Blossom and grass

On opening the greenhouse on Saturday morning, I discovered a take-away box full of sweet pea seeds left there by one of our allotment neighbours. I am uncertain of his name so I call him Sweet Pea Man.

Last year, Sweet Pea Man grew armfuls of scented blooms and kindly let me pinch some to take home. I noticed last week that he had planted out this year’s seedlings, and mentioned to him in passing that he gave me confidence to plant mine – which inevitably lead to an offer of more seed, which he collected and had left over from last year’s crop. So I’ve sown yet MORE sweet peas and we’ll see if they work.

Having mentioned the desire to have pretty flowers on the allotment this year, I now face overload. A trip to Worcestershire at the weekend ended with trays of new foxgloves and aquilegia, with more to follow (amazing!), but I have no idea where all this stuff is going to go. There’s been a lot of standing and staring, attempting to visualise just how big things are likely to get and where the blooms can happily be slotted in.

Speaking of blooms, the cherries are putting on a tremendous show. The one in our communal wilderness (garden) at home has been out for a week and is thrumming with bees and bugs. I actually hear them through the double glazing. In Worcestershire they are just as good:

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Trees coming into leaf

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My parent’s crab-apple in bloom

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Flowering cherry

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Buds waiting to open

My mother’s broad beans are making a mockery of mine. Whilst the allotment beans barely reach my calf (and this is not just my beans, but everyone’s beans!), in the shire they are verdant and bushy and, frankly, a bit too showy-offy for my liking.

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My mother’s broad beans make a mockery of my 30cm tall efforts

This is all immaterial when faced with the most exciting sign of the year. It’s asparagus time! Or grass, as the Evesham locals call it. In a week or so there will be hand-painted signs on the side of roads as farmers trumpet their wares. For now, we made a pilgrimage to Hillers Farm Shop to stock up on the good stuff, and picked up the first punnet of local strawberries at the same time. The prices are eye-watering…but worth it.

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Highlight of the year: first pickings of asparagus

Evesham asparagus, which was steamed and served with herbed roast chicken for dinner

Allotment:

Dug over rest of veg patch; finished bark-ing the fruit bushes; planted onions and shallots

Greenhouse:

Put in more sweet peas & sweetcorn; potted on leeks

2 thoughts on “Blossom and grass

  1. Just love sparry grass – harvested this years first spears last week from the lottie, unfortunately we only had 4 each, but hopefully more to come. How lovely to have a ‘sweet pea man’. I planted out my sweet peas on Sunday, about 80, panicking cos we’ve had frost, they do look a little sad but hopefully OK. I’m growing all the flowers for my brothers wedding in August hence the panic!

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