Best of the allotment

 Snacks have been tasty.

Scents divine and the eye candy plenty.

Evening light just right.

There are tomatoes.

This beauty is huge. Now, two weeks after this photo it is finally turning color.. to black.

 My little paradise.

Some of what we've been eating. I've also given much to friends.

I am also bouquet happy.

Time to have a look at Courtney's garden.

Eat your greens

So much prettiness at the allotment right now.

The anemones are blooming.

The first zinnia.

This bunch of summer flowers have gone nuts with blooms.

Pretty pink potato flowers.

Peas have such pretty flowers too.

But the best part is that the blooms mean this:

I picked my first potatoes, thinned some carrots and beets.

The beets are about the size of golf balls.

There's also salad, spinach, sage and some peas.

I have quite a bit of spinach.

The best thing I can think of doing with it is a soup. A creamy Finnish style spinach soup.

I'll show you how.

You will need:

50 grams of butter

4-5 tbl  flour

1 liter of whole milk 

150-200 grams of spinach

white pepper to taste

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Now, you really need to use whole milk to get the taste. Mine is 3%, I wouldn't go lower than 2,5%. Trust me. You will end up crying in your soup as it will not have the taste it should. And don't even think of using skimmed milk!! Also butter is preferable to margarine.

This is not one of those recipes you should skimp on the calories.

My spinach leaves are quite big already so I cut off the thick middle and stalks.

Roll them up and slice and then chop. chop, chop.

Melt the butter in your pot, add the flour and whisk for a minute or so.

Then slowly add the milk while whisking, so you won't end up with clumps in your soup.

Heat to almost boiling, add spinach and let boil  on low heat for  five minutes.

Add seasoning.

Enjoy with a nice boiled egg on top.

PS. I really garden for the flowers.

Courtney's got a garden update for you too :)

Pink season

It's just about time for the peonies to open up this far north.

I love peonies.

Let me rephrase that:

I looooooooooooooooooove peonies. 

If you want them to last in a vase, here's a little tip for you...

..cut them when they are still fat buds with the outer leaves just starting to open.

Admire them, take them home, settle in a vase and wait a couple days.

Mine will look like these from last summer, pure pink cotton candy sweetness... 

*tapping foot impatiently*

Next stop: Sarah Beth's garden.

Four weeks in

Four weeks ago I planted my first seeds.

So much green there now.

A week ago I made this cage to protect the beets from rabbits.

Look how much they've grown in just seven days... I probably should have made a bigger one, huh?

And yes, I do need to thin them out. Soon.

Peas are looking good.

These soda bottles cut in half protect some seedlings. They are like mini green houses.

The pea trellises are bamboo sticks and jute.

Radishes, chard and a flower seed mix gone crazy.

Pumpkin babies.

Spinach spilling over.

A bit of a conundrum.. 

Carrots in box one:

Carrots in box two...

The only difference is that in box two I used those seed tapes.. something's gone wrong with them, the salad seed tapes are coming up just as bad. Darn it.

I prefer daisies and lupines as weeds more than dandelions.

I have to cut down the lupines before they go to seed, it's not a native plant and there's an effort to not make it spread more.

I see pretty pink peonies in the near future.

Potatoes pushing green out the sides of the tower. The two were planted two weeks apart.

Broccolis are looking strong.

Raspberry bushes popping up in odd spots.

*quick flash two weeks back*

A closer look at the tomato house.

The top will be opened once blooming starts to let pollinators in.

The plastic is attached with screws and grommets.

Pull them out and the plastic pulls up for easy access.

*back to now*

Look at how they love it.

The bottles are a slow release irrigation system right at the roots.

We had an amazingly warm May which gave me radishes in three weeks and spinach in four.

Makes for a happy gardener!

Now off you go to visit Lea-Ann's garden on our amazing garden blog circle.