Allotment flowers

We've been doing our bit for the bees at the allotment. Earlier this year my two granddaughters sowed some flowers seeds in front of the polytunnel. It was a flower mix to attract bees and butterflies.  I think we overdid the sowing or we should have thinned the seedlings out, but they grew, fighting for space. There's a lot of yellow and blue and it looks really good.  We sowed nasturtium along the edge of the rhubarb bed, calendula next to the comfrey and sunflowers along the fence.

Then there are the pots of sweet peas, the trough with osteospurnum, the lavender and the bed behind the polytunnel where I planted hardy geraniums, veronica and borage. The result has been lots of bees, they just love the flowers.  The butterflies are all cabbage white at the moment and we are trying hard to keep them off the cabbages.  They are welcome on the flowers, but not on the brassicas.

Not just green

I love to see rows of leafy green veg at the allotment, but I like to see a bit of contrasting colour too.  So this year we have been growing some different coloured vegetables.

Like purple podded peas

The peas are green inside.

Purple kale

Purple french beans

These go green once cooked.

Red salad leaves

Lollo rosso lettuce

And a splash of red from the chard stems

Are you growing any different coloured vegetables on your vegetable plot?

The great garden adventure

When the school summer holidays are here and we are looking after the grandchildren we start to think of activities which we can all enjoy together and which don't cost too much money. My thoughts always turn to RHS Harlow Carr and when I suggest a visit, the children always say YES! I'm  surprised because to me Harlow Carr is a garden and if I was to suggest going to visit a garden they would probably not want to go. But to them Harlow Carr is fun.  There are always childrens' activities during the school holidays and there are the usual fun things in the woods. Our 7 year old grandson wanted to see the new Log Ness Monster. So with a picnic, our RHS members card and our kids go free vouchers we set off.

The 'Great garden adventure' is the theme for this year's summer activities for kids at Harlow Carr, with lots of garden related activities to keep them interested.  We followed the 'Great garden explorer trail'. We had to go to different points around the garden and find out about things which were important for the planet. As always on our visits here we  went to the woodland area where the children played in the log maze and the tree house.  The giant musical instruments are good fun and we also found some willow teepee structures.  Finally we found the Log Ness Monster. It was quite a friendly monster.

Well  the day wasn't just for the kids, there were things for us to enjoy too. I love the kitchen garden, this is where I like to get ideas for our allotment. We tried to get the children interested although they just enjoyed running around most of the time.  We did manage to find some runner beans with white flowers just like our grandson is growing on the allotment, and we did a bit of squash spotting in the big squash and pumpkin bed.

At this time of year I love the big herbaceous borders, they are just amazing for their drifts of colour and if you're wondering where the country's bee population has disappeared to then I think they were all there on the flowers. The borders were buzzing. The children were impressed with the massive allium seed heads, but what they probably loved most was rolling down the grassy hill.

 

I loved the big containers in the 'gardens through time' area planted up with amaranthus.  The children were fascinated by the huge red tassel like flowers.

 I was also pleased to see quite a lot of areas planted up with annual meadow flowers to attract the bees and butterflies.

Those are some of the highlights of our visit, not forgetting  the warm sunshine, a picnic in a quiet corner of the garden and an ice cream from Betty's tea house.