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