Thinking of Spring

K took out the last of the potatoes today which are definitely enough to keep us going during the week. He then dug over that bed and I planted some of the daffodils ready for spring:

As you can see, they had already started to root so I think they’ll be fine.

Other flowers are also doing well – here are the asters:

I picked the blue ones, but left the pink ones as they’re really far too short for cut flowers – so I think when they’ve finished flowering I’ll take them home to the garden.

Speaking of pink things, the dahlias are doing much better than they did last year when we planted these ones – maybe they just needed a year to settle in …

The gladioli are also still just about hanging on:

The sunflower (which you can see in the photo above at the back) is also amazing and I’m really pleased with this pic:

We also harvested some beetroot, mangetouts and French beans – the latter of which are still battling with pesky black fly (boo!), so I gave them another good spray. Here’s hoping that does the trick.

Here is the harvest: potatoes, beetroot, French beans, the sunflower, gladioli, dahlias and the asters, plus one carnation and one rudbeckia:

And here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone!

Anne Brooke Body Shop at Home Independent Consultant

Sunflowers and Soft Fruit

The sunflowers are still looking amazing on the allotment and EVEN taller than they were last week!

We have harvested as many runner and French beans as we could, although sadly a lot are now infested with black fly so I left those ones well alone. I sprayed the whole lot in the hope that I might beat them back!

So a harvest today of sunflowers, gladioli, the first of the asters (yay!), one sweet pea and a few rudbeckia. Plus potatoes, the beans and the smallest autumn raspberry harvest EVER, LOL!

Here are the flowers at home:

Anne Brooke Body Shop at Home Consultant

Back on the allotment!

I’m finally back on the allotment today after a couple of weekends when I was too busy to go and so my lovely husband kept an eye on it instead.

Even though it’s definitely autumnal, the French beans and mangetouts have decided they can get another crop in before the frosts, hurrah!

I’m also REALLY happy with the Brussels sprouts which look and smell amazing – so hoping we can actually get a crop this year, as we’ve not had any luck with them over the last two years. Surely this year, things will be okay – I hope so!

The yakons are also really happy:

As are the beetroot next to them – though they’re tiny in comparison with the yakons, LOL!

However, we are disappointed with the autumn raspberries which aren’t giving as good a crop as last year. Is it the weather we’ve had? Or just that they’re old plants? Hard to tell really, but we’ll have to have a think about what we do with them next year …

The sunflowers are still going strong though:

Here is today’s harvest, which consists of potatoes, beetroot, beans, mangetouts, gladioli, the autumn raspberries, the sunflowers, one(!) sweet pea and two carnations:

Here are the vases at home:

Have a great Bank Holiday Monday, everyone!

Anne Brooke Body Shop Consultant

Gnome Award!

We have sadly had to cancel our annual Allotment Show due to Covid, but the lovely Committee decided to give out some funny awards to the plots just to keep us entertained, and here is ours!!

Honestly I’m so proud, LOL!!! I at least am now wearing my medal all the time!

Anyway, not much time for the allotment over these last couple of weeks as I’ve been super-busy with my new part-time Body Shop role, but K has kept everything going and here is this week’s harvest, which includes gladioli, a sunflower (which was damaged by the gales we’ve had …), beetroot, potatoes, runner beans and French beans:

And here is the vase at home:

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone!

Anne Brooke Body Shop Consultant

An Autumnal Nip in the Air …

Sorry to have to mention it, people, but there is definitely an autumnal nip in the air at the allotment today and there were even some fallen leaves to crunch through in our Wellies, so that was fun, if worrying!

Today, we have an unexpected visitor to our plot – and I think he might just be reading our village Facebook page as well. What an intelligent gnome he is, LOL!

Our second sowing of peas is doing very well – and we might even be able to squeeze in a third if we’re quick before the frosts come!

We’re also pleased with how the sprouts are doing – tiny buds are forming on the stems so that’s positive …

The yakons are also loving the rain!

