The Easter Allotment

A couple of visits to the allotment this week as I have time off from work, hurrah! I’m going to be wild and free today (yikes!) and do things in alphabetical order as it just seems easier. So not that wild and free then … Anyway, the alliums are coming along nicely, as are the asparagus and autumn raspberries:

I’m also pleased with how the lilies are getting along – and I have sprayed them this week for the first time as I thought they might be getting chewed a bit – the curse of the lily beetle! Ooh, and there are lupin buds on the lupin which you can just about see if you peer VERY closely at the picture:

Meanwhile the peas seem to have escaped the curse of the mice, although the ones we started off at home are doing much better than the ones which we planted as seeds straight into the soil – which just goes to show that Monty Don isn’t always right, goodness me!

We’re also pleased with how the rhubarb is getting along, and I harvested three sticks of it today to add to my apple crumble, which was surprisingly good, LOL.

The soft fruit area is getting there too, and the bees seem to be loving it which is great news for a later harvest – we hope.

Today, K set up a new sweet pea structure to give them more height when we get round to planting them, and as an added bonus it also helps hold up the shed guttering which suffered from the winds last month. You can just about see the netting in the picture, plus K’s hat and my fleece (didn’t need it) …

The plant I’m most proud of though is the tulips which have given us a totally glorious display this season.

A couple of harvest pictures this week:

This (above) was some asparagus, the tulips and the last of the scented narcissi.

Today’s harvest shot (also above) is rhubarb (the first of the season!), asparagus and tulips. I’m also taking home the sunflower seeds as we’ll start them off at home this year, and then plan to plant them round the runner beans as usual.

Here are the tulips in the vases at home. I’m very happy indeed with the parrot tulips (the first red and white frilly ones) as usually I don’t like these in the garden, but they’re absolutely GORGEOUS in the vase, so I’ll definitely get more for the allotment next year.

Have a very happy Easter Day everyone!

Anne Brooke Books

Striped Tulips and Asparagus Rising

We knew our allotment tulips have done well this week as a couple of lovely allotment people have been admiring them – we were stunned when we saw the flowers today!

So thrilled with all this glorious abundance that I can’t even speak! Now there’s a shock, eh …

The tulips aren’t the only thing going for it either – last week, we had absolutely no asparagus at all and this week we have an enormous one (as it were!!) and there are others ready to spring up any day now, LOL!

Just looking at that picture makes me laugh!… Other excitements are the rhubarb – no flowers on them this week, phew – and the lilies.

I’m not spraying the lilies yet and they look okay – but possibly the dreaded lily beetle is just waiting for the right moment, yikes! We’re also pleased that the peas K planted a couple of weeks ago haven’t been eaten by mice after all, and are actually starting to sprout, well gosh! Alongside some weeds of course, but I’m leaving those in to distract the mice …

The onions K planted are also starting off, and the smell around that bed is just brilliant, even though they’re still so small!

Meanwhile the sweet williams are doing well, as is the soft fruit area & the autumn raspberries:

Whilst there today, I planted another three rows of gladioli bulbs and K planted up a bed of potatoes:

Here is the harvest of tulips and a couple of asparagus stalks:

Here are some narcissi and the tulips at home:

Have a fabulous weekend and enjoy the sunshine!

Anne Brooke Books

 

 

 

Daffodil Delight and a Fabulous Frog

Lots going on at the allotment today. Next week, we get our annual inspection so I’ve trimmed the edges to make it look a lot neater – lots of fun with a pair of shears and some very dirty trousers now!

Anyway, it’s daffodil city on the plot, which is just lovely – even the narcissi which we thought were over have rebloomed:

The little narcissi with the dark orange centres (the pic immediately above) smell absolutely amazing so we can’t wait to get more of those.

