Tidying up and surprise finds

 A spot of weed clearing helped me find some hidden treasures 

 Stars of Bethlehem

 small Alliums

 Solomon's Seal

but still can't find where this path's going!

Poppies and Irises

 Another lovely sunny day and stunning bright red oriental poppies and yellow irises came into flower

Overgrown?

 I'm loving the overgrown, lush look to the garden right now. It's probably not to everyones' taste -  certainly not for the lovers of regimental bedding  - but it's my kind of thing and requires so little effort. The perennials - rock roses, foxgloves, oriental poppies, peonies - come back year after year and  the aquilegias and welsh poppies self-set in between.

Allotment in flower

 Sunny weather at the end of the week meant we were able to get to the allotment and start getting the 'new' double greenhouse glazed.












It's not all practical stuff at the allotment though - I've moved self set flowers around to give a border up one side of the plot

 and planted aquilegia and lavender in among the fruit trees

 there's even a tiny buttercup meadow

 Oh, and Dylan the dog insisted on helping....

Picked this week - 18th May 2014

 I've been told several times that it's time I lifted the spinach because the ground needs to be dug for potatoes - well, I keep putting it off, again and again, and I managed to do it again this week. I have started to dig an old brassica row next to it, so its time is numbered... For now though, yet another large bag of it.....

 ......and on a second allotment trip later in the week...another bag this time with some red oak leaf lettuce

 radishes - picking them small as I've set them too closely

rhubarb! Where would we be without it at this time of year? The last of the apples have turned to mush and summer's soft fruit is still at the flowering stage!

Nearly Summer....

Summer's on the way with huge floppy oriental poppies...

..self-set aquilegias in every shade of pink, rose, purple and white...

...huge peonies just opening..

The flower beds are edged in a frill of London Pride

and hiding under the taller plants are sweetly scented lily of the valley







There's always one unseasonal flower though - a really early flowering kaffir lily

What a difference a day makes...

Tuesday - wild and wet with heavy rain, hail and the garden path turning into a stream

Wednesday - blue skies and blossom

Picked this week - 11th May 2014

Rain and other things stopped me getting to the allotment this week. Hubby went to dig ground for potatoes but didn't bring any produce back! Fortunately I'm starting to have salad crops ready at home - some radishes which I'm pulling quite small for two reasons; I've sown the seed too closely, and I hoped they'd be grown and out before I wanted to plant peas in the same space but they aren't.

Lots of strange mustard salad leaves - nice and spicy to go with blander green lettuce.  I've been picking lettuce as 'baby leaves' and had hoped to grow some on for larger plants - unfortunately the slugs took too much of a liking to them and everything I planted out was eaten!

Willow weaving

I've been trying to make my own willow 'wigwams' using pussy willow from the garden. Full write up of it on my HomePage blog

A Vase of Weeds

No matter what I do, some plants always insist on growing in the wrong places 

and sometimes they're beautiful flowers!

So instead of just throwing my 'weeds' in the compost bin, I've brought them inside.

Allotment helper

We're often joined at the allotment by a robin - presumably the same one each time. He sits and sings almost within arm's reach but generally flies off when I get the camera out.

Here he is at last though - not brilliant photos as they're taken on my phone.

Picked this week - 4th May 2014

Another busy week, digging,planting and picking at the allotment.
This time I forgot to take a bag to bring the veg home in, so managed with a bucket - and even included some aquilegias which were growing as 'weeds'.









At the bottom of the bucket - the over-wintering swedes.












Then a row of leeks I cleared out

Then some rhubarb

and a bag of spinach.

Earlier in the week, I lifted the last winter cabbage - and a tiny cauliflower

and from the garden, a couple of spring onions