Managed to fit in an allotment visit first thing this morning before Storm Dennis hits us later on. Goodness, but the field we need to cross to get to the allotments was the wettest I’ve ever known it – like a marsh! We do appear to have some shed damage in preparation for the storm already …
K has slotted it back in but I’m not sure how long that will last!
Anyway, the daffodils are doing well – even the ones I abandoned near the compost bins are in flower:
And the single daffodil in amongst the leeks is happy too:
Meanwhile the tulip shoots are growing, which is brilliant news:
And the rhubarb is looking good too:
So today we have our first real harvest of some of the leeks and the daffodils. The leeks smell amazing – so much stronger than the ones in the shop!
I’m very sorry to have to tell you that our allotments suffered a break-in this week, with the perimeter fence broken in a couple of places, the main gate damaged, and thefts carried out at several sheds. Such an awful thing to happen. Our own shed was broken into, but nothing taken as we don’t have anything worth stealing.
K mended the shed today – amazingly our now curved padlock still works as it’s actually much tougher than the shed itself!
In happier news, we still have an alstroemeria in bloom:
However, most of the rest of the flowers are now over, so I spent some time cutting back and composting while K was mending the shed. I did feel a lot better after the tidy up as it feels I’ve done something positive to prepare for next season after the communal break-in.
On similar lines, K has dug out the potato bed, rescuing the last of the potatoes – and it’s now ready for us to plant daffodils next time we’re there, hurrah!
I’m also happy to say that our chrysanthemums are on the way though not quite there yet:
Meanwhile we know it’s a very rainy autumn due to the sheer amount of mushrooms everywhere!
Our cabbages are doing well:
And we’ve rediscovered the leeks which have been lurking under the runner beans for ages, quietly waiting to see the sun again …
Sadly though, our Brussels sprouts are experiencing their second year of failure (sob!) – maybe next time we should plant them out in May rather than waiting for them to get bigger at home … Oh well.
Here is the week’s harvest, which includes alstroemeria, a few pelargoniums, a handful of autumn raspberries (though I ditched them at home due to the amount of insects in them, yuk!) one cabbage, the potatoes, beetroot and a couple of stray runner beans:
Lots of nibbly creatures both on and off the allotment this week … here is the sweetcorn section where the middle is all but missing. Pigeons? Mice? Who knows. But we are not amused!
We also struggled with lettuce planting last week as the pigeons (or mice!) had had a good go at them before we even arrived at the allotment – you can just about see them here, still hanging on – just – at the bottom left of the really lovely lettuces (hurrah!):
Anyway, the beetroot section is doing well, and we even have one or two mangetouts lurking amongst the leaves, well gosh:
The autumn raspberries are growing well:
And the flower crops are doing well too. We have the first of the lilies out:
The carnations are still being totally amazing and I picked 128 of them – which is only about half of what I picked last week!
The verbascum is still blooming:
And the sweet peas we thought were a goner near the shed have a sudden lease of life:
Today, I planted the rest of the gladioli bulbs so that’s filled up a bed nicely. I also planted some coreopsis (which I picked flowers from before taking it to the allotment). They are a type called Golden Sphere:
Plus I thought I’d plant some annual flowers for the first time so here are four new pelargoniums – which again I picked before planting. I’m astonished about how beautiful the flowers are in a vase (see later) so will definitely do this again:
Here is the harvest of three mangetouts(!), verbascum, lilies and carnations:
And here are the vases at home. The pelargonium flowers are on the right between the carnations and the verbascum – I think they’re gorgeous. And the coreopsis are on the left.
Well, nearly a host anyway. Definitely a bunch this week, with more to come. And the weather for February is totally amazing.
The tulips might possibly be a bit bigger than last week but it’s hard to say:
Even the lupin is coming along – I actually want to dig that one up and put it in the garden at home, as they’re not very good as cut flowers, so we must do that soon.
The rhubarb is still there too, which is good news.
Oh, and we have a bit of a shed roof problem since all that wind and rain a while back! Must do some mending soon then …
