Picked this week - 1st June 2014

It's a very exciting moment as,

among the standard fare of lettuce, spinach, radish and rhubarb, I picked the first strawberries this week!


Not many so far but I was surprised to find them at all as it seems a little early. Hopefully with some sunny days there'll be lots ripening soon...

Checking up on the allotment

 After a few days at the seaside it's time to check on the allotment.

We had sunshine but at home it rained every day!

Potatoes springing up.

morello cherries

 Fruit swelling in the mini-orchard

pears

apples

plums

borage and foxgloves reaching for the sky and attracting the bees

and peas starting to set

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!