Summer Distractions

I start by apologizing for the distance between my posts but Summer brings holidays, weddings and lazy days in the sunshine.

Well in the garden the weeds still pretty much have the upper hand if I'm honest but slowly I'm reclaiming the land, now the dandelions have gone to seed and planted themselves I have again dug them up, the main problem I have here is creeping buttercups which are buggers to get rid off, even with chemicals which I refuse to poison my soil with, so it's basically back ache or nothing.

I have had lots of progress in the tomato department, they have grown thick and very fast, until now I have only ever grown them in pots but they really are seeming to enjoy their free range life and the bees are doing a brilliant job of pollenizing them all. I'm now not just seeing little yellow flowers but little green tomatoes too. When I grow tomatoes I always grow too many for myself but it's great to hand out free food like this to friends and neighbors they'll love them so much more than supermarket stuff.

A week after my holiday in Wales I planted some butternut squash seeds and some more cucumbers, they grow great on windowsills with plenty of light and water. I can hardly believe the speed they grow and now just one month later I've had to separate them into bigger pots. Slugs and snails love cucumber plants as well as squashes so I'm keeping them covered for as long as possible so they'll have the best chance of winning the war with the beasties. Another problem was I planted them thinking for sure I'd know which was which but as it turns out the plants look pretty much the same at this stage.

 < Butternut Squash                                                                                     ^ Cucumber


I have also decided to plant up some flowers for my doorstep so bought some Nasturtiums from James Wong's range and some Phacelia I claimed for free from the Soil Association as they are supposed to be loved by bees. Nasturtiums as well as looking pretty go great on a salad as they have edible flowers which look lovely and colourful too. This is them not looking very colourful yet.


In other news my mum's eaten all the raspberries from my other plot outside her house and I've been handing out the herbs for free as they grow like wildfire. And I also have mini pepper plants growing on the windowsill and they are starting to flower so fingers crossed they do well this season.