We arrived back from selling at another garden show late on Sunday night and I was looking forward to spending an hour or so up the allotment, I miss being able to spend time up there so much and there’s a few things that need planting out. Today’s jobs consisted of planting out the sunflowers which had grown over a foot high in the little seed modules and the two courgette plants needed a home too. I had also treated myself to three poppy plants that needed planting out and I wanted to sow some more carrot seed…
Altogether I sowed a full module tray of sunflower seeds using saved seed from last year, the variety is called Mongolian Giant and ever since owning an allotment I’ve had the vision of a row of towering sunflowers on the plot. Unfortunately this has never quite happened but 2017 might be the year! I usually only plant 4 along the back of the pond area with a couple dotted around the flower bed, however this year I’ve planted a row of 6 along the back of my new rhubarb bed and I cannot wait to watch them grow. I planted the remaining three in the corner of my flower bed, the tiny artichoke won’t be putting on much of a display in it’s first year so the sunflowers will be a welcome sight. I’ve staked the delicate little seedlings to protect them from the wind and been praying that the frogs keep the slug problem under control, slugs will devour seedlings in a flash but since putting in my pond this problem has decreased immensely. Now all I need to do is wait and I’m crossing my fingers that all 13 of my sunflowers grow big and strong and bloom beautifully!
Right now there is one vegetable bed that happens to be my favourite and that is the legume bed. It is slowly being packed with homegrown goodies and the broad beans and onions are growing happily away. The first sowing of carrots haven’t appeared so I decided to sow another two rows instead. This might have possibly been because I neglected them and they lacked the water that they desperately needed to germinate. The weather has been so dry lately and I just haven’t been here to look after the plot… Never the less I decided to sow some more and hoping that we get a bit more rain (in the night!) I also planted out my two courgette plants, one is a self sown ‘Black Beauty’ variety and the other ‘Parador’ I picked up from a garden centre. The latter is a beautiful yellow courgette which I’m very much looking forward too growing on the plot! I planted both courgettes in the legume bed in front of where the block of sweetcorn will be going. There’s plenty of space here for two courgettes to grow happily with plans to plant out a pumpkin to wind in between the courgettes later this month.
Everything is looking so beautiful and green in this glorious sunshine and it really does help to lighten the mood. What with all this work, missing a certain someone in Wales and not spending much time up the allotment you do live for these little moments and grab them while you can!