Catching Up - 15th to 21st of June

This week was spent filling in gaps with a few late sown sweetcorn seeds, removing side shoots from the tomato plants and tied them to their supports. I also put the larger of the side shoots to root in water as I would like to grow these on in large pots which I plan to bring inside the greenhouse to extend the tomato season, dare I say "home grown tomatoes for Christmas".

A fair amount of weeding was also done and I have also conceded and have started to water the crops that seem to need it to produce fruits every other day, such as the mangetout which seems to be finished after three large harvest, which is weired for me, as I normally get at least 6 - 8 crops which normally takes me into the 1st week of July. So I watered them well over the weekend but thus far no new flowers as yet, the plants still look very health so I'm hoping they will perform.

The ladybug larva are growing nicely on the aphids which are on the greenhouse plants, the aphid numbers are reducing.

There are still the odd painted lady butterfly to be seen.

The mini beast hotel I built last autumn was starting to look a little dilapidated with the tiers beginning to sag, so I repaired it and doesn't it look smart.

Hi there, you are welcome anytime in my greenhouse, just remember to earn your keep and eat only the baddies.

Adalia 10-punctata - 10 Spot Ladybird.

This is the second one I have seen of these 'Volucella zonaria - UK's largest hoverfly'. They are almost the same size of a hornet but are fatter around the middle and with much bigger eyes.

Just your regular fly but doesn't it look pretty.

Saw this growing as a little seedling last year near one of my vege beds and simply assumed it was a St john's Wort plant as there used to be a clump growing in that very area five plus years ago when we inherited the garden and so I moved it to my flower beds but with its lovely red tipped flower buds as well as its general appearance now I believe its a 'Hypericum Pulchrum - Slender St John Wort' which is in the same family as St John's Wort.

Borage in bloom.

Opium poppy art.

Carrot flowers beginning to open their blossoms

A ornamental allium that produces bulbils at the top of its stem instead of a flower, inherited them with the garden and they are everywhere.

Another white clover its so pretty.

The kids morning glories have begun to bloom.

Another inherited plant, I think its a type of arum lily.

The first open runner bean flower.

The garlic will be ready to be harvested soon, I'm just waiting for the leaves to start dieing back.

First strawberries, of which the kids scoffed the lot.

The house sparrow population has grown in the last few weeks with young ones joining the ranks. They are certainly welcomed as the love spending time in the vege garden eating the baddies.

The fox cubs are still about leaving me all sort of smelly packages but this one seen outside the kitchen window looked rather sorry as it had a very bad case of mange and was quite emaciated. I don't think it will survive the next winter.

I was not thinking or I would have recorded this as a video the noise these crows were making and their attacking antics aimed at the cat was quite entertaining, my daughter said she saw a young crow escape into the oak tree (which is on the left just out off the camera's shot) just as the adults began their attack. It lasted about five minutes before the cat slunked off.

Their are now tons of little froglets in the vege mini pond but some are still yet to lose their tails.

Catching Up - 8th to 14th of June

Well this week was spent tidying the house for my OH 40th birthday party at the weekend so the loofah, melon and chili plants were finally moved out of the conservatory and into the tidied greenhouse.

Melon and Loofah plants in the greenhouse (they have settled in well, all the wilting they were prone too in the conservatory has stopped).

Whats begining to flower:

Feverfew.




St. John's Wort.


Water Lily (the poor thing lives in a deep bucket all alone - I really need to work on completing the big pond in the autumn).




First tomato one of five variety 'Galina'.




All that ladybird action a few weeks ago on the infested willow bench has paid off and its now covered in young ladybug larva. Which I have begun to move onto my greenfly infested loofah and chili plants, with great success. The trick is to move them when they are relatively small and young so the last at least a week plus before going into their pupa stage if you move mainly big ones onto a heavily infested plant they gorge themselves and within 24 - 48 hrs start to pupate which renders them out of eating action for at least a week to ten days, giving the aphids/ blackflies time to increase their numbers to pandemic proportions.



When they do turn into adults they quickly eat, mate and lay eggs in the rich food source before moving on, so I hope this means I would have a continuous population of larva in my greenhouse.


Nematus pavidus - Lesser Willow Sawfly (found on one very low branch on the willow bench, it was due for pruning out anyway, so it was).


This is my living willow bench in all its glory, it had its main pruning and shaping back in early February as per normal and on Friday it had its final tidy up to open up the seating area for well deserved summer sit downs.


The first ripening strawberry, I wonder who'll get it first me or the kids??

Catching Up - 1st to 7th of June

I've been silent on the blog front and for that I apologise, meant to post an entries weeks now but was to lazy to do it, tut! tut! So it’s about time I make the time to catch you guys up on what I've been up to.

Well as to be expected a lot has happened in three weeks and not only was I not updating my blog, I was also not keeping notes anywhere so the details as to what’s been going on in my life is starting to get a bit sketchy!!

What I have been doing is taking photos, so I'll attempt to fill you in on all the happenings using my photos.And to make the reading of the post easier, I have split it into three parts each part represents a week.

Insect Life

Ladybugs cleaning up the willow bench of the aphids.

Bumblebees enjoying the flowers.

Hoverflies checking out the Opium Poppies.

Pond Life

The tadpoles have began to grow legs.


A pea cockle mussel (don't know how it got here but their are loads in the fruit section mini pond).


Bubbles from an aerating pond plant.

Lots of fledglings visited the garden early June and their inexperience made them a lot less cautious, making it easier to get close photos of them.




Blue tit fledglings bathing.


Black bird fledgling foraging.

Wren fledgling calling its parent.

New blooms to usher in the summer.


Lady's Mantle starting to open.

Flowering thyme.

Over wintered carrot going to seed, (my oldest wants to see what the carrot flower looks like).

Sedum

White clover.

Dwarf Scarbosia beginning to open.

Crops Ripening:

Wild Strawberries.

Hungarian Sweet Peppers.

This year I really want to make more of an effort to store my herbs for winter use, etc.

Last Year I successfully stored two very large zip lock bags of chives and one of parsley. This year I plan to do this plus try to dry some others for storage as well.

Chives which filled one large bag and is now in the freezer. This prevented the loss of a substantial amount of chives to fungal rust, and now the chopped down plants are sending up fresh leaves which I am using, leaving the bagged one for winter use.

I also needed to cut back a Greek basil plant before planting it out into the herb bed and as I did not have enough to make a pesto but too much to use straight away I froze the leaves in a small zip lock bag.

The main herb I really want to try and store for winter use is the oregano, which I will be drying first. The next series of photos shows how I went about it (they were finally hung in the loft). I can tell you that it worked and the herbs dried beautifully, retaining their lovely scent when crushed.

On the Friday one of my close friends asked me to make a belly cast of what she has been working on for her summer harvest. She'll be popping soon :)

No such harvest for me this year, so I had to make do with my first proper meal from this years sowing on the Saturday :-

My first harvest of mangetout.

My first harvest of 1st early potatoes.

After the potatoes were boiled in salted water, this is what the two crops were turned into. It was seasoned with my own fresh herbs and some of last year's sundried tomatoes.

Last years chard is still going and was tossed with couscous and cranberries.

The two dishes were eaten with lovely butterhead lettuce with homemade herb dressing.