Today brought a lovely late flush of the rose ‘James Galway”, perfect for the delicate two-tiered glass vase I bought from Stamford antique market. The rest of the rose bushes are somewhat lost amid the purple haze of verbena which have now completely taken over the rose bed! But the combination works well for successional flowering and I’ve put a lovely load of well rotted manure on the base of all the roses to ensure a good display next summer. Just hope it doesn’t introduce too many weeds…

I also dug out the last of the Charlotte potatoes (uncovering a very angry ant colony in so doing!). This made space to plant the 2 bunches of leeks that I bought at the Friday market. I cut off the tops as instructed at one of the allotment lectures and used my leek dibber, made from the tapered wooden handle of a garden fork I broke with over-vigorous digging earlier in the year! Then just topped up with water and will leave to fill in over time. The leeks I planted earlier in the summer are coming along well so we should have a good ongoing supply for winter soups.

The harvest today included the very first sweetcorn and tomatoes.