A garden update

As it's a rainy day today I've got a perfect opportunity to update my blog. The garden is taking up most of my time at the minute. Everything just seems to be racing ahead and I can't keep up. The veg patch is really filling out now, it struggled a bit with the cold damp weather in April but since we have had the hot,dry spell it's really come on.

The broad beans are flowering nicely,

and I've managed to plant out the runner and french beans.There are nasturtiums growing between the rows of beans to attract the blackfly away from the crop, it seems to work well every year.

The French Breakfast radishes are swelling nicely but they are still quite small, but it doesn't stop me eating them as they are lovely and crunchy when they are tiny and they grow alarmingly quickly and rapidly become woolly in the middle. I sow these successionally, as soon as they germinate I sow another row and it keeps us going throughout the summer. I never get sick of pulling radishes for tea, and the chickens love the leaves.    

The lettuces are coming along well. I try to grow a mix of leaves so we get interesting salads. The big green lettuces in the photo are from seeds that I bought whilst in Italy last year. I start my lettuces off in the greenhouse and then transplant outside when large enough I seem to get better results that way.

The fruit cage is doing a great job as the redcurrant bush is dripping with fruit. Last year the blackbirds were stealing them while they were still green, they have got no chance this year. When I go into the fruit cage to weed the Robin likes to follow me in but he's not interested in the fruit so I don't mind.

The greenhouse is still packed with plants ready to go out even though I have planted out loads already. The Tomatoes have come on well and have been potted on a couple of times now. They will be planted in the veg patch when space becomes available. I've found that they don't do so well in the greenhouse as it gets shady on an afternoon so they take ages to ripen, and last year they did better in the open so I will try that again.  

The garden is in it's purple phase at the minute. It starts off in Spring with the yellows, then the purples and then in Summer a mix of pastels and hot shades. The purple phase is my favourite.

The large empty patch has been filled up now with Sunflowers, Nicotiana Sylvestris, Cosmos, Cleome and Dahlias. They look tiny now but my vision for later in the year is a bed of tall,colourful, blowsy, beautiful blooms. Fingers crossed.

The Stipa Gigantea is starting to send up it's tall seed heads which look wonderful backlit with the evening sun.

The Aquilegias are in full flower. Most of mine are deep purple almost black as they have all cross pollinated and self seeded, but I do have a few special ones like this. I can't remember planting it so maybe it's also a self seeded one. 

I've picked a few different ones to display inside, I think they all look beautiful together in my crocheted vase. I'm looking forward to filling this with Sweetpeas.  

I also made these a little while ago to put in my spare egg holder. What do you think? I think they brighten up my windowsill a treat.

Hope you enjoyed that peek into my garden, I know I love looking at other peoples. Back soon with my finished hot water bottle cover.