Some broad bean love and weeding...

There's not a huge amount going on on our allotment right now, but the one thing we have plenty of - apart from weeds - are broad bean flowers. And this weekend it struck me just how pretty they are.

broad bean flowers
more broad beans
paler broad bean photo

We had some work to do though, as this was how they looked at the weekend.  You can just about spot the broad beans amongst the weeds. Whoops!

overgrown broad beans

But after an hour's weeding, it was looking more respectable.  And I'm hoping that we'll be rewarded with plenty of broad beans quite soon.

weeded broad beans

But let's be honest weeding is pretty boring. So it wasn't long before MOH and I were comparing the roots of the weeds we pulled up. And in true competitive spirit we saved what we thought were our longest ones for the weed-off. 

the weed challenge

But by the time we'd measured the contenders we'd forgotten which belonged to whom. Oh well, it made the weeding go slightly quicker, and I suspect it won't be the last time we'll be weeding this section either.

Elsewhere on the plot

The Purple Sprouting Broccoli has gone to seed, but still looks very pretty. I know I should be composting it and that's on the list for our next visit but until then I'm enjoying the vivid purples and the bright yellow flowers, and both colours represented in the decaying leaves.

purple sprouting broccoli
gone to seed
decaying leaves

The self-seeded artichoke which I thought was gone, has sprung back into life. It's already four foot tall so it looks like it'll be spending another season under the crab apple tree. Maybe this year I'll remember to move it into a proper bed.

snowy artichoke

Our potatoes are in too (and we did cover them up, this was a in-progress shot). 

potatoes

And remember the bed we cut the edges for a while back, well the edges are still where we left them, but there's still a lot more digging to do.  This bed will eventually have some more strawberries from the garden in and my garden rhubarb will be joining the rhubarb I inherited.

still more digging to do

Ah, it feels good to be able to show the progress we've made in the past week or so. And I'm looking forward to some evenings over there too, hopefully we'll create enough space to plant all the seeds I've sown.  I've a big job potting those on this weekend, and I can't wait!