June colours

The weather here has not been good - cold, wet, overcast. The vegetables are growing slowly, the slugs and snails are very happy and the flowers on the fruit trees never turned into fruit. But what has come through and kept my allotment looking good and my spirits up are the flowers. From purple poppies and alliums, pale pink roses through to bright orange calendula. They all look ravishing; who cares about the vegetables???

Allotment resolutions

A bit late, but I've only just got my gardening hat on! I've decided to make some gardening resolutions - and stick to them! These are:

1. Label my plants! I was very disappointed before Christmas to find out that I didn't have any Brussel sprouts for Christmas lunch. I think I only have tender sprouting broccoli (so not totally disappointed). But I'm going to label everything this year so I know what's what. I sometimes use a mix of tape on the side of seed trays/writing in paint pens on the side of pots but more often than not I rely on my memory. I'm not going to stop taping/writing on pots etc, but will buy a bag of lolly sticks from a craft shop to use as labels as well. This way I can label plants and the labels can go into the ground so I'll know what's there.

2. Succession plant. I usually plant loads at the beginning of the year but then never do a second or third batch. I get gluts and it's all over! So, I will so less more frequently!

3. Give my original greenhouse a good clean. Enough said!

4. Plant more flowers. I already have roses, gladioli (for cutting) self seeded nasturtiums and loads of lovely pink poppies, as well as the annual batch of sunflowers, but I'm going to be more floriferous this year.

5. Sit down more and enjoy it! I've got a couple of pallets to make benches and have been given an old bench to recondition.

So, there's my allotment resolutions for this year. Now, will I keep to them???