Pink and purple Petunias and a library talk

After the rain this morning the petunias looked beautiful and the colours more vibrant. I had blipped several other rain - splashed flowers, including purple and pink lupins and yellow roses and pink peonies. I should start a blipfolio, but I already spend quite alot of time on this great pastime.
I have been to an interesting talk in the library on the theme of horticulture.
Anne who is the secretary of the Rishton Horticultural Society, RHS, as it happens, shared her twenty year experiences of growing vegetables on her "pen" as allotments are called in these parts! She came originally from a pit village where the children scrambled for gooseberries and apples.
She made the point that growing your own is not cheaper than supermarket produce, but it tastes much more flavoursome and is full of nutrients as it is fresher.
I learnt the following useful tips that I will share in case they are helpful to new growers.
Keep the flowerheads on Chives as the bees like them.
Bees also like borage and bean flowers.
Grow marigolds alongside tomato plants as it keeps green, black and white fly away. This is called parent planting.
If you join an allotment society, and it costs only £1 membership a year to join RHS, you can buy things more cheaply like slug pellets ( I don't use these as to me it is cruel, I use garlic water and green netting), liquid seaweed, BFB, bone, fish and blood fertiliser, and compost.
All good.
Fascinating fact, in Rishton, there are 100 people in the RHS, one third grow food on allotments, pens, one third grow veg etc in their gardens and one third grow in small backyards and in window boxes.
I am nursing a window box full of lettuce seedlings and a few bell pepper plants and orange plants with very strong roots on the kitchen sill.
We are waiting for the Council to start converting a childrens' play area into individual allotments.
Have a great weekend blipper friends and I hope the sun shines at Glastonbury.