Seasons in the Sun

It's certainly growing weather (though those beautiful sweetpeas were grown by Ivan, ours are still small). I've chopped back a lot of the chive flowers to encourage more new growth, but the butterflies and bees love them, so I don't chop them all in one go.

Two days of this second Bank Holiday in May and they've both been beautiful, with heat, mostly sun and none of the threatened rain showers during the day - will it last for a third day??

The tadpoles have been hiding for much of the month but I was very pleased to see lots of them appear during some very heavy rain earlier in the week. And even more pleased to spot legs on these two today!

We had a not-very-productive afternoon on the allotment on Saturday - well, it started with a soiree. so it was a lot of fun, but digging in the sunshine after all that home-made wine and home-made scones (thanks to Ivan and Kerry) was hard work!

At least I got the one job done that I've been meaning to do for a couple of weeks - Epsom Salts for the garlic and shallots. It should help the leaves perk up - they're yellowing due to lack of magnesium.

Sunday was much more productive. I've sown the following in rows on Plot46A:
Boltardy beetroot
Chinese leaf
Radish Mirabeau
Sweet Marble turnip
White Lisbon salad onions
Oasis turnip
Lattuga Red Salad bowl

Some of the salad-y bits I sowed earlier are looking promising

We eventually finished clearing Plot3 of valerian, couch grass, thistles, nettles and every other type of weed you can think of - even a bit of horsetail for good measure. 4 big bags of weeds - that's what happens if you don't do the Autumn tidy-up like good plotholders!

There are many more insects about now - plenty of bees and we've seen various butterflies, caterpillars and interesting flies. I saw a huge hornet in the week and at the weekend Ivan found this dead in his greenhouse...

I really love these Thai silk flowers, they've done well so far this year - such stunning colours.

 

So now it's Bank Holiday Monday, it's rather grey outside but humid. Not too much digging to do today, but clearing and preparing the way for our pot-grown plants which are desperate to get out of the flat and up to the allotment. 

Aaah, Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks - this song makes me sad, but I do like it.