The Last of the Tulips and a Little Surprise!

Easter weekend seems to have gone in a blink of an eye but boy was it full of lots of allotment and family adventures! It all started with an afternoon up the allotment planting potatoes, then Saturday it was the Peter Rabbit baby shower, Sunday was another allotment day digging the old strawberry beds and then Monday all my Mum’s side of the family joined together for a huge picnic and a game of rounders… A perfect weekend in my opinion (although missing a certain Welsh Man!)

But for now we’ll get back to my allotment adventures and I just wanted to share with you all the last bunch of tulips to be picked on plot 15c this year. There’s still a couple of more buds ready to bloom but I decided to leave them in the trough, there’s a ‘Black Hero’ left which I really want to see flower for the first time, it’s going to be a beaut! The last of the ‘Pale Peony Flowering Collection’ showed it’s face too and it was beautiful, the variety is called ‘Danceline’ and it’s a stunning pale white colour with small, pink streaks running down the petals. This lovely little bunch graced a table at the baby shower in a large vintage enamel jug and they just looked perfect sitting amongst all the delicious cakes. It felt so good to be able to harvest something that I’ve grown myself to display at the baby shower, I just hope my little Niece will love flowers as much as I do.

Whilst I was busy collecting props from my allotment shed and gathering the last of the tulips Saturday morning I spotted something growing over in the new flower border… Asparagus! I couldn’t believe my eyes and I think I even squealed with excitement! 2 years ago I purchased a single potted asparagus plant from a local garden centre and planted it out amongst the flowers, totally forgetting about it in the process. Last year it put on a beautiful foliage display but since then noting happened. Now there are 5 spears growing out the ground and one is over a foot in height! I was so excited, and still am to be honest, but I know that I won’t be harvesting anything from them this year. I’ll let the plant establish before taking a crop and meanwhile I have two more asparagus bulbs to plant out next to it, hopefully they’ll do as well as this one…

Of course the weekend was washed down with plenty of cups of tea and I can’t resist a good old natter with my Dad over on his plot whilst we both enjoy a well earned rest on his bench. Something which we won’t be doing for a while as we are heading off to Sussex to set up shop at the Garden Show in Firle Place. We’ve been so busy for the past few days (and weeks!) getting our stock ready and my Dad’s been busy making lots of metal work too. Now it’s all hands on deck to pack the van before we head off later today. Our first garden show of the year and the first of 12! We are so excited and look forward to seeing a few of you there, fingers crossed the weather stays nice.

To read more about the show head on over to http://www.thegardenshowonline.com/gardenshow_firle/