Sweetcorn shady

The sweetcorn's romping away but it might have been a mistake to allow a self-seeded courgette plant to impose itself.

Tiny jewels

Tiny jewels fit for a summer pudding or storing at the back of the freezer to make redcurrant jelly or to colour and flavour alcoholic beverages.

Propellerhead jasmine

Bought this star jasmine a couple of years ago as a twiggy stem and planted it in a large pot. This is the first year that it's flowered - thanks to copious watering and feeding - and the flowers turn out to be like little propellers, or fans.

Geeseberries

           Many about. Giving them away and filling the freezer.

Strawless berries

A handy few bales of straw might have prevented some of the berries from getting mud spattered during the downpours and the grey mould botrytis might not have taken quite a large proportion of the crop. Still, more than enough to harvest and process, what with all the other soft fruit demanding attention.

Backup beans

The backup broad beans have made it through the aphid infestation.

Current currant current

Episyrphus balteatus?

 

 A Marmalade Hoverfly - Episyrphus balteatus or is it?

Pea pod

The plants need almost daily watering, but the pea pods are fattening nicely and the first are worth harvesting.

Pea pong

        The first sweet pea flowers catch the nose before the eye

Purple sage

                           The bees be loving this

Drip trip

The indoor hoya vine's produced a couple of dozen flowers this year, all dripping nectar and producing a heady scent every evening.

Agog again

First of the crop. The ones on the south facing side of the bushes ripen first. Loads more to come ...

Spin shady

Some of this year's spinach, transplanted from seedlings to a shady part of the plot (thanks, neighbours with the 20 foot willow ; )

Anty dahlia

This dahlia's in flower early, possibly stressed because it's in a pot.

Don't call me Malcolm

Virginia stock, aka Malcolmia maritima is "probably one of the easiest of all plants to grow" but these only just struggled through from seed.

Peak lush

It's all gone a bit peak lush, what with all the recent rain and approaching maximum daylight. Poppies are starting to explode and allium's are threatening to. The wind battered foxgloves have held on to their flowers and are busy producing seed for next year - as is everything, weeds and all.

Sambucus nigra

The elderflowers are in full bloom. Time to stick or twist: Harvest the flowers or wait it out for the berries. Either way, the insects and birds are happy.

Little green courgette

The first courgette has set. At the rate they grow, this will be on a plate in a couple of days.

Chrysolina americana

            A couple of rosemary beetles on a lavender flower

Clockwork Strawberry

The first ripe strawberry appears and tastes excellent. Coincidentally, eight years ago the first strawberry arrived on the same date.

Primed and ready to go

                               Planted out sweetcorn

Nearly there

The gooseberries are fattening and ripening. The first should be ready to harvest in a week. Wood pigeons have started to take an interest in them, so it's a good idea to protect them with a thick net that won't get ripped to shreds on the thorns.

Crisp & Fresh

                  Plenty of crisp, fresh lettuce about now.

Out back

                    The garden's starting to come alive

Pyrrhosoma nymphula

Spotted two red damselflies today, a mile apart from each other.

Not my Kniphofia

                Neighbour's red hot pokers looking flaming good

Deadhead dianthus

These dianthus have been happy in a hanging basket for several years and respond well to deadheading.

Trending purple

These irises didn't flower last year, possibly because they didn't get enough water. Like the foxgloves in full sun, they're darker in hue than ones in the shade.

Baked garlic with side salad

Early spinach, fresh lettuce and some of the early garlic crop, which has benefited from baking in the sun.

Speckled fox

      Apart from comfrey, nothing keeps a bee busier than a foxglove

Aquilegia rose

The aquilegias - or granny bonnets - are starting to form seed heads now and the flowers will soon be gone. Meanwhile, roses have erupted into bloom and aphids have been attacking the new growth.

Après le déluge

Harvesting the last leeks and the first garlic was made easier after the torrential rain of the last couple of days, which has given the soil a proper soak for the first time in weeks. Some of the garlic seems to have a bit of white rot, so it's inadvisable to grow it in that location again and it'll need drying out and using up quickly.

Spuds bounce back

The early potatoes have recovered from the cold shock of a couple of weeks ago and are putting on new growth.

Cobra beats fox

There's something magestic, cobra-like, about verbascums, rising early before the foxgloves. Some years the spring's a bit wet for them, but they've enjoyed the recent dry weather.

Angel's wings

The angelica heads are reaching maturity and attracting a diverse range of winged insects. Harlequin ladybirds are common, if not dominant now.

Vergissmeinnicht

Some plants are almost impossible to eradicate, come back year after year and are a real pain. Others, like forget-me-nots, you can live with, for a bit.

Risky bet

Risked planting out some early cobra beans, which should really have collars or cloches on them to keep them warm and the lurking molluscs away.

First Crunch

The radishes have germinated and matured quickly, giving a good peppery crunch to a salad. Unfortunately, a few of them have already been nibbled a little by something else.

Fresh Brew

A brew of comfrey and nettles to feed hungry crops. It's starting to pong good and proper now!

Hippeastrum

This amaryllis is five or six years old now and lies dormant indoors for most of the year without much attention, until sprouting a vigorous stem, reminding you to water it, on which this year there are four vivid red flowers.

Rodents threaten floral futures

Thought that this osteospermum had succumbed to the winter, but although part of it died off, there are still plenty of these long lived flowers, which open wide in bright sunshine and close in the evening. Some of the new seedlings, sown indoors a couple of months ago, have been attacked by mice, which also seem to like Phlox and possibly Cosmos and Nicotiana, unless something else has been nibbling them.

Maysky