A catch up

Hazel finally laid her egg this week after 6 weeks of waiting and checking every morning. It was a bit of a performance. She kept escaping from their fenced off area and running behind the greenhouse into the wilder area of the garden.She seemed quite frantic and kept squeezing behind plant pots, I didn't want her to get into the habit of laying in the garden so I locked her in her coop and waited. I sat on the bench for about an hour like an expectant parent while a lot of banging and scrabbling went on. Eventually Matilda ambled over to the coop and stood outside calling encouragingly to her, and then she emerged triumphant and desperate to be let out. Squealing to myself (luckily there were no dog walkers passing by ) with excitement I opened the nestbox and there it was, a perfect egg.

What a clever girl.

It's a lot smaller than Matilda's as you can see but they always are when they first start laying.

Geo decided he was going to have it fried for his breakfast the next morning, which he did and declared it delicious. She will lay most days now maybe having one day off a week, their first year is the most prolific, she is likely to lay over 300 eggs! Phew. It's great to have our own eggs again and not rely on shop bought.

Things are romping away in the garden now after that week of hot sunny weather. There are 2 rows of peas under this netting, hard to distinguish from the self sown calendulas, but I will leave them there for now and let them flower only removing them if they get in the way.

I've popped some herbs into this veg bed this year, I usually edge it in Marigolds but the herbs don't do so well in pots so I've given them a permanent spot. The other veg bed isn't suitable as we have a bonfire on that every autumn and I would have to dig out the herbs.

I've been busy in the greenhouse sowing seeds. I did these this week, there are Cleome, Cosmos, Borage, Sunflowers and Clary sage,

and I did these a couple of weeks ago, more Cosmos, Dahlias and tomatoes,and they have already sprouted and are doing really well. The broad beans (in front of picture) will be planted out next week and covered with a fleece tunnel to keep any frost off. The sweetpeas (next to beans) have germinated fine, I never bother to soak them or nick the seed case with a knife like the books tell you to, there's no need really just sow them like they are and they will be ok. 

The rather dull, boring and overgrown border I showed you a while back has really come into its own now. The Daffodils are flowering and the Tulips are budding and all the Aquilegias are growing.

This Clematis has started sprouting, it will have lovely blue flowers. 

I've got loads of self seeded Forget me nots in the borders, I just pull them all up after flowering and every year up they pop again.

This Primrose is rather beautiful I think it is called Hose-in-hose,not sure will have to check.

My Alpine strawberries that I grew from seed last year have started to flower, looking forward to eating those ,we got a few fruits off them last year but hopefully we will have a better harvest this summer.

The Redcurrant leaves are starting to unfurl, we had a bumper crop last year and I have planted another one and another Blackcurrant. Now my fruit patch has extended I have decided to build a fruit cage to protect them from the pesky birds.For the last couple of years I have just covered each bush with netting, but the birds still manage to nick all the currants and it makes picking the remaining ones difficult. Hopefully Hubby is going to have a go at that next weekend, he has done the measuring, so we just need to get the wood and netting now. I will try and get photos of the progress but I'm guessing that I will get chased away!   

It has been so hot here this week and we have all been enjoying the welcome sunshine even Poppy and Daisy( couldn't entice Rosie out for a photocall) who have been moved outside now into their summer residence.

 Hope you have all had a good week. Back soon.