Lately on the lottie - April end ...
Mr digandweed and I spent a couple of hours sprucing up the allotment the other day.
I love it when the grass paths are freshly cut.
Everything is looking green and healthy, weeds included!
The plum blossom has gone over now. Last year the plum harvest was a bumper one. Sometimes it seems that the tree takes the following year to recover, so we will wait and see what this year's crop is like.
Lots of beautiful blossom on the apple tree too.
( The beautifully tilled earth beyond the plum tree is our neighbour's plot.)
I planted up a new bed of strawberry plants, as some of the original plants are about 5 years old and didn't fruit very well last year. But I now can't bring myself to pull up the old plants!
I'm also having a bit of an issue with the raspberry canes.
When we planted them about 3 years ago, I had no idea how invasive they would become.
Despite digging out some of the runners the other week, yet more have appeared. They pop up all over the place, sometimes several feet away from the original canes.
What to do?!
Though they are delicious, I am seriously considering removing them altogether.
This is a busy time of year on the allotment, with seed sowing, planting and weeding to be done
.... and watering.
So far this year Spring has been very dry and cracks are already appearing in the ground.
I pulled a few sticks of rhubarb to bring home.
And if you have rhubarb, you have to make crumble.
Gooey and crumbly - the perfect comfort food!
The sun is out.
I shall make a cup of tea and sit in the garden awhile.
Happy weekend one and all!
annjenny
x
I shall make a cup of tea and sit in the garden awhile.
Happy weekend one and all!
annjenny
x
Your allotment looks so good. I'm struggling to keep on top of my four small veg beds at the moment. Got my feet up now after an hour weeding!
ReplyDeleteThank you Gina. It is just a half plot so smaller than average and the photos show the best bits!
DeleteOh it's looking gorgeous down at your plot, well done on all the hard work. I brought some rhubarb home today as well, it's one of my favourite things. I think it's extra special because it's such an early crop. Raspberries are absolute sods aren't they, always galloping about and popping up all over the place. My next door neighbour has an entire row of them now and I think they all came from my plants! It really is incredibly dry isn't it. Hardly any rain for weeks it seems. I was watering the plot and garden today as well. My rhubarb stems are very short at the moment - wondering if that's because of lack of water. CJ xx
ReplyDeleteThank you CJ. When it comes to late August I think I would miss the raspberries if I dug them up, but at the moment they are just a plain nuisance! Today we had hail. Such unpredictable weather :(
DeleteI loved the pictures.
ReplyDeleteJanicce
Thank you Janicce.
DeleteI've just finished making some rhubarb chutney as our rhubarb is so prolific that I was beginning to feel guilty about not using it enough. We have not had rain for more than six weeks and we have been watering, watering, watering - even so lots of seeds have gone awol. Not the raspberry canes though.
ReplyDeleteI suspect we have already probably eaten too many rhubarb crumbles. Which crumble recipe do you use? I tend to go back to a H F-W recipe with ground almonds but I'm always looking for improvements.
Rhubarb chutney sounds delicious. I usually base my crumble recipe on a Delia one. I added some oats and pecan nuts to this one and used brown sugar, but I like the idea of ground almonds. To be honest, I got the ratio of crumble to rhubarb slightly wrong and it turned out more like a fruity flapjack! Hey-ho! It still disappeared pretty fast!
DeleteHope all the hard work pays off and you reap bumper crops. I'm now craving rhubarb crumble. Though have been seeing pictures of homemade rhubarb gin across the internet which also has some appeal!
ReplyDeleteRhubarb gin - now that sounds interesting!
Delete