I went to the allotment ...

... And harvested the last of the potatoes, deadheaded the dahlias and picked some flowers. Then I went home and seared the stems of the Queen of Sweden roses in boiling water and arranged them in a vase with the cosmos, ageratum, the one white scabious and the only one of the Abyssinian Gladioli that has come up.

The rest of the day I spent armchair gardening, poring over seed and gardening catalogues planning and dreaming about next year's garden. What a lovely day!

A reason not to be very tidy

I thought I'd show you a patch on my allotment first. 

Quite a mess, right? It's so messy you can hardly see what is in the picture. This was my spring flower patch and now is full with seedheads which is why I haven't touched it yet. No doubt marigold, love-in-a-mist and cornflower seedlings will soon emerge after I clear this bed of both the old flowers and the weeds which I hope to do in the coming week or so. Today however I also took the opportunity to collect some of the seeds, some of which I'll sow in the next week (along with some bought packets) and some of which I'll sow in Spring. 

I also collected some ageratum seeds. This annual is still flowering wonderfully well in a range of colours (blue/purple/mauve/white/pink) and has already produced quite a bit of seeds. As I am not interested in a specific colour collecting my own seeds makes absolute sense.

Of course I didn't just collect seeds on the allotment, but also flowers. For one vase I picked ageratum, cleome, cosmos and dahlia's. I also picked some Cobaea scandens Alba and combined it with dahlia Karma Choc and rosemary. 

I love the results, have a look below!

Autumn is coming

The wind has been blowing all day today. The squirrels are busy clearing the walnuts from the tree, burying them in our garden and leaving the rejected ones to crunch under our feet. Summer is definitely nearing its end and autumn is coming. 

On the allotment the cosmos and dahlias are flowering abundantly as they are supposed to feeling the onset of Autumn. The sunflowers are producing lots of small flowers as well. 

For a friend I made an "all-of-the allotment-flowers" bunch, adding some Queen of Sweden roses as well as some other odd flowers to the dahlia's and the cosmos.

At home I made a small posy from Chrysanthemum coronarium 'Primrose Gem' and rose Graham Thomas. Not sure how either will do in a vase, but we'll see. I also added one aquilegia flower, which I found to my surprise in a weedy border. (In the picture you can only see the back of it)   Some time last year I did put in some granny's bonnets and this one has obviously barely survived until now and has gotten a bit confused about the seasons in the process!

  

Ps I didn't manage the flowers on Friday, as there was simply too much going on, but I hope to do my next bunch again this Friday. No promises though!

Even Superwoman needs flowers in the house regularly

Today was one of these days, just too much to do. Most of things were of course self-inflicted like making plum chutney and enjoying time with friends, but as a consequence everything got squeezed and I still haven't got done the laundry! But I did do my flowers and I am now writing my blog. 

Like everything else, I also did my flowers in a rush. I had an idea, combining some beautiful Helenium's with Hydrangea Annabelle, but arranging them in a vase wasn't as straight forward as I had hoped. I picked just the one stem of the Helenium and three stems of the Hydrangea's which proved to be not enough for the vase. So I added some goldenrods (Solidago) and rosemary. 

I am glad I didn't postpone doing my flowers though as today I had a few moments already admiring their beauty, giving just a few moments of peace and serenity amidst the chaos. 

Indeed, even superwoman needs a few flowers in the house to help her relax. I'll tell her next time I see her.