A few are left to ripen, but a good year.

Eight pounds, it so so, so delicious.

Gagaga is really soft and fairly sweet, I’ll likely use it by blending with another. Grown in rough soil.

It isn’t all squash, just mostly.

It always looks best just before it opens.

The plnt is lovely, but now I see the carrots in the bed that refused to start and now they’re in the way of garlic planting.

Yo, Dear Reader, the weather is changing and things are dying back, well, most things, the wild flowers are popping up everywhere again, the garden is full of bees and butterflies and okay maybe dying back isn’t right. The harvests are almost done, I still have the late planted carrots, also blackberries, though the wind knocked off the best ones…I was also eating blueberries today…yeah, dying back isn’t right. Things re slow, but the work is paying off, there were some odd parts to the year, the tomatoes failed, whereas the eggplant thrived, the carrots are growing late and fast whereas they wouldn’t grow at all early on, the apples failed too sadly, but the onions and most of the garlic was good. Swings and roundabouts, Dear Reader, but I have squash, basil and fruit so I’m contented,

Roses are popping up here and there.

The squash that was supposed to be a green type might be a different type or a hybrid. More like a really nice butternut so mash. Then I tried one of the sweetmeats and it was so creamy that I made sage and apple stuffing with my own sage and the bolted onions I froze. It is so tasty.

Really old rhubarb, been a weird year for harvesting, came out at the oddest of times.

The Rambler is somehow still blooming in spots.

Another squash harvested and pumpkin bread made, I used dates instead of a lot of sugar.

Sure it was a silly idea, but it worked.

This time of year is probably the only time this actually resembles a recipe blog, things have changed a lot for me, Dear Reader, more and more restrictions have pushed a lot of options away, it is what it is, but it is difficult. Right now prepping the squash is the highlight of the year as there is just so much good food being stocked up, I can’t even count how much food has been tossed into the compost bins, no waste, but still it’s shocking how bad everything is. I’m not sure what’ll be carried into next year, Dear Reader, the shop garlic is a given, I’ll likely grow more onions now that the bolted ones have a use. Mostly it’ll be more of the same, hoping that it’ll be a good year, maybe a better Summer, who knows, Dear Reader?

You get a lot out of them, then the worms get the rest.

No idea how these did so well.

No idea what this is, but it was supposed to be a silver green skinned type. Really delicious though, made the bread and curry coconut with it, funnily it was exactly the right amount down to the gram.

They’re all coming back.

A lot of butterflies are around.

Corncockle has seeded in the oddest of places.

Right now I’m letting things go to seed, there are a lot of flowers for the bees and butterflies and they need that now more than ever, they’ll be storing for the Winter, it’s all too easy to forget them this time of year. I see so much weed killer being use and so many “flower meadows” being cut down. Such a waste, we could have so so much, Dear Reader, and it’d cost next to nothing. I mean all I bought this year was the bone meal and I used far less than usual. Weed tea and compost grew everything. I wish I could share he squash with you, they are so tasty, so dense and the waste from them feed next year’s crop. The compost is working so fast I’ve getting a bin every few months now. Maybe I know a little, Dear Reader. Until later, stay safe and take care.

Long naples it ain’t, but it is so tasty and such a rich orange colour when cooked.

Sweetmeat, super creamy flesh.

A little higher and that’d be the best shot ever.

I think that’s normal for these, so sweet.

That is the only heather that ever grew for me, if it is heather. Found in a skip.

Wild raspberries in the back rose are crawling everywhere.

Funny thing about the new roof is you’d hardly know it was there.

Mixed coir and store compost, then mixed a little of that into the really good pots with compost from the bins, then mixed that with turf mould. Tada next year’s potting soil.

I’d swear this was supposed to be white. It’s called Moonlight.

Buttery at first.

Then creamy white.

Rough as the roof under it is saggy and ancient, also I’m not a roofer and have bad knees and vertigo. Still, proud of it and it’ll stay dry.

Mint is growing so fast this year, oldd stuff is huge and the newer is big already.

Stuck a pot under the one that grew in the holly.

Oregon Sweetmeat I figure.

I grew these in mixed soil, getting it ready for other projects, I start so much Dear Reader I lose track, and I’d grow it again if it tastes good.

Still a lot to see I guess.

Yo, Dear Reader, it’s been…actually I have no idea how long it has been. August feels like the longest month for some reason, things are winding down and also starting again, vigorously at that. It has been extremely dry, fortunate as I finally sourced my roofing sheets, naturally things went awry a little, it rained, really rained hard when I had just got a few sheets down, of course you can’t keep me down, so when I got to putting up the last few sheets I found one missing, on a weekend so I’m now waiting to sort that out. On the whole it went fine, the roof is saggy and the felt is way too old, but this should keep the water out and the new gutter arrangement looks fine. Funnily I was setting it back up and freaked as the pipe was far too short, the pipe I didn’t cut, which didn’t make sense until I realised I had put the other half somewhere else. I’ll get there, Dear Reader.

