Sunday sermon

 The big frog with his back to us at the top of the plank look for all the world as if he's giving a lecture, and was completely oblivious even to me creeping up behind him and moving the grass out of the way to film him........there are at least 17 other frogs of all sizes apparently listening intently..........

Beautiful California poppies. Last year's, in fact, that have sat in the barrel through rain, hail or shine. There's another in the veg bed, which this year has decided it doesn't want to grow veg and would rather be a flower bed, so is producing poppies of all kinds, borage, dill, potatoes, applemint, pak choi flowers and everything but what we actually planted..............

At Last................

'Tis the first rose of summer................a couple of warm days followed by some heavy rain and the paeonies are out at last, however only a very few flowers on the honeysuckle at the front and no Oriental poppies at all this year. Lots of buds on the organic rose and one or two flowers.............also at least 9 frogs seen in the pond.................but it is, as they say, chilly for June, extremely changeable, although we did not have the pouring rain yesterday for the Jubilee river pageant, poor old Queen looked very cold and bored by the end..............

Interesting............looking at last year about this time, tree peony was out, borage in flower.........absolutely no sign of the Oriental poppies this year, peonies have buds but no flowers yet, borage ditto..........

Silent spring

Halfway through May and it is still freezing. Unlike last year when we had a very hot April followed by cold May, it has been relentlessly cold and wet throughout. So it's interesting to see which plants have carried on regardless and which are more temperature-dependent. Spring bulbs have kept to their usual schedule, cherry and lilac have flowered as usual, clematis maybe a little later, but no roses at all yet and the honeysuckle at the front has produced no flowers. Golden oregano and marjoram have battled their way up though looking a bit miserable. No sign of wallflowers blooming yet..................
Saddest of sights is the greenhouse where there is absolutely nothing happening.................no courgettes, no tomatoes, no cucumbers, no basil. Next saddest is the veggie bed................a few seeds are now beginning to struggle up and the fruit bushes seem unaffected with loads of blackcurrants and gooseberries, plenty of apple blossom and strawberry flowers..............
Lettuce and rocket just beginning to sprout but nothing much to eat yet apart from herbs and salad burnet, which is a start I guess.................we have seen little of the frogs because they do seem to like to sunbathe and there hasn't been much sun for them to bathe in..................
Potatoes are going in the raised bed this year to save space, the cucumbers will be staying in the greenhouse assuming they ever come up, and we are trying a new cherry tomato which is supposed to have lots of grape-sized fruits, I will believe that when I see it................morning glories will be staying indoors, a few self-sown nasturtiums are just beginning to appear, good, cornflowers and nigella are in and a few of last year's gathered cerinthe seeds are sprouting indoors. Gladioli beginning to make an appearance, some of last year's california poppies still going strong in the barrel..............a lovely one planned for this year turned out to be a completely empty packet!..............but I think it's still too cold to put them in anyway............would a flaming June be too much to hope for?...............

Putting the garden to bed

The fertile summer seems such a long time ago now...............however we keep trying to put the garden to bed for the winter, and it keeps getting up again and asking for drinks of water. We picked the last tomatoes in November, and the last wood strawberries a couple of weeks ago. The autumn tidy hasn't really happened because so many things hadn't finished flowering or fruiting yet, it was hard to clear the nasturtiums when they still had flowers but they had gone so wild that they covered half the lawn and made the grass go all yellow. As a concession to alleged colder weather I've moved some of the alleged tender herbs nearer the back door, but only the ginger mint has died back. The eau-de-cologne mint and spearmint stolen from the Iona herb garden look extremely healthy and the pineapple
mint also flourishes.
Unfortunately Carrie got a bit over-excited with the tidying and tidied the baby kale plants into the compost heap, the lone survivor is battling its way up in the veggie bed and I've put in some winter salad so it doesn't feel too lonely. Having done nothing through the summer, the chervil has decided to come up now, and we are still picking fresh dill for our smoked salmon linguine - delicious! However the year has turned, the nights will be lightening, and it will be nice soon not to have to wear a head torch to go out and pick the herbs for dinner............