Allotment Tales

Sunday, during the Bank Holiday Weekend, I finally managed another visit to the allotment.  I desperately needed to go, as the pots of climbing beans I'd bought from the shop up the road, were starting to climb up the kitchen cabinets.  Well, almost.

Before heading off, I fished out some canes from the garden shed in readiness and then proceeded to forget to take them.  I was so annoyed with myself when I realised.  Luckily for me, I bumped into a very nice fellow allotmenteer at the gate, who very kindly offered to lend me some, which really got me out of a tight spot.  Thank you S.

Anyway, I proceeded to my plot, which looked a bit overgrown to say the least.  Everything had grown so much because of the alternating hot and wet weather.  Fortunately, there wasn't much weeding to do as I'd done it on my previous visit and very few had grown back.

 

The chard and spinach had bolted and was subsequently removed, so that I could finally get my beans in.  I was worried that the roots would be too tangled to separate them, but I managed okay and only a few got damaged in the process.  The proof will be in whether they grow I guess.  There must have been at least 15 in each of the two pots which was great value for £1 each.

 

Here's a picture of some of them transplanted.  I transplanted some more lettuce seedlings out next to them too.

 

 

I was pleased to see that the lettuce seedlings I had transplanted on my last visit had survived and were becoming more established.

 

 

 

You can start to get an idea what these lettuces will look like from the one front right, which is a single plant and is starting to fill out.

The strawberries were starting to ripen.  I picked a handful and enjoyed eating them.  Hopefully there will be a decent amount to harvest on my next visit.

The rhubarb isn't doing so well this year.  Maybe I harvested too much of it last year.  Never mind, with only me eating it I'm not too worried.  I'll let it replenish itself this year.  The gooseberries had already disappeared, as they seem to do every year.   Birds, I assume.

There was lots of lovely floral interest.  The Johnson's Blue geraniums were starting to flower.  I just love these.

The sage plants were flowering too, in amongst the mint which has gone mad, and were looking very pretty.

 

 

 

The chives bore their lovely little pompom-like flowers, which I think look so beautiful and the potatoes were flowering too.  They needed banking up, but I didn't have the time on this visit.

 

I almost had a near disaster when I trod on my camera whilst it was face down on the woodchip path.  It sustained a bit of damage to the lens shutters, but thankfully still works perfectly.  Silly girl.

 

It was good to get caught up a bit.  I sowed a few seeds here and there and harvested some rocket before leaving, some of which we had for dinner that evening. It was a bit flea beetle damaged, but tasted just fine.