Soggy sunflowers

After a wonderful day catching up with friends over lunch yesterday and dodging high winds and heavy showers, this morning we popped up to the allotment to see how the sheds, beans and sweetcorn had coped with the stormy weather. Luckily the tee-pees are still upright and the beans are climbing high, the sunflowers are continuing to give us dozens of beautiful heads of yellow, copper and rusty red and all but one sweetcorn plant standing proud - and this one looked more like a casualty of falling apples rather than high winds so it looks like the hazel windbreaks and hedgerows are working well to filter out the worst of the gusts. The sheds at each end are also still steady on their bases so we count ourselves lucky. A quick potter around the beds yielded well-washed crops and well-watered plants, so we picked more courgettes, peas, spinach beet and a few berries for the kitchen as well as a couple of bunches of sunflowers, rudbeckia and yarrow to brighten up the living room. We managed just a little bit of weeding before the rains quickly came hammering down, thoroughly watering us and everything on the plot. A short but productive visit.

Rudbeckia amongst the squash plants

Glorious multi-headed sunflowers

Peas, courgettes, onion and berries