The tulips are also on their way now and some even have buds showing. I’m convinced everything is arriving a month early at the moment whereas last year it arrived a month late. All very strange …

The tulips above are growing where they shouldn’t be growing so obviously we weren’t as good at removing all the bulbs as we thought we were! But the ones below are definitely in the right place:

The alliums and the aster are making a showing:

And we also have lilies and the lupin, hurrah:

We need to sort out more flowers for summer as the last thing I want is a gap – perish the thought! We have some purple sunflowers at home which I think I’ll plant on the allotment, and of course I can plant more yellow sunflowers too. Plus we have the dianthus and the sweet williams still on the allotment, so hopefully they’ll put in an appearance at some point.

The rhubarb is on its way and there are now definitely shoots on the autumn raspberry bed:

Today, K also planted a row of early peas, as Monty Don was doing this on Gardeners’ World so we thought we’d give it a go. Here’s hoping the mice don’t get them first!

And we discovered a frog! Isn’t he cute – we left him well alone and hope he finds a home under the shed rather than under the bags of compost where he was actually hiding …

Just a harvest of those glorious daffodils today, though we’ve also bought home the rest of the peas to save them from the mice.

And here are the flowers at home:

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Anne Brooke – Biblical Fiction & Prayer

 

Naughty Nature and Compost Delights

Just one lone daffodil on the allotment today, so we have a flower gap – oh the horror of it!!

I have stuck it in a champagne glass at home to make it look less lonely, LOL. Still, other daffodils are on the way, but they look much smaller than we anticipated!…

Maybe I will have to get some small bowls to float them in as they don’t look tall enough for an actual vase. Naughty daffodils!

Speaking of naughty flowers, here is the raised bed from which (I promise you!!) K and I removed ALL the tulip bulbs last year. EVERY SINGLE ONE!

Hmm, that worked well, eh. Nature is obviously fighting our plans at every step! I might have to take these out before they flower and put them in a pot or something. As we already have two whole raised beds where the tulips are actually supposed to be …

In more anticipated news, the lupin we were kindly given by an allotment neighbour last year is coming back so I’m looking forward to seeing that develop:

K has taken out the last of the sprouts (sob!) and dug that bed over. He also dug through the old potato bed and put compost on it. As I absolutely LOVE compost, here is a picture of the wonderful stuff!

What could be nicer?

I also trimmed round the plot borders and did a hoe-through, and K and I shaped up the more overgrown blackcurrant bushes:

And here is the first autumn raspberry leaf, well gosh!

A very small harvest today – just the last of the sprouts and that lone daffodil:

By the way, I took a fresh tea towel for the flowers (when we get any more!) all the way up to the allotment and then all the way back again, as I forgot to take it out of my coat pocket! I hope I have better luck next week …

Have a great weekend!

Anne Brooke Books

Nearly Daffodil Time

The daffodils are nearly out on the allotment, hurrah! I might well pop in again this Thursday to see how they’re doing – it will be great once we can start having fresh flowers in the house. Plus other, later daffodils are also beginning to come up so that’s good too.

Whilst there, K dug up the potato bed and I trimmed all the way round the allotment so it all looks a bit neater now, which is good news. I also hoed the beds and soft fruit area, which is much easier now the autumn raspberries are cut down, LOL!

K also shaped one of our older blackcurrant bushes to give it a bit of air and encourage growth:

We’ll do the other older one next week. Here are the spare canes, which we won’t plant as we don’t have much space at the moment:

So our harvest today is the usual sprouts and potatoes, but they’re always welcome!

And here are the sprout leaves, which we’ll use as compost:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Anne Brooke

The Great Raspberry Cull

We finished off pruning the rest of the autumn raspberry canes which we started on a couple of weeks ago today – it’s hard work but extremely satisfying when it’s all done!

Weeding it will certainly be a lot easier now anyway. So we’ve taken back loads of canes for the garden waste at home, and there are still more at the allotment to bring back later.

As you may remember, I was hoping to get at least one of our early daffodils in bloom in January, but sadly (sob!), this is not to be … but I’m hoping these ones will be in flower early Feb:

The sweet williams seeds we planted last year are coming along slowly, which is positive:

I’m hoping for good things from them!

Just a few sprouts and the last of the potatoes to harvest this week, but we feel proud we’ve managed to make them last so far.