The late planted squash, so many died in that cold snap in June and July.

Gave away the othe two so they weren’t a waste.

Back rose rooted itself from abranch into the small raised bed.

Wild blackberries are a later cropper.

Messy? Yeah, but beautifully so.

All golden wonders this year.

Dug up some of the woundwort with the spuds, transplanted elsewhere in the garden.

Mustard as green manure for more soil I’ve prepped for next year. Store compost, fine bark and a lot of compost from the bins.

Janpanese types aren’t getting very big this year, but I have one Green Hokkido and one Uchiki Kuri so I’m happy at least.

My arms and hand are very large as is my baby.

My dear friend.

Things have been up and down in the garden, the spuds came up fine, but the tomatoes seem to have failed, near two months of no sun will do a lot of damage funnily. though the eggplants have started again and the cape gooseberry is growing like little organic lanterns. The squash look good thankfully, I still have a freezer drawer of fruit and another mostly fully, basil is ready to harvest again so more sauces for the long Winter months. It’s been a better year in some ways, but there have been loses that really shouldn’t have happened, with the weather being what it is this is the new norm and I do not have to like it one iota.

Sure, just grow on top of the other, the greenish is much newer.

This has actually grown a bit since this was taken, still a huge neck comparatively.

Really old dahlias are back in the front.

Never tire of the variations.

Cape gooseberry.

I mean the back literally fell off at one point. Hence the window.

That should be green…really green. Someone was in the butternut patch before the long naples.

Another jumbo pink banana, think it was a late replant, also unsure if that other one should be green.

See? They look alike, but different shades, also the other has been dangling since the start, never dropped.

Mint for every one.

It’s one of those let the pictures do he talking days, Dear Reader, we’re on the window down stage, but that doesn’t mean the garden stops producing, just slowing. I think now is the most important time to look after nature, the bees are having a great time with the reappearance of so many wild flowers, how we still have white butterflies while the caterpillars have eaten through my nasturtiums is beyond me, they’re everywhere. I have been carefully gathering plants that flower later and later into the year, also earlier and earlier, so they’ll be looked after like everything else. I’ll be back again later, Dear Reader, hopefully plus one panel and one finished shed, until then stay safe and take care.

These still grow like weeds.

They were near a foot when I harvested them.

Most of the cabbage bolted sadly, but there was enough to blanch and boil, seperate harvests, for freezing.

There may be hope for tomatoes yet.

Carrots refused to start, bar one odd pot, so I planted more and they and the dead nettle are thriving.

Gagaga were just an impulsive buy at one euro, a bush types is rare and you know they did well. They darken to near orange with warts, which may mean sweetness, as they ripen.

Grew itself. I have no idea what it is. Likely squash, but I get food waste from a neighbour, hence so many tomatoes just popping up, so I have no clue.

That shouldn’t be blooming now.

Roses are blooming again.

An unseasonal storm did knock them a bit, but they’re strong.

They’re tall and a little scraggly right now, but the blooms are huge.

It always droops.

Like a living bouquet.

Naples long, odd colour plus one squash just had to grow right on top of it and I can’t move the vine.

The roses really did so much better without sprays.

Guess I get raspberries next year from the back rose. Took a lot of nettles from the back for tea too.

Yo, Dear Reader, I’ve been opening these in the most dispirited ways recently, honestly with the dark days of what was supposed to be Summer and now wildfire smoke from Canada blotting out it again it’s hard to be anything but angry. I’ve been wondering whether I should just leave the blog for a while and maybe switch to social media, a sort of running blog, but then again I’m involved heavily in activism on social media and trying to do both would break my brain, I know the blog posting has gotten lax and I wish there was just a better world to share with you. Even so, the work pays off often, but I can’t deny where it is being failed by the world’s indifference to the planet we’re living on.

Clematis in roses really is lovely.

A week or so ago it hit the maximum length, I think that’s the max.

The shop garlic I planted maybe two months back? Maybe less. More has been put down since.

Now it’s getting wide.

Fluffy lilies.

A seedling that was near death has returned and is flowering, might be gagaga.

The garden is currently more full of butterflies and bees than I ever seen, Dear Reader, I even have a collection of cabbage butterfly caterpillars eating my nasturtiums, they tell me how to kill them a lot in my searches, not how they’re just doing their thing and to let them be, the bees are in the squash a lot, bless them, and the later squash are getting larger so they should help pollinate each other, the first flush of squash is getting bigger day to day, one, the Naples long is either the wrong colour, like a butternut instead of green, or it’ll turn later. I have three or four round pumpkins and no idea which is which.

All weed tea as feed this year.

