Not much happening on the allotment this week though as a plus point we once again didn’t need to do any hoeing due to the frost earlier on. We did cut down the lily stems and add them to the compost bin, however. And we also brought some mulch from home and put this on the dahlias to see them through the winter:
And in exciting news, we have our first mini-harvest of sprouts! Just a handful to add to the beans at lunch but it’s a start. Sprouts of course are my favourite vegetable so my season has just begun!
This week, we had a snap frost on Sunday night/Monday morning which has, sadly, resulted in a dahlia disaster at the allotment …
…. and a courgette crisis, sob! –
So we have had to cut down the dahlias and take out the courgettes and have added them to our composting bin. To cheer ourselves up, we have planted the rest of the daffodils for spring:
In better news, the asparagus forest is looking pretty with its berries, but we’re not cutting those down yet until they go brown:
So, due to the frost, we have the world’s smallest harvest consisting of three roses, three mangetouts and the rest of the beetroot:
At least the roses look pretty at home – though apologies for the poor quality here!
What with the chillier weather over the last few days, our French climbing beans are now definitely over so we’ve harvested a handful and then put the rest into compost. They’ve had a brilliant year though and will see us through winter for sure. We still have a few mangetouts, however, so have left those plants in for now. And there are courgettes too:
The perennial flower bed is doing well which has surprised me. There are more alstroemerias in bloom:
And a plethora of pink dahlias as well!
So we have a harvest today of French climbing beans, mangetouts, courgettes, one beetroot, alstroemerias and dahlias:
We arrived at the allotment this morning to discover that some lovely person had left a vase of dahlias on the new communal table, which I thought was a fabulous idea.
Later on, I added a couple of yellow ones to the display and gave it a quick water – so hope they last a few days at least. Talking of flowers, the roses in the perennial bed are doing well.
And the dahlias and alstroemerias are still looking good too.
This week, we have a harvest of beetroot, French climbing beans, mangetouts, alstroemerias, dahlias and roses, plus some soft fruit – including autumn raspberries, which we thought we’d got rid of last year! Nature obviously had other ideas …
Here are the flowers at home – as ever, roses do better if they aren’t mixed with other flowers, hence the fact they’re on their own.
Have a lovely weekend, everyone – looks set to be a sunny one here!
Still loads of French climbing beans on the allotment today, even though the plants themselves are slowly dying off. A lesson for us all, LOL!
The courgettes are also in abundance:
And there are still a handful of mangetouts on offer:
I was planning to plant the last of the daffodils today, but I’ll wait until we take the mangetouts out later this month and then put them in the space there.
The oldest of our Brussels sprout beds is coming on nicely too:
Meanwhile, the alstroemerias are still blooming:
And just look at this lovely dahlia:
So, today, we have a harvest of dahlias, alstroemerias, one freesia, plus French climbing beans, mangetouts, beetroots and the courgettes:
And here is the vase at home:
Have a lovely Sunday, everyone, and of course Happy October to you!
A crazy amount of those French climbing beans at the allotment this morning and there are still flowers coming, so plenty more crops to hope for there. We will have to make soup with them as we’re running out of freezer space!
The mangetouts are also still looking healthy which is great news.
And from no courgettes last week, we now have plenty of them:
The alstroemerias are also doing well:
This week, K has taken the roof netting down from the soft fruit cage so the birds can get the rest of the crop we don’t need though there’s now not much left of course. They can also deal with the pests as well, which is great. I’ve planted another bed of daffodils, and probably still have about half a bed to do. The mix consists of both old bulbs from last year that have survived (I take the bad ones home for the garden waste) and new ones bought this year.
Here is the harvest of French climbing beans, courgettes, mangetouts, dahlias, alstroemerias and one rose:
We’re just back from a wonderful holiday in Devon celebrating our 30th (pearl) wedding anniversary, so are busy playing catch up at the allotment! Here are pictures of the harvest just before we went away:
And here are those flowers at home:
Post-holiday, we did a lot of watering as the plot definitely needed it, and were thrilled to realise that we have our first crop of mangetouts from the late planting of those:
The flowers were also doing well. Here are the dahlias:
And we even had a freesia at last!
Here is the immediate post-holiday harvest, with at least six million French climbing beans, LOL!
And here are those flowers at home:
Today, K has finished creating a new rhubarb bed so we now have two of them. Here is the new one, with three new plants in it:
K has also raised the height of the first Brussels sprout cage as they still need room to grow:
And I have been planting the first of the daffodils for spring!
So here we are – autumn on the allotment, although the next week is set to be up to 29 degrees centigrade so perhaps it’s still late summer. I’m pleased to say that the peas are still doing surprisingly well and have even produced a couple of flowers so we may actually get a crop:
The courgettes have also gone insane this week – it’s astonishing how much produce one plant can have.
And for those of you who’ve been wondering how the Brussels sprouts are getting on – they’re doing fine, thank you, and here’s a shot of one of the beds:
The perennial bed is awash with dahlias and here’s one I thought looked particularly stunning today:
So, we have a harvest of courgettes, French climbing beans, the rest of the shallots, plus roses, one alstroemeria and dahlias, plus some blueberries from the fruit cage:
Lots of flowers continuing in our perennial bed this week, especially those glorious dahlias:
We’re also pleased that the courgette flowers last week have turned into actual fruits:
We harvested some of the crop but left others to grow into marrows next week, LOL! The French climbing beans continue to do well though we didn’t pick as many as last week:
And those late peas actually have a flower on them!
So today’s harvest is: courgettes, French climbing beans, blueberries, alstroemerias, dahlias, roses and a few gerbera:
It’s definitely a win for the dahlias today as you can see from this picture of our perennial bed, though the roses are also still in abundance. It’s interesting that the pink dahlias last so much longer in the vase than the yellow ones, and also interesting that I have obviously chosen the same kind of colour palate for both dahlias and roses – pink and yellow!
One of our lettuces has definitely died this week, LOL! Though the other two are just about surviving:
Our two unexpected pea plants continue to grow so I have now tied both these up with string.
But the winning vegetable of the week continues to be our French climbing beans – another good harvest today though not as much as last week:
Whilst there, we took the protection off both our Brussels sprouts beds in order to give them a thorough weeding – the weeds everywhere have been a nightmare this year! And K also strimmed along the edge of the plot too, to make it look neater.
Here is this week’s harvest, which consists of dahlias, roses, alstroemeria, one freesia, sweet peas, a few gerberas, plus soft fruit, one beetroot, one lettuce and French climbing beans.
The Allotment Wife 