Flowery Allotment

I haven't sown or planted any flowers at the allotment this year but most things tend to seed themselves around nicely. Sometimes they're not in a very helpful place but that's fine, I can just pull them out!

Aside from all the fruit and veggies on the plot, I've mainly sown or planted things in the past that're good for wildlife, and look pretty too. Of course the fruit and veggies quite often have lovely flowers too, an added bonus.

All photos here are by Jan, who last week managed to walk to the allotment with me (she's still recovering from a thyroid problem) and after a long rest, took a little wander round the plot.

First of all, some of the flowery flowers

Love in a mist / nigella

Such a nice flower, great for insects. They produce so many seeds in a rattly seed-head (once it's dried out) which you can see the fronds of just starting to appear in the middle of the flower head.

Sage flowers. When we first got the plot in 2007 there was a big collapsed old sage plant in a not very helpful place. So we took a gamble and split it up (breaking apart the old main stem) and literally just stuck each bit in the ground, along one of the boundaries. They somehow survived! You'll notice I say 'we' more here, that's because when we first got the plot Jan used to help more but in recent years for various reasons hasn't been able, so it's been a more or less one woman show for the moment. She takes a good piccie though, eh.

Calendula - I think this particular plant came through the winter and flowered again. Not sure on that though. Elsewhere on the plot there's loads of seedlings coming up, so more lovely flowers later. These ones pictured are starting to 'go over'. Still very vibrant though and it's been in flower for ages.

And now some flowery fruit and veg:

Parsnip! I left a few 'snips in the ground that I thought looked like they were a bit small for harvesting, so that they would run to flower and seed (they're biennial so flower in the second year of growth). You can't tell from the pic but This 'snip flower is really tall.

Broad beans, from my spring sowing

Summer raspberries, with the fruit just starting to form, always an exciting time. I love it when the fruit or beans etc start appearing behind the flower. Clever Mother Nature.

Ah, couldn't miss out a strawberry

And a potato too! A lot of non-growers don't realise humble potatoes have flowers, and rather nice ones at that.

And finally.....something completely different! A handsome toad that's living on the plot. It has a frog-friend too and sometimes they hang out together under a bit of black plastic round my hugel bed. I was actually removing all the plastic one time, when I found him (or her) snuggled in this dip,- I was crouched down pulling back the plastic when I came face to face with them! So this bit of plastic has stayed in place but I do pull it back occasionally for a peep to see who's there (but not for too long, so they don't get distressed).

Get munching on those slugs toady!

 

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Harvest Monday - pesto....and the strawbs have arrived

Well, what a week of wind and a bit of rain and sun too. The wind evaporated all the rain up within a short time so everything's really dry. Even the rain that was meant to come today didn't.

Ok, so harvest-wise there's still been a good amount of chard going into dishes like - poached eggs on toast with chard, pie and greens, and this one - a sort of curry with quinoa.

And this one last night, which was a curry.

Earlier in the week I pinched-out he tops of most of my basil plants (so that they bush out) and got lots of nice leaves (purple and green)

It was enough to make a pesto, so I whizzed up the leaves with some toasted walnuts (pine nuts are too expensive) and my own garlic lifted last week, plus a big glug of olive oil. I don't put cheese in but instead add that to what ever dish / sandwiches instead if needed.

One of our pesto meals was this - scrambled eggs with a couple of big tablespoons added. It was so good!

We also had it in sarnies a couple of times, yummy

The other fun harvest has been strawberries. Each day there's been more to pick, these photos are all building up through the week...(If you read last Monday's post, I picked my first two that day,)

These were today in my lunch break, a nice haul. And actually when I went down tonight I could've picked more. Summer must be here at last!

I'm weighing these as I go along just out of interest and will report anything of note. I don't usually weigh my crops but I think I will for most of my fruit this year and maybe beans. We'll see!

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's dandelions

 

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Greenhouse update

Well, just a quick tour, as it's getting late (I've been to an excellent gig by Tuneyards, if anyone's a music fan).

View through the back window into the greenhouse/lean-to. It won't be long before all the tomatoes grow up and fill the space (which means we can't dry our washing in there for much longer or else they'll get yellow tomato stained)

I've potted-on all my tomatoes now. I used a mix of my own compost, bought peat-free compost and horse manure. I'd usually put a scoop of garden soil in too, but there wasn't anywhere I could scoop from, so I also added a bit of old compost that had soil in it. Some of the leaves are a bit speckled but I think that was from when they were still in their small pots.

