Soggy June

The headline does not come close to describing the weekend weather. After a scorching start to June there was a months worth of rain (52mm) over the weekend, most of which fell on Saturday in the form of torrential rain, hail and thunder. At times the garden was a mass of inch deep puddles as the clay soil is so slow to drain.

So no gardening done this weekend but the garden is bursting with energy now its had a much needed soaking. I did manage a on Saturday morning, but came back after 4 miles wet through to the skin.

Salad days

I have been enjoying the first fruits (or should I say salads) of my labour. Yes, the lettuce is ready for picking. I've grown cut-and-come-again varieties, so I only pick a leaf or two off each lettuce. That's plenty for my plate. The leaves seem stronger and larger that last years crop. Perhaps its due to the great sunny weather we have been enjoying.

This year has seen a huge amount of greenfly on almost all plants. You can see loads of them in this photo. I have been trying to control them by squashing them, but there is now too many to do this to. I had also hope the other insects like spiders, wasps and others would be feasting on the aphids but am surprised by how few they seem to consume.

Its getting to the point where I bring in the chemical control. I might try a washing up liquid solution first before getting too aggressive. However, I don't fancy the taste of that in my salad.

The race to grow

On Saturday I sowed a number of seeds including corn flower, marigold, sweet pea and cabbage. I had not had much luck with the seed sown earlier in the year so I thought I would try again, although I thought it might be too late in the year for some.

However, I looked in on the seed trays yesterday afternoon and to my amazement the marigolds and corn flower have germinated. That is only four days for germination. At that rate I should have a good autumn display.

The garden in June

This is how the garden looks in June 2009. In the foregrond is an old frying pan which has been very effective as a bird bath. When its full its too deep for the sparrows to bath in, but once the starlings have had a splash the water level soon reduces.

This year the Hostas have grow very well. Almost all have doubled in size since last year and have produced tall shoots which will give way to flowers and then seeds.

Last year I managed to get seeds from a number of flowers in the garden, sweet peas, hosta, heuchera, day lily and love in the mist. So far I have only used the sweet peas seeds this year. I intend to sown some of the others this weekend.

Garden starting to bloom

With the hottest days so far this year the garden is now starting to bloom. The sweet peas are starting to flower on all of the plants which have now reached about 5 feet tall.


One iris bulb has just started to flower. There are more bulbs in the garden but the growth is very weak on all the others. This may be due to the bulbs needing to be split. This needs further investigation.


The Eschscholzia is also flowering. The flowers are such a wonderful yellow and develop from a strange spear shape. This plant has been in a pot for a year or so now, which is a mistake as it grows a long tap root. When I picked it up this weekend I snapped the root off which had grown though the gravel and into the ground. I shall re-plant the Eschscholzia in the front garden instead.

I must admit I have not made much of an effort with flowers this year, apart from the sweet peas, tulips, daffodils and violas. My only other flowers were going to be marigolds but only one out of a tray of thirty survived. That was a combination of over watering and slug destruction.


I have sown some more seed this weekend - marigold, corn flower, Eschscholzia and cabbage. It may be a little late in the year for the flowers but the cabbage should be all right for an autumn crop (if it germinates). All the seeds have been sown in peat free compost and placed in the green house. There is very little in the green house now as most plants have been put out into the garden to harden off.


One strange occurrence this weekend was the movement of some small pots. I few weeks ago when the weather was cold and wet I put some bird seed mixed with used cooking fat into a small pot for the birds. The birds loved it and it was empty within days. More recently I was potting on my seedlings and needed a pot, so I used this empty bird seed pot. This pot along with another six was placed on a tray, on the patio. This Saturday morning, the bird seed pot has been moved off the tray, to the middle of the patio with the soil and seedling spilt. I suspect that a magpie has smelt the remnants of the bird seed and fat and thought there was more beneath the soil. So the soil was brushed up and the pot put in the shed. Sunday morning the same thing happen to another pot on the tray. Thankfully this time the seedling was not spilt. It seems that the magpie was looking for that pot. I must admit that I did not clean the pot after it had the bird seed and fat, but it was empty when I re-potted the tomato.

Sweet peas flowering

The sweet peas sown in December have now started to flower. The plants are about a metre high now with a few deep purple blooms.

Great gardening weather at last

This last bank holiday in May gave us brilliant weather to get out into the garden. With Saturday and Sunday being very hot and sunny, Monday was cooler but still pleasant. It seems that for the last few weeks the wind has been constantly strong and cold but even that has calmed down now.

The cold easterly wind has claimed the life of my Acer which I had left in front of the shed during winter. Just as the new leaves were beginning to develop, so did the cold wind and killed it off. I'm sure its much too late to save it now but Ive put it in a sheltered spot (where it should have been during winter) in the faint hope it may spring back to life next year.

Dwarf beans potted into final big pots with a lettuce intercrop. Each plant has a cane but I'm not sure if that will be necessary as none of the literature suggests so.

Iv have sown to much lettuce too early and so I'm struggling to find space for them. some have gone between the onions while more remain in small pots.