Friday, 3rd of September 2021
I’ve been planning to go to the forest for a while, but instead I just get busy with other things (not always productive) and postpone it to another day. Yesterday I had a weird headache. I very rarely have headaches, but this one just wouldn’t go away. I’m not a fan of pills, so I decided to go get some fresh air instead and check out on my allotment.
Going to the allotment is a second best thing after the forest. One thing is that it’s much closer, but also one of the routes (the shortest one) leads through a little forest too. It’s not as huge and beautiful as the other one, but it was enough to send my headache where it came from.
There is a little stream running along the path and I find the sound of running water very soothing. It makes my walk to the allotment very pleasant.
There are of course people who don’t respect the forest for the peaceful oasis it is and see it as a dumping place for their unwanted stuff, but it’s a minority. Places like these fallen trees below are sometimes occupied by youngsters, serving as their hiding place for smoking or drinking. At times the smell of weed is prominent in this area.
After a short walk through this cute little forest, my headache was gone and I arrived at the gate of allotments:
As I usually go to the allotment quite late in a day, I rarely meet any other people there. This gives me an opportunity to take a few sneaky shots of flowers on neighbouring plots.
Like this beautiful blue Anemone flower. I grew a few types of Anemone myself in the past years, but I never grew this showy, big variety. I might ask my neighbour Vanessa where she got this one from. I love it.
As I approached these cute Zinnia’s for another stolen shot, the was busy collecting a nectar for it and she was happy to pose for some pictures too.
Next up, I couldn’t miss an opportunity to capture a beautiful, bright nasturtium flower, which made me think of @szbarnaus and his ‘Escaping plants’ series on noise.cash. Nasturtium is a climbing plant, loved by White Cabbage Butterflies and seeing it escaping through the fence like this is not an unusual sight.
Let’s move to my plot now!
If you have been reading about my allotment, including the update you will know that I managed to prepare only part of my plot for cultivating. The remaining part I am planning to clear during colder months, when growth is not so rapid. The part that we prepared is currently taken over by courgettes and squash plants.
Especially the front row of courgettes have grown beautifully. Next year I will need to plant these further down the plot, so they don’t take all the sun from other plants I might want to grow.
I think I let some of the fruits to grow a little too big and they grow super fast now, so I’ll need to visit and pick them more often in the coming weeks.
The squash plants behind them are a messy sight. They climb allover the ground and attach themselves to the blackberry bushes that try to creep into the growing space. If I grow these next year, I might consider making climbing structures for them.
Fruits of my labour.
Considering that this is the first year I took on the allotment and quite late in the season, I am very happy with the results.
I picked up a few of the biggest round courgettes, which I’ll probably be eating for a week, while the new ones are growing ever so fast.
Don’t laugh at my carrots please! They are of a mini round variety that my friend picked up on sale. This is the biggest they get. It’s a nice variety to grow if you have a very limited space and not much depth, but I probably wouldn’t pick them at full price for allotment purposes.
I can say with confidence that I am very happy with the fruits of my labour this first year. Apart from actual fruits I have learned a lot along the way and will apply this knowledge in the next season.
Until next time 💙
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Amazing harvest! Those are big pumpkins you have. I should ask my husband if we can have pumpkins in our greenhouse. We haven't tried it yet. But we also see some from our neighbors, big orange pumpkins in the garden.