A final farewell.

So, up to where it all began on a grand scale - the allotment.
Luke used to have a website - weeditandreap.co.uk - which showcased his and his best pal, Tim's achievements on the veg front. Once Luke had discovered the joys of tomato growing in the back garden it was a small step to him getting an allotment. We took Tim and his girlfriend, Michelle, up to show them the allotment to see if he was interested in joining Luke. He oohed and ahhed about it for a while; said "no" then "yes" and they were off. All this was back in 2006 and for several years they spent every Saturday sweating over the sod, so to speak. Although they both then progressed to bee keeping it was Tim who fell in love with that hobby and is now a proud owner of 70 hives. You'll see more of Tim in the birds and bees article.
Anyway, things got busier for both the boys and little by little they found less time to spend on the allotment. For the last year they've done nothing with it and in a great part, our house move was led by the need for a larger garden in which to grow our own fruit and vegetables. Now we've made that move we would like to give up the allotment in order to decrease the huge list of veg-growing wannabes and let somebody else have the joy of veg.

So today's visit to the allotment was basically to collect our tools and suchlike. It was a sad sight, all their hard work has disappeared under an abundance of weeds. But in the midst of it I found a huge artichoke head - a real architectural statement which I hacked off and brought home to sit in a glass vase. Of course I had to wait for the bumble bee to finish collecting pollen off it first. In the hedgerows we collected a pot full of juicy blackberries, half of which I've washed and frozen and half of which I've cooked with some cooking apples. I also tweaked off a bag full of scarlet redcurrants which I've washed and frozen on the stem - this way I can use them for cooking or decorative purposes. Half a bag is going over to Tim and Michelle's house tonight for them to enjoy; our last harvest from the allotment.

A meal from the garden.

Oh, I'm a happy woman! Last night we had our evening meal, fresh eggs from our chickens, newly dug potatoes, just picked peas, a handful of assorted herbs & a little courgette all cooked together to produce a golden omelette. Next month we will have our own tomatoes for a nice side salad too.
Washing up was made nicer with the scent of white sweetpeas on the window sill which I'd picked earlier. I'm loving this self sufficiency malarkey - yeah, okay, it's only one meal but we have the promise of more to come.

New visitors to the garden.

I got home early from work and sat down to eat a late lunch when I notied a large presence on the nut feeder. Usually they are smothered in yellow breasted blue tits but this time there was a long beaked large bird and when I looked properly I realised it was a great spotted woodpecker. It was hammering away at the nuts and five minutes later, when I ws still thrilled to have a sighting of one of them, it was joined by another larger one. They had a feeder each and made light work of the nuts,not more than twenty feet away from my comfortable vantage point.

I could only tell Luke about them and hope they would return the next day however that night, as I was closing up the chickens I had a black blur whizz past my head and lo and behold, it was a teeny bat. This little chap stayed around long enough for me to holler to Luke to see it.
Having laughed at how it flapped up and down over the trees we both took a deep breath of that long summer evening and congratulated ourselves on how lucky we are to live here. It is simply bliss!

Feline friend.

Good old Socks, much more wary of the chickens than they are of her. We think they are fooled into thinking that all black and white cats are the good guys from their experience with our old cat. They certainly don't appreciate any other cats coming into their garden but they are cool with Socks. Very often we have Socks in our garden (or even on our sofa) and Jack has our chickens around his garden. A sort of pet swap.

Ding ding.., in the pastel corner we have a pink poppy..,






































and in the black and white corner we have a Shasta daisy, a Coleus, a white clematis, a chocolate Cosmos, a black Scabiosa

Half price buys.

I do love a bargain. Of course, that doesn't always mean I get one as if I'm buying because it's so much cheaper than it should be I can be a little blinded to the product itself. My wardrobe is bursting with EBay buys which I probably wouldn't have bought if my heart ruled my head. They are almost right items but to me, almost right is pretty much wrong. A bargain is when you get something you love for a price you adore.
I got these bargains recently and will make you mad with me for my good fortune. Sorry!
Whilst getting a pint of milk in Waitrose two weeks ago I chanced upon a check out lady with a manic look in her eye and a price gun in her hand. What luck! I even checked with her that she really was pricing them up correctly!
Well, to cut a long story short I walked away with two good sized hydrangeas (one pink, one blue)which had been selling for £14.99 apiece and which I got for 99 pence each! Yes, you read that correctly. How much of a bargain was that?! AS I was leaving I spied two butterfly lavenders for 49 pence each (having been £4.99 before the manic lady had got to them). So I left with four plants for under three quid - and of course, my pint of milk.

Last Sunday we succumbed to our usual Sunday treat, a trip to the local garden centre.
There I found two Scabiosa barocca half price. Yes, they were out in flower - blackcurrant pom poms swaying in the breeze and yes, they were a little floppy but a quick deheading of scruffy fading flowers and a little staking up has given them a new lease of life. For another six weeks of colour they were well worth the three pounds I paid for them. I then found a lovely Hosta - Tangoo with grey-green leaves and creamy edges. It had been a penny short of ten pounds but I paid £3.00 for it. It will last for years and long after I've forgotten what I paid for it I hope to be enjoying it each spring and summer.
If it makes you feel any better, I did then pay full whack for a replacement lemon tree for Luke (I binned his last one after last year's particularly cold winter) and spent an hour cleaning every mottled leaf and mended a broken branch with a little masking tape (improvisation rules when the shops have shut). A darn good drink with summer citrus supplement and the jobs a good one!

I also spied a lovely Leucanthemum (Shasta daisy). I already have one in the black and white border but this one, Broadway Lights, is a lovely lemon colour on great long stems. I put it in the long border running up to the greenhouse. It's just behind the tree so you have to walk up the garden to get a look at it and it's like a little ray of sun infront of the border shrubs. The two Scabiosas I purchased have gone either side of the climbing rose and for little money have brightened up the border no end.

25th July 2010

Oh, what a beautiful morning!
I awoke at 5.45 and decided that I would creep downstairs and have a cup of tea. Before too long though I was out in the garden, photographing stuff and looking for all the world like a kooky private detective (well, I was still in my dressing gown!).
Of course, now it's two hours later the sun has come up and I have had to take all the photographs again to show the morning dew twinkling in the sun.
I love the extra detail you get when shooting a plant close up. Something that is quite drab looking, when shot in minute detail suddenly shows it's glamorous side. I've been seduced into buying plants in this exact way; I see a close up of a flower head and think I must have it only to realise that the rest of the plant really isn't up to much. Still, most everything deserves a place in my summer bed. I've noticed this week just how different my two borders are - the black and white one, whilst technically not black, still has a flat appearance and is much more subdued than it's showy counterpart on the opposite side. The pastel border really has a lot more 'look at me' to it's nature. I like them both for their obvious differences although I suspect most people wouldn't love the two b & w one. "Interesting" is a comment I expect more for this one. But look closely and there they are, Chocolate cosmos, Chilli black scabiosa, black calla lily, Nigra hollyhock; they all vye for attention in their own quiet way.