A really rotten day at work where nothing seems to go right can easily be lifted by an evening out in our garden where, touch wood, things are all looking up. It’s been a busy old time with so much to record so we’ll let the photographs tell the story.
A visit from the family brought a sweep of new flowers and added a touch of much needed colour to the garden. We’re concentrating most of the flowering plants in the top borders near the house where they can be seen the easiest.
Pink hardy fuchsia
White hardy fuchsia
Penstemon
Day Lily
Dianthus
On the veg side, we thinned out the side shoots from the tomatoes and they have responded with a glut of bright yellow flowers and, finally, finally – the first real tomatoes forming. All the effort has definitely been worthwhile and the plants look totally different to the plants of early June.
The runner beans have survived the slugs, although the bottom leaves are a little sparse. Slug pellets have been replaced by beer traps as they seem to be a lot more effective and a lot more nature friendly. I’m still hoping to turn the neighbour’s cat into a hopeless alcoholic … start it off on Carlsberg before moving it down through Fosters to White Lightning 
The potatoes are flowering well, although the high winds caught them (and the tomatoes as well) leaving them at quite an angle. The tarpaulin pots aren’t very rigid and I’m a little worried about light getting to the potatoes. Next year I think we’ll try them in the ground rather than go for pots again.
The gooseberries are absolutely laden with reddening fruit – I still think it’ll be mid to end of July before they are really ready for picking – can’t wait ! Both the courgette and pumpkin are doing well – the pumpkin has had the first of the female flowers appear and will need pollinating soon. Maybe we’ll leave that to the ladybirds though …
