The Allotment Working Party & BBQ

Perfect weather for the allotment working party & BBQ today – though maybe a little too hot when it came to moving the hedge cuttings to a bonfire area, LOL! Still, after a good two hours’ slog, the joy comes with a lovely BBQ and beer, hurrah!

Seriously though, we had a fabulous time and many thanks to the allotment committee for organising us all. Meanwhile, back on our own allotment, we have the first of the asters:

And the sunflowers look amazing – particularly when a gorgeous yellow butterfly landed on one of them:

The one pink dahlia in bloom this week also looks quite cute:

The lettuces are doing well and – so far! – aren’t getting eaten by the slugs which is great news. I’m not even putting slug doom pellets on them any more and still they survive …

However, the news with the sweetcorn isn’t so good, I’m afraid – even though we’ve netted them and they should be ready to harvest, some evil creature has still eaten the lot. Oh well …

Today’s harvest is potatoes, beetroot, a lettuce, a cabbage, French beans and runner beans, gladioli, sunflowers, the asters, a few sweet peas, carnations and pelargoniums, plus the autumn raspberries:

Here are the flowers at home. I think the asters really make a difference to a vase, and I’ve put the sunflowers in with those from last week, which are still going strong!

Have a good Sunday, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books

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The Naughty Allotmenteer

Yes, I know. I just couldn’t resist this picture of two pumpkins and a marrow – but could you have resisted it??! Which only goes to show that underneath every serious allotmenteer, there is a very immature child desperate to get out …

And yes, I also know there’s a very tiny marrow there too, but I didn’t want it to feel overlooked! Anyone know any pumpkin recipes as we haven’t a clue?…

Anyway, in other news, we have finally planted our Brussels sprouts – not sure how they’re going to do, but we are hopeful. I remembered to put the slug doom in too.

The gladioli are still blooming:

Though not as much as the sunflowers, which continue to surprise us.

Here is the very autumnal harvest, including our first ever cabbage:

All those scrumptious autumn raspberries are going straight into the apple crumble I’m making today, yum.

And here are the vases:

Have a lovely Sunday, and make the most of the sunshine, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books

Autumn Crops

Yes, I know – autumn is early this year but though we are saying goodbye to summer produce, the autumn goodies are coming along nicely. Here are our squashes (though we have utterly failed to get any courgettes, strangely…):

Our very first cabbages are doing well in spite of being nibbled all the time, and even look like cabbages, well gosh.

The yacon is happy:

And I think the lettuces look really cute – so frilly!

We also have our first major crop of autumn raspberries, which this year include red ones as well as the yellow ones. The birds have ignored them so we are getting the whole crop which is great news.

Meanwhile the sunflowers just keep on going:

Here is this week’s harvest which includes one marrow and a crazy amount of French & runner beans:

And here are the vases:

Happy weekend, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books

Mystery sweetcorn and the allotment show

Just back from 10 days’ holiday this week so we had a lot of catching up to do at the allotment, which was basically weed city! Here are some pics of what’s going on.

The alstroemeria are coming back:

And the gladioli are rallying after the winds and rain the UK has had (not that we noticed as we were sailing up the Danube and ambling round Budapest in a mega heatwave, LOL!!).

Our cabbages are now starting to look like actual cabbages though something is getting in the netting and chewing them, wicked creatures!

The lettuces have also done well in our absence:

But what is this stray sweetcorn plant doing in the gladioli bed??!! We never planted it there! I blame the squirrels …

A couple of harvest shots this week:

As you can see in the picture above, both the red and yellow autumn raspberries are starting to fruit now, so this is our first (mini!) harvest.

Here are various vases:

The BIG news of the week however is our Allotment Show. We weren’t sure we were going to have much for it as we’d only returned to the UK a couple of days before, but here are pics of what we entered into the show:

 

Above are our entries for the 5 beans class, the largest marrow (which ended up being the smallest, LOl!), 3 trimmed onions, 3 stems and the flower arrangement for A Day at the Allotment. I used a small watering can though it’s hard to see in the shots.

Here is a pic of all the flower arrangement entries (the one on the right deservedly won 1st prize and best in show!):

Here are the certificates we gained!

I have to admit, however, that there was only one entry in the 3 stems class and that was mine, LOL (for which I gained the 1st prize!) and there were only 3 entries in the flower arrangement class and I got 3rd for that! Still, awards of any kind are not to be sniffed at, LOL!!

