My parents are staying for the weekend. My mum did lots of work in the garden this morning. She has planted the climbing rose that I bought when we visited them last. She planted the remaining seedlings that were still hanging around, some lavender and some cineraria. She also planted up another tub for the sun deck which DP bought this morning - looks lovely.

I staked some of the tomato plants and noticed that the ones near the house have baby tomatoes on! I counted twenty in total. I hadn't noticed as they were all trailing all over the floor, so that was a nice surprise.

In the afternoon DP's sister, husband and dd came. They are the ones with the allotment so I was keen to pick their brains. Apparently the courgettes that seemed to be rather stunted are supposed to be like that - they are a round variety, lol!
We had a BBQ and while we were all sat around the table eating we kept getting bothered by a bee. I joked that it must be making a nest under the table. Well when we investigated further it seems that is exactly what it was doing - well, laying eggs in the screw holes and then covering them with a perfectly round piece of leaf. Quite amazing!

We are starting to get quite a few peas now but I very much doubt whether any of them will get cooked, they are too yummy and much nicer to eat raw.


This is what I did last Tuesday 24/06/03:

I finally planted out the calabrese. There are ten in total. I've put them next to the sweetcorn - hopefully it will be ok. So much for my plan, I don't think anything has ended up where it was supposed to!!

I sowed new rows of radish, lettuce and rocket (think this is our 4th row of each) but since then the fox has visited and dug up where I planted the lettuce and so I don't know how many will germinate. The rocket and radishes have already germinated and seem relatively unharmed.

I planted dd's sunflowers. There are five altogether I think.

We are now getting loads of strawberries and raspberries.






Millie and her basket of Strawberries, Raspberries, lettuce and spring onions

Last night it rained...lots - i am sooo pleased :o) It hasn't rained for weeks and now the water butt is full once more.

Millie and i spent the afternoon picking strawberries and raspberries. We got a big tub of each - yum! We also pulled a nice lettuce, a few radishes and a few spring onions (the first!) for our tea. Also...very exciting....some peas. Only 3 pods but totally yummy. Millie was kept entertained by a couple of snails whilst i did a bit of weeding.

Out of the 15 sweetcorn seeds i planted, ten have germinated so far. I guess there is still time for a few more to pop up as there were two new ones today. The second lot of French beans have germinated (all but one) and the first lot have nearly reached the top of their supports. As have the runners. No sign yet of the butternut squash and marrow that i planted last wednesday. Have just realised that i haven't labled which is which, lol, and i have no idea!! Need to finish tidying the rest of that bed (bed4) so that i can plant another cucumber if not too late???Will have to check my books.

The tomato plants look much healthier since i planted them out but even though some have flowers there is no sign of fruit yet. I am SO impatient.

Eeeek! Just created a link!!! No photos yet though...must walk before i can run ;o)

Well i was out in the garden until 10pm last night! I was tiding up the front. The soil is awful, thick, clay like and sets like rock in this dry weather. I dug in some compost and planted out the Delphinium seedlings. I don't know if they will do any good. I found five lavender seedlings - am quite surprised as i thought only one had germinated when i was looking a few weeks ago. There are loads of wild strawberry plants growing under some of the shubs i decided to leave them.

I picked loads more raspberries with Millie before she went off to bed, enough for a small bowl full. At least there would have been if millie hadn't eaten most of them. Amazing!!If i had bought them from a shop she wouldn't have touched them with a barge pole. We also had a strawberry each!

Tonight it was really windy. Had to re-inforce the pea row as it was getting very wobbly. Forgot to mention before about our mystery pea plant in the herb garden. I noticed it a while ago, i guess the seed must have been dropped by a bird?? Anyway, it now has really pretty flowers on it, lilac/purple ones and there are two pods forming.

Well i haven't had much opportunity to post of late but i have been getting on with a few things in the garden.

I finally sowed the sweetcorn the other day. It really is late as you are supposed to start it off indoors to give it a head start, but I decided I didn't have the room. I am hoping that we will have an Indian summer like last year so that the growing season will be long enough - fingers crossed. However, I went up the garden the day following planting and the fox had paid a visit and dug right where I had sowed the sweetcorn...I hope it will be ok.

The leaf beet I planted a few weeks ago is coming along nicely as are the peas, we have not just flowers but little pea pods, very exciting! The courgettes in bed 2 are coming on a storm. One plant has four courgettes growing on it another has two, Will soon be harvesting them. The courgette plants in the grow bags are doing less well, as expected, but I noticed this morning that one has a courgette developing on it so perhaps all is not lost just yet.

I have finished planting out all of the tomatoes. They really should have been out ages ago, (and have taken a check in growth because of this) but with one thing and another I never got around to it. So as well as the four I planted 2 weeks ago (they are now flowering) I have eight in grow bags and the remaining eleven in the large south facing bed (with the strawberries that I relocated). They are not the healthiest looking of plants BUT I said that about the first lot of courgettes I planted out and they are now thriving! Hopefully now they are in their permanent positions they will be happier.

The beans (French Climbing and Runner) are now climbing and I have sown a few more alongside them.

I picked my first raspberries today!!! Only two, lol, but I was excited. Strawberries are still quite green.

The Night Scented Stock is coming along well but think I may have sowed it too thickly - we'll see. I bought an Acer last week when I was at my parents and an Olive Tree to go with other pots on the sun deck. I wonder if we will have some olives...somehow I doubt it as the tree is tiny!

Quick update on frogs/tadpoles:

A terrible disaster occured whilst we we away at my parents....we left the hose on in the pond! Luckily our neighbour noticed (but only after it flooded his garden - no damage done thank goodness!) and turned it off. I hope we didn't lose too many tadpoles. There still seems to be a few but is difficult to see as the irises are now taking up most of the pond. I know i reported ages ago that i thought i had seen tadpoles that were starting to form legs but i think i must have been seeing things! None of the ones i have seen since look like they have legs yet???

Millie and i were counting frogs the other day and we saw ten, i am amazed! Makes you wonder how many there are altogether.