We have started to plant the daffodils at the allotment this week, though there are still two bucket-loads to go. But at least it’s a start!
The perennial bed is still doing well:
And the gazanias are looking particularly stunning. Here’s one in close-up:
Somehow, that damaged cosmos is still in bloom, which certainly gives me hope (especially as it’s been one hell of a difficult week, LOL!):
The courgettes are happy with their lot:
Whilst there, we let out a bird that had somehow got inside the cabbage netting – heaven knows how! And we also rolled back & secured the netting roof of the fruit cage as there’s no fruit any more of course.
Here is today’s harvest which is sprouts, beetroot, one courgette, gazanias, roses, dahlias and cosmos:
Today the allotment perennial bed is a vision in scarlet, the cabbages are hanging on, and the dahlias are simply magnificent. A short blog this time round as it’s our wedding anniversary (yay, congratulations to us!) but we are also feeling sad about the Queen. RIP Elizabeth II, a wonderful woman and a brilliant Queen. So definitely a day of mixed feelings.
A nice bit of rain during the week which is great news, so the allotment doesn’t look as horrendously dry as it did last Sunday. I was cheered up enough by this to do some weeding, which I haven’t had the heart for recently, as well as some composting. However, K has made more composting by cutting back the currant bushes, so I hope to tackle that next week.
There are still some blueberries in the fruit cage, which is good:
And one of our courgettes has finally got bigger though the others are still quite small. Apologies for the quality of the picture – the courgette wasn’t actually moving!
So today’s harvest definitely has more than a hint of autumn in it. We have gladioli, gazanias, blueberries, a few redcurrants and gooseberries, the large courgette, beetroots, a cabbage and the shallots (for drying off at home – they last all year once dry):
Today, the allotment is like a desert and we’re desperately trying to keep as many things alive as possible. Husband has been up during the week watering most evenings but the ground is like dust and the water doesn’t stay around long. Lots of things appear to have given up or stopped growing in order to conserve energy and I can’t say I blame them!
The sweet peas have all died off now so I’ve taken them out and added them to the compost bin, along with old rhubarb leaves and other dried up offerings. The sweet williams are the worst I’ve ever seen them but I’m hoping they’ll survive if we get rain (as promised) next week:
The cabbages have stayed the same size for a few weeks now. There were also a couple of butterflies trapped in the netting this morning but we have freed them and hope they won’t come back.
And the courgettes are the same – a fair amount of crop but no growth:
However, the caterpillars are enjoying one of our Brussels sprout plants so at least someone is having a good time, LOL!
In better news, there is a new soft toy at the allotment, but I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be. Is it a monkey?? Something else?! I have no idea but it’s quite cute:
So a small harvest today of French beans, a handful of blueberries, gladioli, roses, gazanias and some dahlias:
Here are the vases at home:
Have a great day, everyone, and let’s hope for some proper rain soon.
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:
Beautiful morning at the allotment today and the roses look amazing:
They smell pretty good too and it’s great to have our first proper rose harvest today.
The lilies are also doing well, though still no sign of flowers!
Whilst there today, I filled up the remaining space in the gladioli bed so there’s no more to plant now. I also completed our perennial bed by adding a couple of rows of echinaceas, which should give us some late summer colour:
In general the allotment is looking good and the cabbages haven’t yet been eaten which is positive news!
Today we have a harvest of roses, one gazania, sweet williams, asparagus and mangetouts:
We really focused ourselves at the allotment today and planted up the rest of the vegetables we’ve been looking after at home, so it was hugely busy but fun. First off, the beetroot is now all done:
And we have put in the cabbages, netted them, sprayed and put slug doom down so we hope they will survive!
K also built the structure for the French beans and we have put those in as well. There were some left over so we put those on the allotment shared table for people to take if they would like some – such a useful facility to have!
The Brussels sprouts which we planted earlier in the month continue to do okay:
The fruit cage is also really going for it, with lots of flowers so that’s good news:
The gerberas I planted last week are still there but a bit slug-chewed so I put some slug doom pellets down to protect those too:
Whilst there this week, I also planted three more rows of gladioli – though the bucket I’ve been storing them in appears to be doing its own planting without needing me at all! That’s the joy of gladioli – I swear to you I could just chuck them onto the bed without bothering with planting them at all and they’d STILL produce leaves and flowers, no problem. I could probably leave them in that bucket and they’d look fine!
Here is a view of the allotment which almost makes it look as if we know what we’re doing – as if, LOL!
Here is the harvest of asparagus and sweet williams, plus a bed of tulip bulbs I dug up which I will take home to plant in November:
It’s the time for the dahlias to shine on the allotment now the asters are over and they do indeed look lovely.
These glorious flowers are definitely lifting my spirits today, that’s for sure.
The yakons are also doing well:
And the carrots continue to look amazing too:
We were also really impressed with how beautiful the blueberry leaves are this autumn – this is one of the plants in our new fruit cage:
So, not that much to do today apart from weeding and harvesting, though I did cut down all the lily stems and take down the remains of the pink aster. We also removed the rest of the cabbages, and plan to put tulips in that spare bed in November.
Today’s harvest is carrots, cabbages, one lettuce, the dahlias and a handful of sweet peas:
Much to our relief, the allotment has on the whole survived the massive amount of rainfall we had yesterday, though the pink asters have been flattened and have – in their turn – flattened the roses and the dahlias. I suspect the roses and the dahlias will survive as they’re tough as old boots – but I cut armfuls of the asters down all in one go to avoid further damage.
I have also planted the first of the spring daffodils, which is great news. There are 1.5 buckets of them still to go in after today’s planting – but we’ll add them in where we can as we go through autumn.
The harvest included a huge amount of the pink asters, roses, sweet williams, dahlias, a few sweet peas, plus one cabbage, one lettuce, a handful of French beans, carrots and a couple of sprigs of basil.
Here are the vases at home, which look most impressive!
The Allotment Wife 