According to the weatherman we're in the middle of a heatwave; I seem to remember when it was just called June.

Lots of watering of course but otherwise it's nice to be able to sit back a bit and watch things grow. And to have fresh cabbages now to go with the broad beans, peas and carrots.

Shine on.

Peas

Early Onward:

Cabbage

Durham Early:

Cornfield mix

The poppies are making an appearance:

Meadow mix

This is looking rather lovely now with the fairy toadflax having being joined by Californian poppies:

Phacelia and flax

If you've been paying attention you'll remember that I planted the phacelia as part of a mix but it was the only thing to germinate. I'd normally treat it as a green manure and dig it in but since it's started to flower and is covered in bees I haven't the heart to do that now.

I started the flax in pots, planted it out a few weeks ago and it's flowering nicely now; I read somewhere that the edible seeds are meant to be some kind of superfood so if you see me wearing a cape you'll know why.

You know it's summer when the crops start rolling in - the first carrots, peas and yummy strawberries this week.

Happy solstice boys and girls.

Away with the fairies

The first plants to flower in the meadow mix - the dinky fairy toadflax:

Food for the soul

More flowers on the plot:

Love-in-a-mist

Phacelia

Opium poppy

Marigold

Blackberry

Cornflower

And best of all...

...my lovely girl and my beautiful grandson came to stay:

White rot

The firkin white rot has nobbled most of my garlic now; I've got about seven unaffected plants left which I'm hoping is a lucky number. Not that I'm not holding my breath.

Cabbages

A few more planted out:

Carnations

Support put up:

French beans

Planted out:

Wild things

The cornfield flowers I grew from seed and planted out earlier this year are starting to flower now:

White campion

Night-flowering catchfly

Bladder campion - how lovely is that?

I must admit I pulled out all the mayweed - when I was on the farm I remember it making a nuisance of itself all over the place. Meanwhile the meadow mix is finally putting on some growth after all the rain:


And this dog rose climbing into the plum tree hasn't needed any help from me:

White foxgloves in the garden

State of play

Fabulous thunderstorm this morning bringing more much needed rain after the high temperatures of the last week.

The plot's just about planted up now and the big treat this weekend has been eating the first broad beans.

Lots of colour in the back garden too so everything's coming up roses (except for the things that aren't roses).

First broad beans

Early peas flowering

Garlic

I've lost a few of these to the dreaded white rot; hopefully I won't lose any more before they're ready to harvest.

Onions

Brassicas

Growing away nicely:

Spring cabbage

Nearly ready:

Spuds

Sweetcorn

Tomatoes

These are also growing away nicely now they're in their growbags. I've just put two plants in each bag this year.

Colour

The flowers seem to emigrating from the garden to the plot (maybe I had something to do with that)

In the garden

Veronica Teucrium

Blue geranium