The picture below shows the last of the leeks from the allotment, plus I am moving all the rudbeckia from the allotment to the garden at home – as they have been in flower here ALL WINTER so I want to add to them.
Have also taken up the chrysanthemums and will plant at home, and we are moving the raspberry canes back home gradually as well to add to the garden waste. And at the bottom of that bucket in the middle are a whole lot of daffodils which I was going to throw away as being a bit dodgy but they are growing(!!) so will replant them too.
Just me at the allotment today as K needed to stay at home and sort his car out (which we think is now mended, hurrah!). I was hugely surprised that the chrysanthemums are still in bloom – as to be honest I’d forgotten about them!
I do love that burnt orange colour – just amazing. The daffodil shoots are also doing well:
Today’s harvest is beetroot, sprouts and the chrysanthemums:
We arranged to take some compost over to the allotments today, plus some pieces of wood (for mending our raised beds which definitely need attention). I do LOVE compost time – the look of it just makes me so happy. Mind you, it does make me laugh when the compost bag instructions tell us to dig it in. Dig it in??!! My, how we laugh! No way!! And absolutely no need for any of this digging nonsense as that, my dears, is what the worms do – so just shovel it on and leave Nature to do the rest. Job done.
Here are our dahlias, now safe and warm for the winter under their special duvet – no need to dig up the dahlias as this is the South, LOL!
And here is our lovely asparagus bed, also freshly composted:
I’m also thrilled to say that our daffodil shoots are now coming up – which is fabulous news and give us fresh hope for spring (which we definitely need after this year!…)
The chrysanthemums are also still in bud, astonishingly, so we may actually get some very late flowers next week – weather depending …
Finally, we’ve managed to plant the tulips in, which we’re thrilled about. Once planted, we’ve put netting on the bed, held down by rods – to try to make sure the squirrels don’t take them all.
So a small harvest today of sprouts (yum!) and beetroot – but enough for a couple of meals, yay.
Really soggy at the allotment today so definitely a Wellies visit. We were the only ones there too, so maybe people are confused with the extra hour? Anyway, the wind we’ve had during the week certainly played havoc with this poor gladiolus:
Though at least the sunflowers are just about hanging in there!
The asparagus is definitely on its way out now and it’s nearly time to cut it down, but we didn’t do it this week because we were too busy cutting back other plants, such as the mangetouts (which the wind tore down), and the perennial flowers.
Here is the harvest this week – which includes an unexpected sprinkling of autumn raspberries, well gosh, and we thought they were just not doing anything this season! We also harvested beetroots, French climbing beans, the sunflowers, a couple of rudbeckias, two gladioli and some chrysanthemums.
We have the first of the chrysanthemums in bloom today – but for some reason my photo didn’t come out (sob!) so I only have them as part of the harvest and in the vase (later snaps).
In better news, I did manage to get the last of the sunflowers which seem to have survived this week’s early frost:
And that lone gladiolus is pretty determined to have a go at blooming too!
Here are the sprouts on one of our plants as mentioned a moment ago:
I am just so proud of these!
And here is the harvest, which consists of French beans, mangetouts, chrysanthemums, one rudbeckia, dahlias and sunflowers:
We’ve cleared the half-bed which was full of gladioli – which isn’t the bed we actually have the gladioli in, LOL! But it had come up of its own accord – so obviously we hadn’t cleared it as well as we thought last year!
Anyway, we’ve had a go at it now, though we have left one gladiolus in which is still due to flower:
And here are the gladioli which we’ll keep for next year:
And here are the last of the daffodils we have just about to be planted. I was pleased that most of the ones I’d messed up the storage for (by accidentally putting them in a pot with no drainage holes, sigh!) were fine – which just goes to show that Nature can cope with most of the nonsense I throw at her, thank goodness!
In other flower news, one of the gladioli which is actually in the bed it SHOULD be in is in flower:
The asters and dahlias are doing marvellous things:
And, much to our surprise, the chrysanthemums are just coming into flower – and I thought they’d all died out last year!
Here is the harvest, which includes asters, one gladiolus, rudbeckia, dahlias, one sunflower and one sweet pea, plus French beans, mangetouts and beetroots:
So I’ve finally got round to planting the daffodils – as you can see I’m going for the scattergun approach this year!
And I’m happy to say that the chrysanthemums are finally in bloom:
I particularly love the orange one – I’ve got a real soft spot for orange flowers.
The yacon is also doing okay, though weirdly not as well as the two yacons we ended up planting at home which are the size of a small shrub now …
Here is the harvest of a few flowers, a cabbage, a beetroot and a couple of spare potatoes I found when I was planting the daffodils – as you never EVER manage to find all the potatoes when you try to dig them up, LOL!
Here is a view of the allotment as it is at the moment – it was amazingly warm this morning in spite of the rain, and I also really loved the autumn wind – so gloriously gusty!
Here are the flowers (chrysanthemums and one dahlia) at home:
I’m very sorry to have to tell you that our allotments suffered a break-in this week, with the perimeter fence broken in a couple of places, the main gate damaged, and thefts carried out at several sheds. Such an awful thing to happen. Our own shed was broken into, but nothing taken as we don’t have anything worth stealing.
K mended the shed today – amazingly our now curved padlock still works as it’s actually much tougher than the shed itself!
In happier news, we still have an alstroemeria in bloom:
However, most of the rest of the flowers are now over, so I spent some time cutting back and composting while K was mending the shed. I did feel a lot better after the tidy up as it feels I’ve done something positive to prepare for next season after the communal break-in.
On similar lines, K has dug out the potato bed, rescuing the last of the potatoes – and it’s now ready for us to plant daffodils next time we’re there, hurrah!
I’m also happy to say that our chrysanthemums are on the way though not quite there yet:
Meanwhile we know it’s a very rainy autumn due to the sheer amount of mushrooms everywhere!
Our cabbages are doing well:
And we’ve rediscovered the leeks which have been lurking under the runner beans for ages, quietly waiting to see the sun again …
Sadly though, our Brussels sprouts are experiencing their second year of failure (sob!) – maybe next time we should plant them out in May rather than waiting for them to get bigger at home … Oh well.
Here is the week’s harvest, which includes alstroemeria, a few pelargoniums, a handful of autumn raspberries (though I ditched them at home due to the amount of insects in them, yuk!) one cabbage, the potatoes, beetroot and a couple of stray runner beans:
Nothing much happening at the plot today – even the chrysanthemums are all but over so I think I’ll cut them back next week.
Mind you, there are signs of life amongst the daffodils:
And there are buds on the currant bushes, which is great.
So we didn’t do much there today – just some hoeing and also weeding between the raised beds. And K cut back those determined sweet williams once more.
Here are some winter plot scenes:
And here is the tiny harvest of yakons and some beetroot:
On my own at the allotment this morning as K was busy repainting the kitchen (fresh new look – Summer Linen, hurrah!) and I didn’t want to disturb him, LOL. So I did some hoeing and tidied up the edges of the plot while I had a chance, plus I did some more composting.
There are daffodil shoots coming up all over, which is lovely, but some of them are coming up in places we didn’t put them! Then again, that’s Nature for you – you’re never quite sure what’s going to happen, but I’m quite happy to let them do what they need to.
To my surprise, the chrysanthemums are still struggling along so this year we actually have flowers in December, well gosh. Usually, we only manage it until November, but the weather this last week or so has been kind in terms of temperatures.
Another minimal harvest this time round – I grabbed a beetroot from the beetroot bed and added the flowers:
Have a lovely Sunday, everyone, and welcome to December!
The Allotment Wife 