Glut

Loads of courgettes around this year; they're very thirsty, hungry plants and benefit from a daily water and as much compost as possible.

Slim Shady

Celery's quite happy growing in the shade, but although the leaves and thinned plants are good for salads and stews, the stems won't be ready to harvest until November.

Lily Bloom

A welcome end to the June rainy season and some sunshine to bring out the first lilies, which, if the forecast is correct, won't get spoiled by a prolonged downpour any time soon.

Unclassified

Can't identify this perennial weed, which grows a couple of metres tall. It appears to be a cross between a dandelion and a thistle. Even a trawl through this great site didn't help :
http://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/

Not so easy peasy

Harvested a kilo of early peas, though by the time they're shelled, that'll be about half a kilo. They're worth it, even though they're labour intensive and predated by mice, birds and molluscs. 

Jammy dodgers

They take an age to pick - not possible to harvest in a hurry, or you'll drop them, or worse, spill the container. Plucked a kilo today, probably for jam, with some juice left over for something healthy and / or alcoholic.

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.

Early Greek

Harvested some garlic early, as sometimes it can develop white rot in damp conditions but this, from a bulb brought back from Greece, despite being a bit small, is fine. It'll benefit from a few days drying in the sun, although with rain around, that's best done under glass if possible.

Onion angst

They might look great, but perhaps they're all top and no bottom, as the actress didn't say to Cardinal Wolsey. The tops are great, chopped up in salads, but there are signs that some of them are bolting - running to seed - before the base swells properly, even though they've been watered and the soil's been pampered with wood ash and potash.

Late Sweet

A little late with getting the sweetcorn underway this year, but both the shop bought and saved seed have germinated well inside on window ledges now that it's warmed up a bit.

Last Lion

The last, almost, dandelion of the season, which my neighbour has been cultivating magnificently.

Early Goose

Gooseberries do fantastically well here. Almost too well. Not only are the first fruit developing, but they're putting on lots of new growth - and thorns - too. It's a job to keep them pruned and even more difficult to deal with the needle sharp prunings.

Architectural Flavour

 

Angelica's one of those plants that looks great all the time, even when it's dead and its skeleton stands defiantly through the winter. In May, it often attracts large iridescent beetles, but it's starting to look like a poor year for insects. It's worth making crystallised angelica at least once, mostly for cake decoration and it might be an idea to use it to flavour gin.

Green Fatigue

it's not all chilled and peaceful in the garden. It's that time of year when everything demands attention, everything needs repotting or planting out or sowing again, weeds grow out of control, slugs and snails munch through everything precious, the sun can dry out pots and seed trays, the wind plays havoc with tender things and downpours waterboard seedlings into submission. Important to sit and do nothing sometimes and not want the moon on a stick.

Flowers AAB

'A' is for Alyssum and Aquilegea.
'B' is for Blackcurrant.

Broccoli end

That's it for another year: the purple sprouting broccoli season comes to and end, just as the spinach harvest begins.

Rich pickings

Outdoor Floral

A few days of fine weather, allowing verbascum and irises to bloom.

Last leeks

Starter module

 

Plenty purple

Inner tulip

Truly Tulip

Future Casserole

Fennel, onions and broad beans. Add water. Ready for the pot in about three months.

Old beans and new

Found some of last year's broad beans at the back of the freezer and planted out the last of this year's plants.

Plum Out

Purple patch