Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Peas

At last! We’ve finally planted the Brussels sprouts on the allotment – they’re not quite big enough really, but we hope they’ll be encouraged now they are actually in their two beds. We’ve had real problems getting them to grow properly in their pots (which is true for a lot of plants this year, I’m afraid) – and I think it’s probably due to the fact that we can’t get proper compost any more and have to make do with the pesky peat-free variety. Yes, I know that puts me in a minority of people who prefer peat and think if it’s properly managed, then it’s not an issue. I’m also not convinced about the environmentally friendly nature of the peat-free process, but as it’s all we can get these days, we don’t have a choice. Hey ho. Anyway, here are our two beds of sprouts:

As we had such a good rainfall at the beginning of the week, everything seems to have come on quite well since then. The courgette is looking good but no more fruits as yet:

The French climbing beans are looking healthy and even have flowers now!

The mangetouts are also growing very happily and needed yet more tying in with string. And they have a very small but perfectly formed crop too.

We are also pleased with how the lettuces are doing:

In terms of flower crops, the lilies are SO nearly there!

The gerberas are in full spate:

And the sweet peas are also blooming very well:

We also have a HECK of a lot of fruit in the fruit cage which we spent some time picking. There are haskap berries (similar to blueberries), blackcurrants and red currants, plus a few tayberries too. So here is the harvest of soft fruit, a handful of mangetouts, roses, gerberas, sweet peas, one carnation and one stem from the alstroemerias:

And here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely weekend, everyone, and welcome to July!

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Sunny days at the allotment

A week of utter sunshine and no rain at the allotment this week, so I popped up on Thursday afternoon to do the watering and here’s what I found:

The sweet peas were finally in flower!

There was a midweek harvest of roses and sweet peas, plus a couple of gerbera:

And a midweek vase moment!

Today, we have planted a couple more alstroemerias which my husband kindly picked up yesterday when I was visiting my mother.

The lilies are looking fabulous and finally coming into bud.

And there are yet more amazing roses.

Today, the asparagus bed has become a forest, but we will leave it like that until the plants actually go yellow so they can store up energy for next year’s crop – which we hope will be better than this year’s!

We also have the world’s smallest courgette – which, yes, is supposed to be yellow and round as that’s the type it is!

The French beans have now reached the top of their growing poles so we’ll probably have to trim them soon.

And the peas still seem fairly happy.

Much to our astonishment, the lettuces have actually got a big bigger.

We spent more time watering everything today, and we also dug up a half-bed of tulips which I have brought home to plant here in November. So just one bed of tulips to dig up now. We have also planted out the rest of the freesia bulbs in the gladioli/freesia bed and hope for some good things there at some point.

Here is today’s harvest of some redcurrants and a handful of haskap berries, plus sweet peas, carnations, alstroemerias, roses and one gerbera.

And here, once again, are the vases at home. This time, I have put most of the white roses (which appear to be more delicate than the other colours) straight into some floral foam to see if they last a bit longer.

In non-allotment news, I have now reached 90,000 words in my latest novel project so am surely somewhere on those final few laps now! Have a lovely Sunday, everyone.

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Sunshine and Roses

What a glorious weekend of sunshine we are having! Fresh from a lovely day at the Glyndebourne opera yesterday, we allocated this morning to all things allotment. And the roses are certainly loving that sunshine:

In fact it’s been a whole week of sunshine so I popped in on Wednesday evening as well to do some all-essential watering.

Here is the evening view across our allotment:

And here is the view from the bench where I had a nice sit down after the watering was done:

Whilst I was there on Wednesday, I also planted a couple of dianthus to replace the now sadly-defunct new alstroemerias:

I was also pleased to notice that the beetroot are fighting back pretty well and look set to survive, and the courgette is also doing its best and even has some fruit forming:

Anyway, back to today, the sweet peas are doing okay:

And the gerbera in the perennial bed are forming flowers:

The French beans are happy:

And the peas are growing tall enough to need more string:

We have also planted some of my stepfather’s runner bean seeds which he gave us several years ago – he died in 2020 (non-Covid), so you can see how old they must be! – not sure they’ll come up now, but you never know:

Our neighbour at home very kindly let us have the last of his mulch that he wasn’t intending to use so we have put some of that on the rhubarb which definitely need a boost as they’ve not been great this year. Hopefully, it will cheer them up for next year!

Meanwhile, in the fruit cage, it’s all action! We have gooseberries:

And haskap berries:

And loads of redcurrants:

Lots of fruit cropping to be done at some point soon then! Here is this week’s harvest of those beautiful roses (the scent is lovely):

And here are the roses at home:

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone!

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A Host of Golden Daffodils

Goodness me but Wordsworth wasn’t wrong – the allotment is awash with golden daffodils today which is just a real treat and SO uplifting.

Not to be outdone, however, the tulip beds are definitely on their way – and I have high hopes for the job-lot of striped tulips we bought last year. I LOVE striped flowers!

Meanwhile, in the perennial bed, the roses are showing distinct sign of life, which is great news:

The rhubarb is also definitely growing, though it will be a while until we can harvest it, I think!

And in the fruit cage, the gooseberries and blackcurrants are coming into leaf, and the haskap berry actually has flowers. So we hope there will be more than a mere handful of haskap berries to enjoy this year:

So, here is that golden daffodil host as our harvest this week:

And here are the gorgeous flowers themselves at home. Some of them are scented as well, so that’s amazing:

This week’s book news is that my latest novel, paranormal comedy An Unexpected Haunting, gained its first Amazon review which I was really thrilled about: the reader wrote the following:

“Anyone who loves books, ghostly fun, and stories with plenty of humour will find this novel is just their cup of tea.” (5 star Amazon review)

So that’s put a smile on my face for sure! Have a lovely weekend, everyone – and don’t forget if you’re in the UK that the clocks go FORWARD tonight!

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