enthusiasm

very enthusiastic giant pumkin
perhaps it can have a bigger plot next year
also beans about to grow along the washing line

and at last tomatoes! I have eaten the very reddest one, very nice too!

I have sown more basil, lettuce and spinach today.

oh I do like pictures of me

recieved this morning in an e-mail, another picture from the Tayvallich trip,
of course you see I am dressed in my Sunday best hat . . . and on a saturday too. . .

its hot

the house themometer is up to its top temperature of 30ºC/85ºF, and it seems cooler in here than outside. The hose has been on in the garden since 10am, the vegetables need it and for the first time this year I am watering the flower beds.
this carnation, Fenbow Nutmeg, has the most amazing smell of cloves. I grew them from seed last year.
Phacelia tanacetifolia, planted as a green manure, its very pretty so I think it can have a bigger patch next year.

Harvesting: the last Red Duke of York potatoes, one small handfull of black currants, carrots, broad beans, french beans, snap peas, peas, lettuce, onions, shallots, courgettes, cabbage, chard, turnips. I am still waiting for a tomato!

its a girl!

my good friend and neighbor, Kirsty, being a second time mother quietly went off to hospital yesterday and came home today with Kelsey, 8lb 11oz. all fed bathed and put to bed. nice to know what you're doing!

cooking gooseberrys

three photographs compressed into one, the long border looking like it self seeded with no design, which is in fact how it is. don't know what to do with it! my usual view of it is end on. .

this is as far as the new path has reached. black membrane being held down by bricks until the stones arrive.
cabbage 'minicole' sucess
giant pumpkin failure, a few like this and some which look ok.

picked from Billy's garden, I am just off to the shop for double cream and condensed milk to make 'gooseberry fool', I can feel my artery's hardening just thinking about it, yum!!

cheers !

photo inspired by Madcapmums discussions on tea!

focus on flowers

it hasn't rained yet, it darkens over with clouds which clear away, glimpses of warm sunshine and the clouds are back.
very dark holly hocks, grown from seed last year but there are only two like this. some smaller ones have not flowered yet and I think they are pink. I have been organised enough to get a tray of seedlings going to overwinter, and have some next year too.
the pollen really shows up against the petals

I love the colours of this hawkweed, it has lots of common names, I think fox and cubs is the most used one.
I found this nigella growing in a crack in the path on the other side of the raspberry canes, its a bit difficult to get into focus
not quite focused either but how fascinating

painted in photoshop

a bit brighter? more luminous perhaps?

BEE jealous!

this link to a great bee house

I'm not happy with. . .

the moss in the grass, but I 'll probably leave it

the grey concrete steps into the house, refusing to be brightened up by plant pots. now, what colours does concrete paint come in? and metal paint, to co-ordinate the black railings?

meantime the heatwave goes on, not suffering from a hosepipe ban here, I soak the veggies every two to three days. there is a tarpaulin over the greenhouse to try to prevent it overheating and today I am watering the flower border for the first time this year. I have a camping chair to sit in, as I can move it to get shade here and there so I don't burn to a frazzle, also have on factor 25 sunblock and still tanning! great, good week to be on holiday!

germination

this 2ft by 4ft patch of dark earth is meant to be parsnips, only about 6 have geminated and they are growing very poorly. it was new F1 seed so I can only think the bed may have been too dry . letttuce at the end under old bird cages to stop the cats peeing on them. the beans on the left all germinated fine .

I am still weeding the path

but find myself occasionaly distracted. . .
this campanula latifolia frequently tries to take over the garden, it has been dug up and disposed of numerous times but here it is again!!
although I don't like the plant as an overall thing I find its close up patterning inside and out, very pretty.


cheap and cheerful, yellow potentilla

a slightly less luminous teracotta(or orange, if you prefer!) potentilla.

of paths and weeds

on the left, the weeds are taking over! on the right, the path clearing begins; I dont use weedkiller so I am cleaning them out with a sharp knife, when its done I will brush some new sand over the path to fill in the holes I have made.
children put to work, the turf coming out for the new stone path.

flowers

red geraniums
these poppys have self seeded and open
like this
I love this colour of clematis, it was a cutting and does not have a name.

misty mountains of scotland

typical scottish summer weather!
I was invited to stay with friends on Saturday night near Oban.
this is their veg plot, which I am really impressed with as they constructed it all this year, it is raised 'lazy beds' as their garden soil is little more than a 'raised beach' of compacted earth and more stones than mine!!all laid out to allow acces all along the plot,

also this year they dug out this pond and grew frogs from tadpoles, hopefully to control the slug population and waiting for this lily to flower soon
practising life skills , lighting fire in the wet, for when we run out of oil.
always handy to have a friend to fetch sticks .

yipee! I do believe. . .

these are blackcurrants
these are goosberries
and this is a GIANT pumkin

time

how much do I apreciate working part time? lots!
this week and next I am doing 35 hrs instead of my usual 25 as I am covering for holidays. how I miss the half days!
according to the gardening magazine Grow Your Own which arrived in the post this morning I should be organising my 'second sowing' for fresh vegetables into autumn. I keep trying to get organised with succesional sowing but don't really feel I have the hang of it, and I would dearly love to keep salad leaves going through the winter like Four Season Harvest.
I have been weeding and planting and moving and watering, but find the lack of extra time makes this seem a never ending task, and I do so like to sit and look at in my minds eye and drink tea. bah humbug! roll on my holiday!!
I am eating fresh salad every day (letucce, chard, spinach, sugar-snap peas, chives and shallots, some broad beans, some garden peas, small courgettes, cucumber) and have emptied out some more potatoes from their pots and compost bags. no ripe tomatoes yet.

Young Angus

2003 and today

primula viali
just after the fence was put up in 2003

todays in the rain photograph
before borders and paths


today, it is wet and thundery and likely to be like this all day.