Pastures New.

Mea culpe, Mea culpe.  It has been 8 months since my last blog.  No I haven’t  given up the allotment but during the winter months there seemed very little to do, or write about.

Redcurrant

Of course that was when we had a mere 5 rods .
 In January the neighbouring plot became available, a 15 rods complete with  Gooseberry bushes, Redcurrants ,Blackcurrants numerous Raspberries, a Rhubarb patch, an Apple tree, Asparagus and a Buddleia, which we will keep for the butterflies.  We had to take it, we'd be silly not to, but it had been left for quite a while and was very overgrown.  So we set to work immediately, weeding and digging, and although it was too late really we cut back the raspberry canes.  We only had a suspicion of where the Asparagus was so I felt rather like an Archaeologist excavating buried treasure.

Asparagus

Gooseberry

When clearing away the canes that had supported last years Runner beans, I found dried up seed pods on the ground nearby, though the husks  looked brown and wizened, inside yielded gleaming white bean seeds. Magic beans !

Well not quite magic, but free food. I planted all of them not really expecting much, but my pods have produced robust plants of what I think are Dwarf French Beans.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Seeing these plants thrive is indeed more satisfying than seeing my 'White Lady' Runner beans grow, I think purely because I had to buy them whereas my French Dwarf beans are gleaned from a previous harvest. Maybe it's just the circle of life thing, but I will be definitely be saving seeds now.