Living the good life

Loads to eat from the plot despite the soggy weather: spuds, peas, carrots, french and runner beans, cabbage, tomatoes, stored garlic. I've harvested the onions this weekend too, the tops haven't quite died down yet but the ground's been so wet I thought it was time to get them out and dried off. The second lot of raspberries are fruiting now and the wild blackberries too. I'm so damn healthy it hurts.

Onions drying

Flowers on the plot

Cosmos and snapdragons still flowering nicely and carnations just starting to:

Saving seed

This is something I never seem to get around to doing enough of so I'm trying to rectify that.

Love-in-a-mist

Sweet rocket

Green manure

I sowed this phacelia where the garlic was and it's greening up nicely:

Summer fruits

Raspberries and blackberries:

Splashing out

I don't often buy plants but I couldn't resist this salvia "Blue Angel" with it's intense blue flowers.

Garden this weekend

Potentilla and lettuce (red salad bowl)

Sign this

You've probably heard of the problems gardeners and allotment holders have faced after using manure contaminated with aminopyralid. Thousands of gardens have been affected, crops ruined, soil contaminated and gardeners left with the problem of disposing of toxic waste at their own expense. The makers Dow Chemicals were forced to withdraw the product last year but have reapplied for it to be licensed and now comes the dreadful news that the government's Advisory Committee on Pesticides have said they are minded to advise ministers to re-instate approvals. Corporate slut of the week award would be too good for them. Personally I'm minded to go and stuff their faces in it but as that's unlikely (until I find out where they live) I've done the next best thing and signed this petition. Please do the same.

You can find out more about the problems caused by aminopyralid here, see the advise from the RHS here and read Dow Chemical's crappy excuses here. Buttercups pose a danger to livestock? Total bullshit.

**If you work in the media it would be great if you could help spread this news.

Watch this

Michael Pollan on swine flu, Monsanto, GMOs, "real sugar", school lunches in America, Michelle Obama's garden, corporate land grabs and more. Catch it here. Brilliant stuff.

You can find lots more from Michael Pollin on YouTube, in conversation with Bill Moyers here and also one of his lectures here.

French and runner beans

These are ready now just as there's a break in the peas which is good timing, though more by luck than judgement if I'm being honest.

French beans

These are cropping well now despite the ravages of slugs and blackfly. They wouldn't make the show bench so it's just as well that's not what they're for.

Runner beans

Like most people I used to grow a row of these and end up giving most of them away or feeding them to the cows. So now I just grow a few up a tripod and find that's plenty enough.

The end result

Why we go through all this nonsense:

Any corner for some flowers

Phacelia (not yet in flower) and nasturtiums. Nice for the bees and hover flies.

Snapdragons

Still coming on strong:

Sunflower

Sweet peas

I've been using saved seed for a few years now and these are starting to cross and revert so next year I'll have to dig deep and fork out for some fresh seed. They still smell as good as ever mind.

Still cute

The garden's still looking cute despite the weather:


Kniphofia

Sedum

I'm rubbish

Went looking for Sheffield Botanical Gardens this afternoon but got lost and couldn't find them. On the plus side I did get to drive through a lot of the old pit towns of North East Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. And found that the van will go for four hours without breaking down. Which is all to the good.