Allotment views and signs of spring

Not much happening at the allotment at the moment though we did do weeding across the plot and also caught up with the composting. I thought you might like to see some views of the allotment in autumn so here they are:

The fruit cage is also looking quite nice:

And the blueberry looks particularly stunning in its autumn colours:

The Brussels sprouts are also coming along and so nearly ready for a first harvest now:

The first Brussels sprout bed is certainly looking good on the whole:

Though the one we planted up later has a fair amount of catching up to do!

And in stunningly good news, we have the first of our daffodil shoots now! So wonderful to see these early signs of the spring to come:

In non-allotment news, I’m pleased to say I have a new 5 star review of my latest novel, An Unexpected Haunting, which you can read here:

An Unexpected Haunting at Goodreads

I rather like being described as “unusual, unconventional, alternative and singular” – that’s certainly made my day!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

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Communal dahlias and the rose revival

We arrived at the allotment this morning to discover that some lovely person had left a vase of dahlias on the new communal table, which I thought was a fabulous idea.

Later on, I added a couple of yellow ones to the display and gave it a quick water – so hope they last a few days at least. Talking of flowers, the roses in the perennial bed are doing well.

And the dahlias and alstroemerias are still looking good too.

This week, we have a harvest of beetroot, French climbing beans, mangetouts, alstroemerias, dahlias and roses, plus some soft fruit – including autumn raspberries, which we thought we’d got rid of last year! Nature obviously had other ideas …

Here are the flowers at home – as ever, roses do better if they aren’t mixed with other flowers, hence the fact they’re on their own.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone – looks set to be a sunny one here!

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French Beans Galore!

A crazy amount of those French climbing beans at the allotment this morning and there are still flowers coming, so plenty more crops to hope for there. We will have to make soup with them as we’re running out of freezer space!

The mangetouts are also still looking healthy which is great news.

And from no courgettes last week, we now have plenty of them:

The alstroemerias are also doing well:

This week, K has taken the roof netting down from the soft fruit cage so the birds can get the rest of the crop we don’t need though there’s now not much left of course. They can also deal with the pests as well, which is great. I’ve planted another bed of daffodils, and probably still have about half a bed to do. The mix consists of both old bulbs from last year that have survived (I take the bad ones home for the garden waste) and new ones bought this year.

Here is the harvest of French climbing beans, courgettes, mangetouts, dahlias, alstroemerias and one rose:

And here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

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Autumn harvest

So here we are – autumn on the allotment, although the next week is set to be up to 29 degrees centigrade so perhaps it’s still late summer. I’m pleased to say that the peas are still doing surprisingly well and have even produced a couple of flowers so we may actually get a crop:

The courgettes have also gone insane this week – it’s astonishing how much produce one plant can have.

And for those of you who’ve been wondering how the Brussels sprouts are getting on – they’re doing fine, thank you, and here’s a shot of one of the beds:

The perennial bed is awash with dahlias and here’s one I thought looked particularly stunning today:

So, we have a harvest of courgettes, French climbing beans, the rest of the shallots, plus roses, one alstroemeria and dahlias, plus some blueberries from the fruit cage:

And here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely sunny Sunday, everyone!

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Perennial bed glory

Lots of flowers continuing in our perennial bed this week, especially those glorious dahlias:

We’re also pleased that the courgette flowers last week have turned into actual fruits:

We harvested some of the crop but left others to grow into marrows next week, LOL! The French climbing beans continue to do well though we didn’t pick as many as last week:

And those late peas actually have a flower on them!

So today’s harvest is: courgettes, French climbing beans, blueberries, alstroemerias, dahlias, roses and a few gerbera:

And here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend, everyone!

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Dahlias Galore

It’s definitely a win for the dahlias today as you can see from this picture of our perennial bed, though the roses are also still in abundance. It’s interesting that the pink dahlias last so much longer in the vase than the yellow ones, and also interesting that I have obviously chosen the same kind of colour palate for both dahlias and roses – pink and yellow!

