The Naughty Allotmenteer

Yes, I know. I just couldn’t resist this picture of two pumpkins and a marrow – but could you have resisted it??! Which only goes to show that underneath every serious allotmenteer, there is a very immature child desperate to get out …

And yes, I also know there’s a very tiny marrow there too, but I didn’t want it to feel overlooked! Anyone know any pumpkin recipes as we haven’t a clue?…

Anyway, in other news, we have finally planted our Brussels sprouts – not sure how they’re going to do, but we are hopeful. I remembered to put the slug doom in too.

The gladioli are still blooming:

Though not as much as the sunflowers, which continue to surprise us.

Here is the very autumnal harvest, including our first ever cabbage:

All those scrumptious autumn raspberries are going straight into the apple crumble I’m making today, yum.

And here are the vases:

Have a lovely Sunday, and make the most of the sunshine, everyone!

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