Flower harvest

When people think of an allotment, they imagine orderly rows of cabbages, potatoes and French beans. Vegetables, aimed at producing maximum food for the family from the available land.

And they do still exist in this ideal state. Mostly, though, allotments are hugely varied. Some even contain chicken coops, others bee hives, or vegetables unknown to UK growers because the gardeners come from different continents and cater for their own taste in food.

Or, like myself, a garden that produces flowers for cutting. I am aiming to have cut flowers – or maybe put more accurately, cut greenery of some attractive sort – all year round. A long way to go yet to achieve this but eagerly on the way.