Allotment surprise find

 Down at the allotment today I was surprised to find this. I'd assumed it was a clump of tall grass - but grass doesn't have purple daisy-like flowers!

Back home I got out the wild flower reference book, expecting it to be something grown from undigested bird seed  - but it turns out to be salsify; a vegetable with carrot-shaped roots. Something that pretty deserves a place in my decorative veg patch at home, so I'm tempted to try growing some another year.






 And another surprise - cherries on both cooking and dessert trees. All I have to do with those is keep the birds away....

Poppies and Aquilegias

 It starts to feel like summer when the poppies flower. The small yellow welsh poppies have bee around for a week or two but today the first large pink oriental poppy opened.

 Elsewhere the garden is filling with aquilegias - I love these because they self-set and spring up in unexpected places and unexpected colours year after year. The original ones were all pink but now they come in all sorts of shades from dark purple through to pale, almost-white - this year though I haven't spotted any deep magenta but not to worry they'll probably turn up again next summer

Flowers everywhere...

 It seems at the moment that more flowers are blossoming every day, and the daffodils and tulips are dying back without being noticed.

White bells and honesty full the lawn borders...











the clematis montana is now covering the back fence with flower ...

and lilac will soon be flowering to hide the shed














even the practical plants are looking beautiful - the second apple tree is blossoming..

rhubarb looks like an exotic decorative leaf



the tiny flowers of the blueberries are now setting and berries starting to form

 the american land cress is staring to fill the veg patch with bright yellow flowers






and strawberries edge the path












I'm very pleased to see anemones again this year - I think it's the first time corms have grown and flowered for a second year.



It seems a little early for aquilegias but the first few are just opening their buds

 and these alliums will be ready to pop open any day

Herding cats

strawberry on the patio

Sometimes keeping the garden in order feels a bad as herding cats!

dog violet and welsh poppy

forget-me-nots, which will grow anywhere

The grass prefers to grow in the flower beds, the flowers to spread into the veg patch and lawn -I collected a vase full of forget-me-nots last week before the lawn was cut! - and anything seems to think the paths and patio are great places to grow.









Sycamore seedpod helicopters float over the fence in autumn and in Spring dozens of tiny trees try to grow. Aquilegia, welsh poppies and foxgloves seed readily anywhere. Herbs like oregano and lemon balm spread everywhere,and I even found lamb's lettuces and strawberries growing between the gaps of the patio slabs. Sometimes it seems a pretty effect, sometimes it's just a nuisance.

Clearing the greenhouses

 We've started planting tomatoes out in the allotment greenhouse, so these spinach plants which had grown happily there all winter had to be lifted - quite a lot of leaves on them.


And from the poly greenhouse .... early radishes,lifted to make way for courgettes.

May flowers

 It's not been the best week -or bank holiday - weather-wise but the rain has kept the garden growing and although much colder than a fortnight ago there hasn't been enough frost to cause a problem.
There hasn't been much wind either so the cherry blossom is still hanging on and looking lovely.

Under the cherry tree, I have kerria japonica and honesty flowers clashing colours,





and, mostly hidden by them, the first flowers on Solomon's seal

 The other side of the lawn has a group of bright red tulips,

more honesty,


and whitebells









The veg patch borders are covered in forget-me-nots









and the fences are covered by leaves on raspberries, flowering currants and 'real' currants, and montana clematis which isn't quite flowering yet










 
Underneath, bluebells are hiding. I've tried to plant them in shady spots similar to their natural habitats - so under currant bushes, next to large flopping plants or in shade cast by buildings

One apple tree is still in full flower, though another is only in bud.

First signs of lily of the valley.