Shallots and Asters

There are loads of shallots on the allotment at the moment – which is the first year we’ve grown them. The strange thing is they just sit on the top of the soil, seemingly attached to nothing at all, and you pick up the ones you like the look of. All very strange.

The cabbages are also doing well – the joy of them is that they last such a long time once you harvest them – with us, one lasts all week!

The lettuces are getting past their best though – K harvested one and by the time he picked off the slimy outer leaves, it was tiny!

Meanwhile, the autumn asters continue to shine and keep our vases going. They are just amazing – I think these blue ones are Little Harlow Carr, but I’m not sure.

Here is today’s harvest, which consists of asters, some sunflowers, a few sweet peas and pelargoniums, one alstroemeria, that little lettuce, one beetroot, runner beans, those shallots (just below the trug handle) and a bowl of gorgeous autumn raspberries – which are truly the gift that keeps on giving and which I shall add to this weekend’s apple crumble, yum!

Here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone – stay out of the rain!

Anne Brooke Books

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

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

Squashes Galore

This is definitely the week for the squashes in our life. Here are the two pumpkins we have, both of which are growing well:

And here is one of the marrows – this is the largest:

On the minus side, however, our lettuce has bolted – can you tell, LOL!

The beetroot is also growing high, so I’ve cut the tops off those while I was thinking about it.

The flowers are doing very well in this weather though. Here is the second flush of our gorgeous scented lilies – the smell is amazing!

And here are the alstroemeria and the echinacea, both of which are definitely enjoying the climate.

This week’s harvest is a scattering of green and black French climbing beans (the first of our black ones harvested today), plus the lilies, alstroemerias, echinaceas, dahlias, gladioli, sweet williams, carnations and assorted sweet peas:

Here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books

Sweet Pea Extravaganza

Goodness me, the white sweet peas are doing very well at the allotment – they’re the gift that keeps on giving (see also vases at the end of this post):

They’re not the only plant doing well – as what with this week’s sunshine and rain, the weeds are going all out for plot (if not world!) domination – we spent ages beating them down whilst we were hoeing, LOL.

Other flowers doing well are the echinaceas:

… the coreopsis and alstroemerias:

… the gladioli (loving that pink one!):

… and the sunflower:

We also have the first small crop of French climbing beans which is very exciting as I LOVE them (see also harvest pics at end):

And the marrow and pumpkins are growing very well indeed!

Here is the harvest:

… with a close-up of the small French climbing beans (on top of the mangetouts):

Here are the vases at home:

… with a special focus on those lovely white sweet peas (which smell amazing)!

Have a lovely week!

Anne Brooke Books

Scented lilies and pumpkins

The scented lilies are late, but they’re finally here, hurrah! The scent is totally amazing, and I LOVE the colour too.

The sweet peas are also doing well – the ones near the shed are coming along, and the white ones we planted just because we had too many of them at home are really going strong, plus their stems are just so long.

The echinacea also look great:

The early gladioli are blooming well …

… and just look at those sunflowers:

In vegetable news, we have our first ever pumpkins – two of them, well gosh! The shoots are amazingly long so in each case, the root is the other side of the raised bed, lengthwise, double gosh.

The marrow is looking good:

And there are flowers on the climbing French beans:

Here is this week’s harvest of the rest of the mangetouts, a (very bolted!) lettuce, and a wide variety of flowers:

Here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books

Marrows and sunflowers

The start of the soft fruit season is upon us in terms of our allotment as the red currants and blackcurrants are now ready. I do love picking blackcurrants as the smell of the plant is just fantastic and it’s so satisfying. However, there aren’t as many as last year as we have got all of the offering in one session (see harvest picture later on) and have left the netting off so the birds can have the rest. Last year, we had three currant harvest sessions before doing that. Is this an issue with the year we’ve had or aren’t the bushes happy? We’ll have to see how next year goes.

Anyway,  we have a couple of lovely marrows, one of which we’ve picked. We’re desperately looking for marrow recipes, but today we fried some of it, then added salt and cheese – and very nice it was too!

I also think we’ve got the last of the mangetouts or almost – and the ones there today are a bit old and scraggy. Mind you, we’re still eating the crop of last week so can’t complain.

Flowers are also doing well – the gladioli are out, hurrah!!! I am LOVING that gorgeous red colour.

We also have alstroemerias and echinacea in the perennial flower bed, which are both lovely.

And the coreopsis are still holding their own against being nibbled to death – though the stems are much shorter than usual.

The main lily area is still producing some blooms, and the sweet peas next to them are just starting too – here they are all white, and the stems are beautifully long (which is so much easier for flower arranging!):

Plus we have our very first sunflower, hurrah! It’s not as big as many others in the allotment right now, but I’m definitely still happy.

Here is the harvest of blackcurrants, red currants, a lettuce, mangetouts, a marrow, gladioli, coreopsis, carnations, pelargoniums, dahlias, sweet peas, sweet williams, verbascums and lilies:

And here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone!

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

Fighting back on the sweetcorn front!

Yet more sweetcorn has gone missing this week, sob:

But we are determined to fight back(!) so I planted some new ones and K netted the area. We hope that will be enough to deter the evil sweetcorn nibbler, but who can tell …

In other news the asparagus forest is on its way – as we’re leaving it to do its thing now as the season is basically over.

The lettuces are doing amazingly well and I also planted a couple of others just to lengthen the season – if they don’t get eaten!

Fresh from netting the sweetcorn, K has also today built a netting pod for the currants to protect them from the greedy birds (who have already taken the gooseberry crop in total, double sob!). As you can see it’s a home-made effort and we’ve secured it down with stones from the plot, bits of wood and also hooked nails made from old hangers from home. The ultimate recycling creation!

The lilies are doing very well:

And the pelargoniums and cosmos are trying their best:

The sweet williams are struggling a bit – which is a total contrast from last year – but the beetroot behind them are doing well. I have pinched the tops off the beetroot as I thought they were getting a bit straggly, and we want the energy to go into the crop rather than the leaf.

Today’s harvest is one lettuce, mangetouts, verbascums, carnations, pelargoniums, sweet williams, cosmos and lilies:

Here are the vases at home.

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone. Oh, and happy birthday to me – I turned 55 (gosh!) on 21 June.

Anne Brooke Books