These are plants that allotment neighbour Rosie raised from seed last year. She gave me 4 and they stand like sentries at the top of the bank. I arrived on Saturday to find 3 of them standing tall and upright and glorious, and the fourth leaning over at an angle of almost 45 degrees.
So I tied it back with wooden stakes.
Its first flower was starting to emerge, deep purple. Exquisite!
Sunday was Litha, or Summer Solstice, or Midsummer’s Day, depending on your choice. The purple hollyhock flower was open and gorgeous.
Monday saw the second plant teasingly revealing pink petals.
It’s been another weekend of ‘firsts’. I enjoyed the first raspberry of the season.
This is Orach, or purple spinach. Allotment neighbour Christine gave me a few seeds last year which I sowed, but probably too late. This single plant has seeded itself in the bean bed and survived the winter.
I took a few leaves home with some swiss chard and cooked them up together with tofu. The orach turned the tofu pink!
Yesterday I lifted the first of my Pentland Javelin first early potatoes, which were delicious of course.
And my friend Kathleen, over on a visit from Chicago, came to the plot for her first allotment visit. Here she is embracing the land with my cherry tree behind her head of cherry-red hair!
Love a first
Love Life
XXX
2 comments:
I tried growing hollyhocks but they died off! It is great to have the first fruit and veg of the season even if it is only one raspberry it is surely a taste of things to come!
I tried too, several times, and never had any success. That's partly why I'm so excited by these seed-raised giants. Rosie clearly has the 'hollyhock touch'!
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