Garden Update 22nd July

B & B for wildlife?

Mum was startled by a visitor this morning in the garage, as she was continuing to paint the (over running) weekend DIY project. When you hear the call "Jennifer! come quick!", and you know someone is using a paintbrush & holding a paintpot, you tend to respond pretty promptly. DIY usually means disasters.....
A better call would have been "get your camera quick!", as when i saw what she was calling me to see i then had to, i then had to run back into the house, find my camera & discard its case. By wich time the visitor was swiftly scuttling away:

Mum was unsure as to whether s/he came in and went out again, or had perhaps sneaked in last night and was distrubed by her & was on her/his way out. The theory that s/he slept the night was almost made slightly stonger when he turned out, once we stopped talking and i was sat waiting silently with my camera.

I didn't want her/him coming back inside and getting stuck in there, as i don't think a few woodlice & spiders would satisy her/his hunger greatly. Especially as when s/he headed firstly into the hedge i could hear her/his crunching something in the undergrowth - presumably a snail - what a good little hedgehog!

Anyway we've shut the garage door down, hoping s/he hasn't snuck back in, even if it does mean the garage stinks of paint fumes, and i made D check under the tyres before he moved the cars this morning too!

Too busy harvesting.....

Another apology. Life just seems to get busier and busier. Not only am i busy mentally trying to deal with my change in size (i gained the 3 stone that i need to, to reach a healthy weight) and the fact that i now have some fat on my body (which i'm not overjoyed about), but physically my body is having to cope with digesting all this food its not used to. That alone leaves me tired but i am also now working part time at a fruit farm (packing fruit, tidying the plants and bushes, pruning, hulling berries for jam making etc). Then of course there's our own garden to look after as well, with everything growing like mad. So little energy or time for blogging really.

So a couple of slide shows:

May

July (mainly flowers)

the only other things i have from the growing side of things recently are a couple of videos but they seem to be the wrong file type to both edit and be able to upload and share. But i took them the wrong way round on my camera anyway, so you'd be looking at it on your side. I'll try and remember to take some more photos for a slide show soon.

Harvests so far: Brocolli, Cauliflower, Runner Beans, Dwarf Beans, sugar snap peas, Strawberries, Cucumber, Blueberries, Lettuces and Rocket, Spinach.

Soon to be ready: beetroot & chard, onions, carrots, courgettes

Failures: Tomatoes - blight contaminated soil in the greenhouse, now disinfected and replanted. fingers crossed.
Fennel - bolted. I give up with this.





and now its time for bed, as i am exhausted and have to get up for work in the morning.