely Platinum Jubilee weekend, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books