the sweet peas finally took off, exploding in a riot of flowers

sweet peppers are forming in the greenhouse


some giant garlic was harvested

and there's plenty of beetroot, the roots are good raw and we've discovered that the leaves are delicious steamed, much like spinach.

such a busy weekend in the garden and the allotment, it all began with these fellas, it's camellia sineses, aka Tea. leaves taken direct from the plant and steamed = green tea folks ! the seeds are enormous, like malteasers, and there were careful instructions to follow before planting. these have had their outer shells chipped, been soaked for 2 days and then been in the fridge for 2 weeks. i know it could be a while before i'm sipping a homegrown brew but i think the journey there could be really interesting. i found them on the good old interwebs from Chiltern Seeds if you fancy getting some of your own. there is a tea plantation in cornwall and i hear that they should be pretty hardy.

i'll start them off at home and some of them might graduate to the greenhouse at the allotment.

then i set about some spring cleaning in my garden, transforming this:

into this:

and these old sunflower stalks:

into bug hotels:

ashley is going to see if he can fix these old chairs so that we have something to sit on at the allotment

then i emptied my compost bin, bursting with pride, and found reminders of all the beetroot that we ate last summer, it was growing in there, little pink leaves in the dark.

on sunday we spent a few hours at the allotment, kim and ashley moved the rhubard to a more suitable location, it put up quite a fight.
tim and i got busy on our beautiful new potting table with some celeriac, onion, mulberry, leek and mallow seeds.

then we all went home with glowy cheeks and party bags