Today ....... I

Dug my potatoes up.

Picked a few tomatoes

A sweetcorn

A courgette or two

A handful of runner beans

And some beetroot.

Fat caterpillars polished off a bit more of my broccali

And O/H's storks line-danced in the sun.

Then it poured down so I went inside and put the kettle on ........

Love is .......

The weather in UK has been stiflingly hot for the last few days. Finding enough water to keep the veggies and plants from dying  was getting to be a bit of a problem. Yesterday my bestest  nephew  brought the troops down. ( They've broken up school now for the summer holidays) and they set up a really good watering system for me. They picked a bag of the broad beans they'd grown  and then when the weather got too hot they came in and painted these lovely pictures for me. I feel blessed.

Community Garden - Work in Progress

A cluster of poppies have seeded themselves amongst the weeds and debris in the top polytunnel.

The leeks I planted out last year have all gone dome shaped. But as Arleen so aptly puts it, " I'm doing OK."

The second crop of potatoes, my young friends planted, are all starting to come into flower which means more spuds not too far away. We've eaten the first crop they planted in the other poly tunnel. They cropped brilliantly and tasted just as good.

We sowed a crop of broad beans outside and they're ready for picking.

The runner beans were a bit of a disaster. Not enough water early on.Some of the leaves died off.  The beans curled up instead of being straight.  but we've had a couple of meals off them and they taste just as good.  I've tried to remedy them by soaking a margarine tub- full of chicken poo pellets in a five gallons of water over night and then soaking the roots. It seems to be helping because little green shoots are starting from the base.

Picked the first courgette today.

Cabbage doing OK. Not many Cabbage White butterflies about this year. Perhaps the weather's been too cold.

Tried the parsnips today.

Sweetcorn, lettuce and beetroot in this tunnel. Oh and pumpkins and dahlias on the other side.

Sowed some more beetroot seeds today. We seem to be eating them quicker than we can grow them, but they taste delicious.
Have a good week
Molly x

God Bless Friends

The last few months have been like no other. And yet it's only when I look back that I can see that I was never or will ever be alone in all this.
It's been bitterly cold here today - blizzards in Scotland on today's weather forecast. I've spent a few hours potching in the two remaining poly tunnels.

Way back in January, I bought  3 kilos of seed potatoes from Coedy and put them to chit.

During half term, my fantastic nephew brought the kids down and they planted them out for me.

 I planted runner bean seeds

 They grew broad beans in little cardboard pots

Strawberry bed from home grown runners

New potatoes just starting to come into flower

Parsnips just starting to show through

The winter storms ripped the one poly sheet to shreds so a new one ordered and ready to replace when we have a minute

Fadgy supposedly on mouse patrol in my top tunnel.

A few lettuce (and chickweed) growing together

Pesky mice having a field day digging out my beetroot plugs

 and sweetcorn plants. Just as they were progressing, the little divils dug them up, ate the seeds and left the shoots shrivelled up on the top of the tray.

A clump of lettuce  seeds tossed amongst the garlic.
Never ever going to eat all this veg on my own, but I have a dream of a little community where we weed and sow and plant and share all the produce between us.
Hope it comes true x

July already

 Been out weeding in the garden today. There's a weed mountain at the top of the garden.
All these grew on their own.

The clematis is scrambling over anything that gets in its way

The hardy geraniums have gone berserk

Oxe eye daisies and Geums quite happy amongst the Cranesbill and the odd nettle.

Hemerocallis just poised to burst forth. They should be out by tomorrow. I bought the first one from a church fete for ten pence, five or six years ago.

And the lilies I left in the clay pot are doing their thing, like they did last year. Nothing ever stands still does it!

Darling Buds of May Bank Holiday (2015)

The mini summer we had in April has evaporated and the last couple of days have been cold, grey and damp. So much so that for a couple of nights I've lit the Rayburn again. But then, if you didn't have a drop of rain, nothing would grow.

The blossom on the fruit trees seems to have appeared almost over night. Everything looks so much fresher after the rain. A little bit of joy amongst the scrabble of branches - a cherry tree weighed down with pink blossom. It was more left there, than planted there and has certainly come into its own this year. We'll be lucky if we get any cherries - the birds usually get there first, but the flowers are stunning.

That's a Crab Apple (Malus)  tree from down at 'the Mill'

 I love it when all the wild flowers grow where they will. Nobody can design a garden like that.

Stitchwort, wild strawberries and violets in the hedgerow.

And a bank of wild primrose.

I found this fungi growing at the top of the garden. It's got a thick cream coloured stem and a black sort of net toadstool head. Does anybody know what it might be? Looks a bit sinister?

A quick tour round my veggies (for John & Mary in New Zealand)
Rocket new potatoes are just starting to come into flower.

The cabbages the munchkins bit off earlier have grown again, sometimes with two little heads so ... 'It's an ill wind .... ' as they say.

 My broad beans are in flower. I sifted a little dressing of lime on them. They seem to like it OK. Well at least they haven't died so that's a bonus.

Runner beans are starting to go up the sticks.

Five Shirley tomatoes have got yellow trusses. Got fleece wrapped around them to keep out the wind.

A square of Little Gem lettuce.

Bye for now. Have a good week. x