The flowers are going over now, but the sunflowers look great:

Today’s harvest is potatoes, the first of the beetroots, runner beans, the lovely French climbing beans, gladioli and the sunflowers:

Here is the vase at home:

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Anne Brooke Body Shop Consultant

The Spring Spurt

First of all, a very happy Easter to you all, especially in these tricky times. But, goodness me, lots of activity on the allotment today. First of all, we have our first asparagus, hurrah!

And the rhubarb is now big enough to harvest, well gosh. It’s a bit late to add it into my Sunday crumble, but I’ve found a recipe for rhubarb puree/juice which you can add to gin, ice cream etc. Hmm, gin – brilliant for lockdown, I’m sure!

The lilies are also growing well and so I’ve now sprayed them against the dreaded lily beetle:

But look at these tulips!

Today we took along some of our sweet peas and have put them against the shed (with mulch) and also at the end of the potato bed. We’ve watered them in and put down slug pellets as usual:

As for the gladioli – start planting in May, they say – they’ll be fine before then. Um, well, I don’t think our gladioli bulbs from last year had that memo as they’re already sprouting in their bucket in the shed!

So I’ve planted them out into 4 rows of those with the longest shoots and will try to keep to succession planting (so they bloom at different times) by adding a couple of rows each week or so until last year’s bulbs are used up. We’d usually try to get some new ones as well, but of course we’re not sure if we’re going to be able to do that this year.

Here is the harvest of daffodils, tulips, asparagus and rhubarb (hurrah!):

And here are the flowers in all their glory at home:

Have a good week, everyone, and stay safe.

Anne Brooke Books

Planting potatoes

Lovely sunny morning at the allotment today. I sorted out the weeding while K planted the potatoes – which are the last of the ones we have.

I’m pleased to say the rhubarb is continuing to flourish:

And the autumn raspberries are starting to sprout for real:

The tulips continue to make a lovely display, and there are also more to come which is great:

Here is today’s harvest of tulips and a scattering of daffodils:

And here are the vases at home:

Have a blessed Palm Sunday, everyone.

Anne Brooke Books

New Allotment Year 2020

Happy new year to you all! Yes, it has really taken me THIS LONG to get back onto the allotment – partly due to bad weather, partly due to inertia and partly due to 2 weeks of a pretty determined virus.

But I’m back now in the land of the living (hurrah!) and there’s a whole new allotment year to look forward to so it was really lovely to get out there today.

Here’s a view of how it looks at the moment:

As you can see, there’s not much going on, but we do need to sort those broken raised beds out at some point, and we also sorted out the weeds while we were there today.

The leeks we planted last year are still hanging on so we must harvest those soon before they give up entirely!

We also brought along a bag of mulch and spread that across the rhubarb bed, which is already starting to sprout:

I do so love a good mulch moment. In other sprouting news, the daffodil bed is coming along very nicely indeed:

And – just to show that daffodils are a whole lot tougher than you might think – we realised today that the daffodil bulbs I’d rejected as being too mouldy or too tiny and abandoned near the water butt for taking home are actually sprouting! So much so that they’ve rooted where they’re lying so I can’t move them to put them elsewhere, LOL! We therefore have a mini daffodil patch near the water butt – which obviously we would have planned for if we’d thought about it … um, not!…

Just goes to show, nature does what she darn well likes and takes no notice of our opinions!

Oh, and I also planted five new lily bulbs (Red Eye) in the second lily area – as we were out at the annual Potato Day in Whitchurch yesterday, and I just couldn’t resist them – alongside 8 new potato varieties to try, and some shallots. If you’ve not been to a Potato Day before, then I can thoroughly recommend it – you get lots of new potato (and other veg) varieties to have a go at, you’re helping to keep heritage varieties alive, and you get a whole load of good advice as well. What’s not to like!

Have a great Sunday!

Anne Brooke Books

Daffodil Planting

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:

Have a lovely weekend!

Anne Brooke Books