The Allotment Garden Changes...
OK, so the Allotment Garden might have started off with a genuine allotment plan - vegetables! Tomatoes, beans, peas, courgettes, and potatoes would all grow happily in this newly created, sunny garden. But it was simply too far away from the kitchen, and I couldn't resist popping in roses and perennials. But things have changed...
Watering the Allotment Garden
In its early days I added bags and bags of horse manure, and watered everything madly. I really tried to create a wonderfully flowery garden. I even planted some Kale and Onions for some vegetable relief. The photographs below of the Allotment Garden show some of the roses growing in it in the summer of 2017, when it was four years old.
My initial planting ideas were great, but a few problems crept in. Firstly, I hadn't factored in the lack of irrigation. Each year I would do my best with two little watering hoses, and I'd add buckets of water drawn from the water race. But during one particularly dry summer the smaller roses became so stressed that I made the decision to shift them all out.
Alkanet
Another planting issue has been Alkanet, a large weedy perennial forget-me-not which my bees adore. It's very invasive, and I don't remember initially planting any of it here. But the irises and the daylilies were perennially smothered, resulting in fewer and fewer flowers.
These days self-seeding Calendulas and Nasturtiums are the brightest flowers in the Allotment Garden. The original boundary roses have been strong enough to survive, but everything else is pretty green. I think it still looks lovely. Pity about the lack of vegetables, though. Might try putting some potatoes next spring.