Papaver

Spike

Regular as clockwork, at the end of June, this indoor cactus flowers on a hastily assembled spike.

A bag of geese

Not that there's much time between the rain showers at the moment, but there are several kilos of gooseberries ready to be picked and frozen, stewed or turned into jam. Just mind the thorns and prune back the bush if you have time and thick gloves.

A Hoya Again

This indoor hoya vine now produces about thirty of these nectar-dripping flowers every summer, filling the room with a sweet aroma which used to attract large moths when the back door was open, but the weather's been so wet there are few around this year.

Pods

Eating courgettes every day at the moment, though not yet in cakes. The first broad beans are still small, but tender. At this time of year the pods are edible too.

Block of sweets

Some of the sweetcorn's looking a bit ragged after being chomped by snails and slugs but otherwise it's growing well, enjoying all the recent rain and humidity.

First Berries

          The first gooseberries and strawberries of the season.

For the pot

The first pea pods are filling out and the courgette plants have started producing.

Holey Beans

Most of the broad bean plants are forming pods, despite an annual attack of weevils, munching holes in the leaves and aphids, which ants farm for their own larder. There simply aren't enough ladybirds and other predators around to control all the pests and some plants have become completely infested and needed pulling up.

Hunbergia Alata

Managed to get some black-eyed susan vines to grow indoors. The seeds germinated in the airing cupboard a few months ago and now they're happily climbing up a support just inside the back door.

Iris Verbascum

           A hot dry spell, allowing iris and verbascum to bloom.

Phaseolus Vulgaris

French beans are underway, supported by last year's raspberry canes. Slugs and snails have been a problem with many plants, but so far they haven't found these.

Dubious Amphibious

Not sure if this fella's a toad or a frog. Unhelpfully, it wouldn't turn to face the camera and was probably feeling a bit stressed by the unwanted attention of one of the neighbourhood cats.