Asparagus and more shallots

The asparagus is looking good this week – definitely enough there for a couple of meals for us both.

The shallots are doing well:

And so we have planted some more. We did put netting over the bed after I took the photo to prevent the birds from pecking at them.

The French climbing beans are slowly getting there so we’ve tied up a couple of the taller ones with string.

And one of the peas has definitely grown taller so that’s good news – I tied that one up too just in case.

The beetroots are really struggling at the moment though, but at least they’re still just about there.

Meanwhile, the lilies are looking good though still no flower buds yet.

The roses are quite happy in the perennial bed.

And the dahlias have so far managed to avoid the slugs.

Whilst there, we did a thorough water of everything as there’s been no rain at all this week and the sun is quite hot – there’s no shade anywhere at the plot. And here is this week’s harvest – just asparagus this time.

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books at Amazon UK
Anne Brooke Books at Amazon US

French Beans and Freesias

We’ve added in the rest of the French beans to the bed now we’ve remembered to bring the sticks for them, so that’s another job done on this lovely sunny day:

I’ve also decided to plant freesias rather than more gladioli this year, so we’ve put in half a bed of those and will add the other half (there are 200 bulbs in total) in a couple of weeks’ time so we can get successional flowers.

This week, we also had three alstroemerias delivered so I have added these to the perennial bed. They don’t look much now, but the roots seem good so am hoping for great things later on:

Also in the perennial bed, the roses are getting bigger:

Elsewhere on the allotment, the lilies are very happy:

And even the sweet peas next to the shed are looking slightly healthier:

Astonishingly, our dahlias are starting to sprout too, so I have put slug doom down for them as otherwise they won’t be there next week!

I’m a little worried about the courgette we planted last week, but we’ve given it a good water (along with the rest of the plot) and I’ve put more slug doom down so we’re hoping for the best:

This week’s harvest is some asparagus to add to lunch tomorrow, and a few sticks of rhubarb for a crumble:

Have a lovely week, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books at Amazon UK
Anne Brooke Books at Amazon US

Seasonal planting and a poor harvest

Last week, there were some lovely & caring people worried about my one lone pea plant, but all is now well as it has a couple of friends which have come to join it! It’s a shame that there’s nothing at all so far from the other peas we planted, but we live in hope.

In the fruit cage, we put down another strip of weed suppressing fabric, but will need to bring more from home to finish off the job. We were thrilled to see that the gooseberry plants both have fruit on them already! They’re always the first to produce any fruit (which is why we’ve lost all their crop in the past to the birds as we hadn’t got round to netting them) – and as they’re safely in the fruit cage this year, we hope they’ll be fine. It will take a while for them to be ripe enough to pick though.

We have now planted some of the French beans – but we ran out of useful sticks for them to climb up, so we’ll have to do the rest of them next week:

I also planted a courgette in one of the old daffodil beds – I lifted those bulbs first and put them in the shed for next year.

And a very poor harvest this week! It’s a shame about the lack of flowers – all our tulips peaked way too soon though they were a lovely bumper crop. We will have to think of getting some later season tulips for next year if we can. So here are some asparagus we found – am hoping for more next week though!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

Anne Brooke Books at Amazon UK
Anne Brooke Books at Amazon US

Planting beetroot

Today at the allotment we’ve planted the beetroot – which we only bought at a garden centre yesterday:

Meanwhile the peas that we planted a couple of weeks ago are showing signs of life:

The rhubarb is also doing okay and there’s definitely enough for another crumble there:

And the asparagus has also just realised it’s spring now!

We’re also pleased with how the shallots are getting on:

And, in the fruit cage, everything is looking leafy and there are more flowers now which is great news. We also put down another couple of strips of weed suppressing fabric so we’re gradually getting there on that project:

The roses are slowly coming into leaf more as well:

Sadly, there are no flowers today as I think the tulips have all peaked early this year! Still, we have a nice harvest of asparagus and rhubarb:

I hope you’ve all had a lovely Coronation weekend bank holiday – wasn’t it an amazing ceremony. I loved it all!

Anne Brooke Books at Amazon UK
Anne Brooke Books at Amazon US