Have a great Sunday evening!

Anne Brooke Books

Raspberry Riot

Did a quick hoe-round at the allotment today, though the snow yesterday and the day before appears to have beaten the weeds down, hurrah! There is exciting news about the daffodils as they’re now starting to form actual flower buds, well gosh:

The rhubarb is also looking very pretty, and we’re hoping it might gain some friends at some point!

Our main job of today though has been starting to cut down the autumn raspberry canes to the ground. They’re really easy to cut with secateurs though they’re so long that you have to be a bit careful that you don’t take your eye out when you’re disposing of them! Also heavy duty gloves are vital … We’ve done just under half the bed so will carry on next week. It’ll certainly make it a lot easier to weed. The canes we cut down today will be added to our garden waste bin at home – thank goodness we remembered to bring one of our green bags.

A very small harvest today – just sprouts! – and there haven’t been so many of these as we harvested last year. Though, to be fair, we didn’t plant as many either!

Have a great weekend!

Anne Brooke

 

The Day of the Dahlias

It’s astonishing how well the dahlias are now doing, and there are even more buds to come – should the weather be kind.

Not only that, but the asters look very pretty too:

However, it’s still definitely autumn so everything is winding down – though I don’t think the courgette has yet got that message as it’s still producing fruits, and I harvested 3 of them today – more to come!

Anyway, I did a hoe round and also cleared the weeds on the paths, while K sorted out compost and tidied round the autumn raspberries bed – which are also on the way out in terms of produce, sadly.

Here is the harvest, which includes, a beetroot, courgettes, autumn raspberries, lettuce, echinacea, marigolds, coreopsis, asters and dahlias.

Here are the vases at home – I’ve tried to keep to a colour theme this time, and I think it works.

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books

 

I Love Manure!

We were lucky enough to have 20 bags of manure delivered directly to our plot this week – courtesy of the lovely P (thank you!) – and K has been getting some of it onto the beds today while I did hoeing and plot tidying elsewhere on site. I really love manure – it makes everything look so rich and lush, and I find the smell weirdly exciting – don’t tell me that’s just me, LOL!

How can anyone resist that glorious earthy brown?…

Meanwhile the asters and dahlias continue to do well, and if our luck’s in, we might even get flowers in November – I do hope so.

And the chrysanthemums are on their way – I really love this pink flower:

K dug up half the remaining potatoes today so that should keep us going for a while!

And the harvest includes autumn raspberries, courgettes (still growing!), beetroot, lettuce, alongside asters, chrysanthemums, one crocosmia, coreopsis, dahlias and marigolds.

Here are the vases at home:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Anne Brooke Books

Autumn Flowers and Woodchip Paths

A lovely couple of hours at the allotment in glorious weather this morning – it really makes up for yesterday’s almost permanent rain – though then again the rain means I don’t have to water anything this weekend. Anyway, I did a hoe round, and K has taken some wood chips someone kindly donated to the allotments and put them down on our most weed-filled paths (on top of new black sheeting of course). I think they look lovely and we hope it will keep the weeds down for a while.

The asters are also looking brilliant. The first one is Harrington’s Pink – and it smells of pineapples so I love it! K isn’t so sure, LOL.

I can’t remember what this smaller pink aster is but it’s great as a vase filler:

The dahlias and marigolds are also continuing to do well:

Plus I’ve finally planted the last tranche of daffodil bulbs so that’s all our early autumn planting done, hurrah! Next stop is the tulips in November, but we’d best buy some of those first.

We’re really pleased with the lettuces and have harvested a couple of the bigger green ones too. They should definitely keep us going through the winter.

Meanwhile the Peruvian Ground Apple (AKA Yakon) looks extremely happy at the moment so I hope we’re going to get a good crop from it.

Here’s this week’s harvest, which includes autumn raspberries, beetroot, courgettes, lettuce, coreopsis, marigolds, penstemons, asters, dianthus and dahlias:

And here are the flowers at home. I’m particularly proud of those Harrington’s Pink asters!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Anne Brooke Books