Not just Veg and Fruit

One of the things I love about the allotment is all the other lovely things we find going on down there which are nothing to do with all the fruit and veg.  Today we enjoyed the sunflowers, out in all their glory and buzzing with bees.  Got three sorts growing this year, Wah-hoo (dwarf),  Solar Eclipse (mid-sized) and Giant (obviously huge!)  All the Cosmos (Purity) are out too and again, buzzing with bees.  Sweetpeas are all over now but loads of seed pods for next year.





Also found a little lizard scurrying around the paving slabs - we see them from time to time and they are really delightful little creatures.  He was rescued and put out of harms way and away from being stood on.   Then I went into the polytunnel (which I leave the door open to as it gets so hot in there) and it sounded as though there was a bird trapped in there.  In fact, it was a huge dragonfly that couldnt find his way out.  Luckily Simon rescued him and set him free, after he had his photo taken of course!  Beautiful insect.





And so ended a nice trip down to the allotment today, headed home with loads of veg for tea and an armful of flowers to brighten up the kitchen, cosmos, marigolds and huge daisies.  All with a little help from grandson who will be getting his own raised bed and little trowel as soon as he is walking about!



 

Glad of the Rain

After endless weeks of endless sunshine it has been lovely to have some refreshing rain.  Makes weeding a whole lot easier!  And fewer trips to the tap with the watering cans.  Just the polytunnel and greenhouse needing water at the moment which is much less effort.  Cleared the broad beans today and picked the last of them, going to leave that patch fallow for the rest of the year and just enrich it as there was a large patch where nothing much grew.  Onion patch is all empty now and waiting for some purple sprouting broccoli to go in, and some more leeks.  Climbing beans and runner beans are all flowering now.  Cabbages and other brassicas are seeming to be avoiding the cabbage white butterflies thankfully but time will tell.....  Got quite a bit of bare space now but hoping to get some more things started, with the ground a bit softer and damper now it will be much better.  The beetroot seeds I put in just before the hot spell havent really done very much at all.  So, picked the last of the broad beans today for dinner - and some chard and curly kale.  Also the elephant garlic came up.  HUGE!  Really pleased with them.

All the onions are hanging now and hopefully will be enough to see us through the winter.  The freezer is heaving with beans and soft fruit which is a little unfortunate as the freezer is on the blink and we are awaiting delivery of a new one today.... hopefully it will come before everything has defrosted!

Sunny Days and Lots to Do

Well, what can I say?  It's all growing!  Picked our first two cucumbers of the year today and have our first tomato doing tomatoey type things.  Picked zillions of kale for 2 different recipes this week and brought home the first of the onions.  Sweet peas are being a constant joy to the nasal passages and the broad beans are about to produce more beans than we know what to do with.   Simon is cooking with peppers a lot, and drying a lot in his dehydrator, and hanging more to dry.  Picked the first of the blackcurrants, jostaberries and gooseberries to go in the freezer for jam making later in the year.  Lots of weeding, lots of watering, lots of getting a little bit sunburnt but worth it.   Dinner tonight is Simons risotto with everything except the rice coming from the allotment.  Heavenly!

A montage of photos from today..... a taste of plots 119 and 120!