I planted them all deep (removing lower leaves) and under-planted most with basil (I'm growing green and purple). Ha, just noticed a cameo from minxie, bottom right, in the middle of a clean.

Most of my toms are cordon / indeterminate varieties (that just keep growing up unless you pinch the top out) but I've got a couple of bush ones too, as they usually produce ripe fruit sooner, for me anyway. Here's one on the right, with basil and aubergines too.

I've got more basil that needs potting on, though I've pinched out most of the tops now (and made a lovely pesto)

The chamomile is doing well, I've been hardening it off outside during the day so will plant it out in the lawn soon. I did nearly lose it all yesterday though, when it got quite frazzled in the heat but it's recovered after watering, phew. You can just see some peas peeking through in a tray below.

My attempt at overwintering sweet peppers didn't work. They were still alive when I potted them in but then I think they dried out. So I ended up buying a couple of plants as my seeds didn't germinate either (I'll try a fresh pack next year).Here's one of the bought plants.

And I still have quite a lot of squashy plants to go out on the allotment plus cucumbers, I just haven't had chance to clear the space for them......this weekend that will be my goal! As it's been so dry, some had already been affected by mildew, so I gave them a 30/70-ish milk/water spray the other day. It's worked on the whole but I think I'll do it again. It's better to use as a prevention rather than cure but, well, there's just not time to do everything eh? This weekend will be sunny which is when it's meant to be most effective.

Not greenhouse-related but it's nice to have the elder flowers coming into blossom in the garden. It's good timing too, as the laburnum's starting to lose its flowers, so the bees will still have tasty pollen to feed on :D

The garden also needs weeding and re-sowing some runner beans that've been nibbled. Another job for the weekend.

But, now I've started to digress, so will say nighty night, and get up early to do some watering on the allotment tomorrow, hopefully joined by lots of birdsong :D

 

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Harvest Monday - garlic and sssss.....strawberry

Ah yes, today I had a nice surprise on the plot but I'll come to that in a little while. The last two days have been windy and rainy, what a great start to the British Summer.

But here's some nice meals from this week's harvests, so despite the poor weather, you can still get a reasonable crop.

 

I've been picking rocket from the garden still, from the overwintered plants that are a couple of years old now

I've been potting on my toms and popping in one of my basils at the base of each. This is meant to help deter beasties from eating the tomatoes plus also saves space.

I pinched-out some of the basil tips to encourage them to bush out

And used them plus chard too with pasta

The rhubarb leaves were getting in my way so I decided to pick some and make the waitrose rhubarb cake Recipe again. A good thing to do on a rainy Sunday. Here's a few of the sticks, a nice bright colour.

As part of the recipe you leave them chopped up in sugar for a little while to draw out the liquid, That liquid is delicious, mmm

It looks a bit soggy in this photo but actually today it was moist but not soggy.

I made a sort of kidney bean hot pot aswell yesterday using my own mashed potatoes from the freezer (the last tub) and some chard from the plot.

Tonight I was a bit unsure what to cook, we were running low on things, so I used up some more chard

And some of my sweetcorn from the freezer

..with some fried onion, garlic and a tin of baked beans....it was surprisingly nice!

At the end of last week my garlics were looking a bit sickly even though it seemed a bit early for them to be getting ready to die back normally.

So I decided to lift a few to see what was hAppening. Unfortunately some had a white rot, which I meant to look up more info on. I lifted all of them and left the rotty ones in the shed at the plot to dry off separately, which I'll then use up soon. The rest I brought home to dry in the lean-to. Quite a few are just one giant clove but some seem to be bulbed-up.

At least I got some garlics anyway, the last time I grew any quantity was several years ago when most of them went manky, which put me off growing them for a while.

And last but definitely not least, I popped to the plot in my lunch break, (before the rain and wind) and found a couple of ripe strawberries! Whoop!

They were sooo good. I resisted the temptation to just eat them there and then and brought them home to share with Jan. These were from the bed with stones as a mulch so that probably speeded things up, as the stones will get quite warm :D There's more coming too.

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

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