June veggie patch & stuff

Morning Friends,
Just back from our mini-camping trip this week & have dodged the showers to have a good look around our veggie garden to see what's looking good.....or dodgy.

The borders are looking very full but I usually let them get on with it at this time of year so as to prioritise my time growing food. Will be chopping a few things down & filling up gaps with containers over the next week or two.

Greenhouse is rammed as usual - not a very good pic, but it's just a look. 6 tomato plants & a scallop squash in the bed on the right, grapevine in the huge tub at the far end, peppers & 3 varieties of chillies wherever I could squidge them in, & aubergines & cucumbers up on the bench on the left. I planted a row of lettuce in front of the tomatoes too, which we've already eaten.

I always grow a row of tomatoes outside too, with some calendula to attract pollinators. The outside plants are much smaller than the indoor ones, but will get bigger now that I've started feeding them. The calendula are a mixture of doubles & singles as I grew them from saved seed. As soon as we get a dry day, I'll be gathering some petals to make my annual marigold scones.

Opposite the outdoor tomatoes, a squash bed....4 courgette plants in here & a scallop squash. Gave up on butternuts....see previous sorry tale of those. Behind the squash bed are 2 beds of potatoes. The Big Hairy Half of the Relationship is in charge of those. I just fling some water in their general direction now & again.

Broad beans swelling nicely. Unfortunately will only have a small crop this year thanks to the local sparrow army. They stripped off most of the flowers just for the hell of it. Love that we are doing our bit for a declining species, but they are by far the worst garden pest now, at 'Hagstones', bar none. 

Sweetcorn in one of our big raised beds (netted against said naughty sparrows) & another scallop squash, growing in a repurposed grass box from an old lawnmower. I grow a fair bit of veg in containers. At the moment, I've also got.............

.....2 squash & more marigolds in a the base of an old defunct compost unit............

......a further squash & a spare orgeano plant in an old lorry tyre..........................

 .......& plenty of salad stuff in these long plastic troughs. I bought 5 of these years ago & they are so useful. These lettuces are called 'Intred', a romaine variety. I've also got frilly 'lettony' lettuces, radishes & wasabi rocket growing in these at the moment, as well as red & white spring onions.

It doesn't look as though we will get more than a handful of pears this year - my money is on the Sparrow Army having pecked the blossom off at a crucial time (& I buy the bloody things heaps of fatballs!), but the apple tree is doing better..........

.......& even the permanently sulky greengage tree looks as though it might grudgingly kick a few fruits out this year

I know that photos taken on my phone (while dodging the showers) don't do the garden (or anything!) justice, but one view I really like, is when I'm working in the veggie plot, then looking down through the arch to the house, & seeing all the flowers, the pond with what has been a fab display of native pond irises this year, & the lawn dotted with blackbird families feeding their plumptious babies. 

For those friends who were expecting a big EU Referendum rant, I don't have time for the 27 pages that would currently involve, so am keeping busy & trying not to think about it. Once this latest shower has stopped, I'm off outside to pick some more rhubarb for the freezer, then I intend to bake a cake. Albert Whiskers returned from the C-Word on Thursday. He went over his territory with a fine tooth comb to see if any interlopers had, had the cheek to pee on any of his bushes, but everything was pretty much found to have been in order..........hence today's obvious inaction!

OK, rain's stopping, off to get my trug.
Have a good weekend all,
C x