One of our lettuces has definitely died this week, LOL! Though the other two are just about surviving:

Our two unexpected pea plants continue to grow so I have now tied both these up with string.

But the winning vegetable of the week continues to be our French climbing beans – another good harvest today though not as much as last week:

Whilst there, we took the protection off both our Brussels sprouts beds in order to give them a thorough weeding – the weeds everywhere have been a nightmare this year! And K also strimmed along the edge of the plot too, to make it look neater.

Here is this week’s harvest, which consists of dahlias, roses, alstroemeria, one freesia, sweet peas, a few gerberas, plus soft fruit, one beetroot, one lettuce and French climbing beans.

And here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone.

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Beans and Beetroot

The French climbing beans are still doing brilliantly with more flowers on there as well, so a good harvest though not quite as enormous as last week:

The lettuces are hanging on in there though getting a little past their best now. Still, there’s enough lettuce from one of these to keep us going for a week:

And we have our first decent sized crop of beetroot which is great news! The type we grow isn’t the usual red one as I don’t like the stains, so this one is stain-free – sorry I can’t remember the name but they’re readily available if you want beetroot without the mess!

The perennial bed is looking good too, with more roses and dahlias, and even some of our new alstroemerias in bloom (just peeking out at the left of the picture).

We put a lot of weed-killer down on the paths between beds this week as it’s all been getting rather out of hand, so we’re hoping that next week it will look a lot clearer. So, here is the harvest, which consists of alstroemerias, dahlias, roses, gerberas, sweet peas, one lettuce, one beetroot, a lot of shallots (which keep for months in the garage), soft fruit and French climbing beans.

And here are the vases at home:

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

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Lilies and climbing beans

I’m finally back on the allotment after three weekends away due to ill health, so I spent a lot of time beating down the weeds today, LOL! Still, after yesterday, at least we didn’t need to water. The lilies are looking amazing:

And the sweet peas are hanging on in there:

But just look at our perennial bed! It’s a riot of roses (second bloom of those this year), dahlias and gerberas:

However, the outright winner in terms of how much crop there is has to be awarded to the French climbing beans! There’s a veritable glut which we are freezing – see later pics!

Mind you, there are a lot of courgettes too – so we’ll make and freeze soup with them:

And we FINALLY have some growth from our peas – though we’re unsure whether we’ll actually get a crop from those now as it’s very late in the season:

And the lettuces are going crazy:

This week, there is just SO MUCH harvest that I have had to take two pictures of it! We have one lettuce, 5 huge courgettes, lilies galore, dahlias, roses, gerberas and sweet peas, plus a few mangetouts, those French climbing beans and some soft fruit (hidden by the beans!) Here they are:

And here are the gorgeous flowers at home:

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone.

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Bumper Harvest

I’m afraid I’ve been unwell for a couple of weeks so have been unable to get to the allotment – am hoping that next weekend I’ll be well enough to get there and I’m certainly a lot better than I have been, which is good news. Anyway, my husband has been working hard in my absence and here are a couple of pictures for you.

This is last week’s harvest:

And here is this week’s harvest for you. As you can see, the French climbing beans and courgettes have been amazing, and the flowers are also wonderful. And the lettuce is great too. Plus plenty of soft fruit for a crumble.

Here are this week’s flowers at home:

Have a good weekend, everyone, and try to stay well!

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First lilies and first freesia

Good news on the allotment as the first lilies are in bloom!

I’m also pleased to say that we have one freesia now in bloom as well – tiny but perfectly formed and brilliantly scented:

In other flower news, the first dahlias are also out:

The alstroemerias are also doing well:

As are the sweet peas:

And just look at those gerberas – amazing!

The courgette also looks a lot happier though no fruits as yet:

And just look at the size of those lettuces!

Whilst there today, we gave everything a good water and weed as usual, and also collected some soft fruit. So here is our harvest of mangetouts, the first of the French climbing beans (hurrah!), one lettuce, assorted soft fruit, lilies, roses, one freesia, gerberas, alstroemerias and sweet peas:

And here are the vases at home. The scent is just lovely.

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone.

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