Sunday 26 June

Decided to let the girls have a bit of a run in the garden - but they rather took advantage.

 Even stealing raspberries from the trug.  A lovely harvest this week - turnips, beetroot, baby carrots, spring onions, mint, raspberries.......

 and on the side of the trug here - one solitary mangetout.  Boo has been picking and eating them as soon as they appear

 The runner beans are growing - can't be too many weeks before they are ready now

 And this sunflower is looking lovely

 The rather sad raspberry canes arrived in February and I wouldn't have believed how many raspberries we would get.  Every day there are enough for Charlotte's lunchbox

 Thyme is flowering and looking lovely

 And potatoes in full flower this week.  Again hopefully it won't be long before we are eating them.  Can't wait!

 Still more strawberries ripening although they seem to have slowed this week.

 Broad beans in full flower

 A courgette nearly ready to cut

After hardly any slug/snail damage all year they are suddenly out in force and have been feeding on my cabbages!  But despite this I am only permitted to put them outside the back gate.  Boo was very upset to find me throwing them into the chicken coop.

Sunday 19 June

Am a little behind with posting my weekly pics so two sets in one.  Everything seems to be flowering and fruiting.  Am finding it a bit hard to keep on top of everything and there are lots of weeds.

 First tiny runner beans are appearing

 And spinach has finally put in an appearance - not sure why it came up so much later than everything else. Well, apart from the parsnips that is, and they didn't come up at all

Carrots are looking good but getting hidden by the beetroot

 Mangetout are flowering

And lots more strawberries are ripening

 Even the potatoes are about to flower

Have planted some lettuces in between the sweetcorn

 And our potential glut of brassicas grows bigger

 Broad beans now tied up as they blew over in the week

 Lovely yellow courgette flowers - not tried battering and frying them yet

 Tomatoes have one truss each - is this right?

 And the good old brambles are continuing to flower and set fruit even though they are hidden behind the trailer and the dustbin

 This rather sad specimen in this Tumbling Tom I bought to see how it does.  A bit disappointing, and not much like the photo which is, as the names suggests, tumbling down the side of the pot and full of tomatoes.  I don't think this basket (which it came in) has enough soil so it gets waterlogged/dries out really quickly.  Have been thinking of planting it on into something bigger but not got round to it yet.

And now for next week......

A very wet day!

Was grateful for the waterproof coat George bought me last week, couldn't believe how wet and windy it was.  What happened to all our lovely weather?

The smaller tomatoes had taken a bit of a battering as when I planted them out they weren't tall enough to be tied to the canes.

But they were soon tied up and no damage done.

After last week's early try of a turnip was keen to have some more this week and these two were ready for pulling.

I fed the tops to the chickens

but couldn't be cruel enough to feed them the snail I found feasting on the turnip tops so I just put it at the bottom of the garden - will probably live to regret this.

Fruit is doing well with raspberries, strawberries and blackcurrants all ripening...

and the blackberries which are growing between the trailer and the fence have lots of flowers although I'm sure they must get very little light.

The potatoes are growing nicely despite a late start

The salad tub I planted up a couple of weeks ago has lots of radishes doing well

and the carrots seedlings have germinated too

Having braved the weather we are now going to do some baking.

Visit to the Garden Centre

A visit to Blooms has given an idea for growing tomatoes in more style next year (George has some better photos).  We love these wooden grow bag holders with their neat top with holes to hold the canes in place but we would need 10 to hold all our tomatoes.  At £35 each this isn't going to happen but we think we could make our own so are going to give it a try.

Didn't discover Tumbling Toms until it was too late to sow my own so have bought this one in a hanging basket.  If it does well I will sow them next year to hang along the fence.

Finally we have been thinking about vegetables to keep us going through the winter so have bought yet more seeds (and cabbages).