Our many neighbours

The resent rain after the hot 2 weeks of sun have sent our wildlife into overdrive, we're now getting bees by the dozen, peacock butterflies and cabbage whites. Our Budlia or butterfly bush is in flower which help attract so much life. This is a Buff-Tailed Bumble Bee enjoying the Budlia plant ------------>

Our resident Tree Bumble Bees are also very busy with males hanging round constantly waiting for the busy passing females. We are now unfortunately starting to see the ill and dying members of the colony, this is only natural as bees like to keep their home clean and free of disease so the kick out the sick members. We are seeing the odd one on our garden path now.  They are however very happy with our flowering herbs especially the thyme.
This appears to be a big male on the thyme.








I've also seen my first Peacock Butterfly of the year in the garden, they are totally stunning. I snapped this one as it basked on the potatoes. ------->








And then we have a problem, I am a organic gardener with a love of wildlife and nature but unfortunately sometimes the wildlife just doesn't respect the veg and just goes munching straight through it. This is a cabbage white caterpillar, I found him munching massive wholes in the sweetcorn leaves. But don't worry I just picked him off and relocated him however I don't think the food will be as tasty. It's best with caterpillars and snails etc to just relocate them don't kill them as they're a tasty meal for the birds.

Salad Potatoes are on the Menu.

I've been watch my potatoes grow in their bag, they grew there successfully last year, but just a week or so ago they started to go a bit wrong. Potato plants are usually lush and green and when they produce little flowers (white or purple depending on breed) it's time to harvest. But these plants started to look very unhealthy 2 out of 4 went brown and sagged and the other 2 just looked a bit sick. So because I go on my hols next week I decided to pull them and give something else the space. Below is a photo of the sickly plants.

Happily in the time they've been in they produce a little crop of salad potatoes which I'll enjoy later.

In other news the sexy carrots pictured here with Quorn Sausage and peas were delish and Mr Urban Veg will be putting what's left in a pie.

My Royal Subjects hehehe

Now everything's starting to go mad in the garden, I spent 1 night away from home and something new emerges =0. Yesterday I came home from the fella's and found the strawberries were popping exciting EEEEEEE! I most look forward to strawberries, I'm hopping the raspberries and blackberries catch up so I can have a nice summer fruit salad.

Also shooting up are the spuds, I have a patio bag out front to grow them in and a bed out the back (which we keep having to pull the dog out of). You know I really can't remember when I planted the ones in the bag but I should be expecting them to flower soon.

The latest crop I've tried this year is peas, last year I grew beans which was silly because I don't like beans. So yeah I'm currently trying to train them up a cane wig wam but it's windy and some are finding it hard to grip, they need to grab the canes so they don't grab each other and pull themselves down.

Another plant that's fairly new to me is the sweetcorn, the Royal Consort likes his sweetcorn so I have to make an effort to please him
 I accidentally killed it last year very early on so I'm
paying extra attention to it this year, I've got 5 stalks at the mo growing happily in a bag. Lets keep it that way =).

Tomatoes are doing well as they always do in pots in the sunny front garden, last week I spread them out into 3 troughs, 3 plants each. Today I nipped off the extra shoots at the bottom of the plant so they can put more         energy into fruits. 

Also doing well in the little cold frame are the pepper plants, turnips and a little grape vine I bought cheap hopping when I move out I'll grow have more space to grow it up a pergola. 

Also out there is a little fig bush, spring onions, beetroot (not doing so well), leaks, goja berries and carrots which I went a bit overboard with.

                                          G Dog is not impressed with the lack of biscuit plants.