And here is the amazing Helen who was best in show for her amazing flower arrangement!

Have a great Sunday!

Anne Brooke Books

Lilies and Mangetouts

Once again, the lilies are the outright queens of the allotment and look simply amazing this week.

In addition, the gladioli appear to be heading for the bloom and the first one to come will definitely be red!

The sweet peas have finally decided to bloom as well, which is great news:

And the wonderful K has managed to fool the pigeons/squirrels/mice (or whatever they are) by surrounding the coreopsis with a cat’s cradle pattern of string. Let’s hope it continues to work!

There’s good news on the sweetcorn front too – there’s been no more nibbling since K added the wire cage around them, hurrah:

Meanwhile, we have one autumn raspberry just starting to mature – I hope there might be some more to follow it at some point …

And we have a marrow in the making, hurrah!

The mangetouts are still going completely crazy:

Here they are at home, after I’d washed and trimmed them – we’ve only just finished last weekend’s bowl! However, we’ve found they’re very nice indeed in a stir-fry with spring onions, mint, mushrooms and even some crystallised ginger – or any combination of these that takes your fancy!

Here is today’s harvest – which is mangetouts, a lettuce, lilies, coreopsis, cosmos, carnations, verbascum, sweet williams and sweet peas:

Here are the vases at home. First, the lilies:

Now, all the vases together:

Have a lovely Sunday.

Anne Brooke Books

The Allotment Snake Whisperer!

Never say allotment life is dull! I managed to rescue a female grass snake who was totally tangled up in some fruit netting on the allotments today. Luckily, I LOVE snakes and this was one absolutely beautiful. It took me about 5 mins or so to cut her free and then, after K had taken a quick snap, I let her go in the hedge. She slithered away quite happily. Just call me the Allotment Snake Whisperer, LOL!

In more normal allotment news, everything is growing fairly well, probably due to the whole week of rain that we’ve just had. However, some wicked creature has eaten all my lovely coreopsis, sob! I suspect a rabbit or a pheasant, but either way I’m not impressed …

However, the carnations have survived the onslaught, as have the cosmos and the verbascum.

There are more lilies in bloom this week, and the sunflowers have grown taller, hurrah!

The autumn raspberry area has now grown so thick that I can’t get in to weed any more. I just have to rely on spotting any tall weeds and pulling them out if I can reach them.

The lettuces are doing well and the mangetouts have exploded!

This week, we planted cabbages – which we’ve never grown before so this will be a voyage of discovery for us. We netted them which should keep off the butterflies and pigeons, we hope …

We’ve also planted out two courgettes – a green one and a round yellow one (which is already in flower!):

We brought leeks to plant but there is no room! So we have planted them under the climbing beans for the time being – though I suspect it will be too shady later on for them, so we may have to rethink it.

Here is the harvest of mangetouts, verbascum, lilies and carnations:

And here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely Sunday, and watch out for snakes, LOL!

Anne Brooke Books

 

 

 

 

Nibbly Creatures

Lots of nibbly creatures both on and off the allotment this week … here is the sweetcorn section where the middle is all but missing. Pigeons? Mice? Who knows. But we are not amused!

We also struggled with lettuce planting last week as the pigeons (or mice!) had had a good go at them before we even arrived at the allotment – you can just about see them here, still hanging on – just – at the bottom left of the really lovely lettuces (hurrah!):

Anyway, the beetroot section is doing well, and we even have one or two mangetouts lurking amongst the leaves, well gosh:

The autumn raspberries are growing well:

And the flower crops are doing well too. We have the first of the lilies out:

The carnations are still being totally amazing and I picked 128 of them – which is only about half of what I picked last week!

The verbascum is still blooming:

And the sweet peas we thought were a goner near the shed have a sudden lease of life:

Today, I planted the rest of the gladioli bulbs so that’s filled up a bed nicely. I also planted some coreopsis (which I picked flowers from before taking it to the allotment). They are a type called Golden Sphere:

Plus I thought I’d plant some annual flowers for the first time so here are four new pelargoniums – which again I picked before planting. I’m astonished about how beautiful the flowers are in a vase (see later) so will definitely do this again:

Here is the harvest of three mangetouts(!), verbascum, lilies and carnations:

And here are the vases at home. The pelargonium flowers are on the right between the carnations and the verbascum – I think they’re gorgeous. And the coreopsis are on the left.

Have a lovely weekend.

Anne Brooke Books