Thursday, June 30, 2016

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Spike

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

Monday, June 27, 2016

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.

Friday, June 24, 2016

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.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

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.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

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.

Monday, June 20, 2016

First Berries


          The first gooseberries and strawberries of the season.

Monday, June 13, 2016

For the pot



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

Wednesday, June 08, 2016

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.

Monday, June 06, 2016

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.

Sunday, June 05, 2016

Iris Verbascum



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

Friday, June 03, 2016

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.

Wednesday, June 01, 2016

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.