Japanese Wineberries are forming.

You can’t tire of them.

Wee lemonbalm flowers, makes sense as I got them from a bird eating seeds.

Next yea I swear I train the sweetpeas.

Started beetroot inside, just tossed it down without hardening off and they’re somehow fine? Weather was warmer then.

Wild started buddelia looks nice against the clematis.

Mustard for the bees and that way I won’t have to touch those for months.

The eggplant are huge and I have no one to take them, the tomatoes re no where to be seen, they stalled, grew tall and flowered late, the spuds are still green, but finally falling, so even relatives are odd in this weather. I’ve had a good harvest of basil so far, the weed tea is keeping everything going and when sunny it really helps it grow, first cabbage of the year has been harvested, slugs tossed back because I am so kind. Because everything is odd I have several pots of sprouted shop garlic planted and I saw that we get French garlic, all softneck here which explains why it’s struggling, we don’t get the same long autumn France does nor the heat…or sun. I’ve had French squash fail to fully grow because the needed longer. I’ll be trying a few different things to get garlic, likely sprouting shop garlic.

The mint is huge this year.

They really are no work.

They grew well, not that I can eat them.

Mint that’s growing in the back rose, really, reall tall.

I’m mixing soil again, I went looking into bulk bags and it was all just rough soil that would just be a costly waste. Instead I bought a few bags of the awful general compost, feels like crud now, nothing like what it used to be, and a big bag of mini bark, I think the soil is just rotted bark now, likely scraped off the floor of a forest somewhere. I had the big bags and what I did was layer those, added some odd branches and twigs I saved, then added buckets of wormy compost from the bins. I’ve planted mustard as green manure and I’ll let it all break down, later I can mix it with clay if I want or just use it to fill things again. I have squash in the other rough pots, one grew lovely onions before the squash. It’s rough and ready, but I’ll work with what I have to get good planting mediums. The work is endless, Dear Reader, it often pays off, but I wanted a Summer that filled my bones with sunshine, not this dark Winter before the real Winter. Until later, stay safe and take care.

Hidden far in the back.

That is growing from the huge yellow rose that sprawls, which is the original rose is beyond me.

It’s also re-flowering somehow.

Another passionfruit has started somehow.

No idea how that grew there, also a friend just landed when I took the photo.

Neat, that’s the fourth type of butterfly I’ve seen, well that I could tell apart at least.

Seaholly is great, wild seaholly is better.

No idea where that mint came from, might be an old type I found.

Gagaga, it’ll be small, but it’s nice and cost a euro for the seeds when things were rough. Growing in a rough mix of clay, compost and twigs.

Threw down a gagaga squash that was almost dead and lookie.

Foxglove coming up again.

Roses are blooming again.

A lot of work and I’ll have to get strawberries from runners for each pot, but better than just tossing the barrel there.

They have so many plants here I make sure of that.

Yo, Dear Reader, we’re still not seeing much sun, let alone Summer but mercifully it is dry at the right time, squash have a first flush of flowers, usually male, which seems a waste to me but I guess that it serves a purpose, then the mixed flowers started and this year despite the cold spell almost spelling an end to them, they have managed to grow well and are setting fruits at a good rate. I’m not counting nor counting on anything until I see them ripe and harvested, Dear Reader, but it looks good so far. Thanks to the weed tea the seedling squash that I threw down as they were dying anyway have come back and back strong. At one stage I had four empty pots and now I have at least four newer squash stuffed about at random.

Bees have so much here.

Clematis that started to bloom, stopped for months and has started again.

It has a ring base, really fun shape.

I just think bees are good and not killing them with poison is also good.

Naples long. It’ll have a neck, but mostly it’ll be body.

Only the front astilbe got really big funnily.

Jumbo Pink Banana are large, handing off the wall was not a good thing so I cradled it.

I’ve hanging mint and ajuja around and these cutting have gone huge in a short time.

I’m still gathering plants around the garden, I haven’t seen anything useful in the shops, also it costs o much now for plants that may crap out far too soon, instead I am pinning runners, old u-shaped nails I found in a shed have come in so handy. The strawberry barrel will need a lot, but I’m also pinning ajuga that I won last year, yes I’m cheap and have really good recall, as they have started to sprawl. The woundwort seems to be fine as well, the saved plant from last year is flowering much later funnily. Wild flowers and flower that grow wild are preferable, there is a buddleia that is swarmed daily with butterflies and another just blooming I found in a pot growing itself last year. The bees are so thick in places you can’t move but you’re part of the swarm.

Wild blackberries flowering later.

Domesticated ones are fruiting now.

Sure, grow in the prickly holly…

These are too wild, I take them up year after year when they go too far, but nope.

The peas ripened together handily, more to come.

Lilies are still blooming, really fragrant.

Things are still odd with the weather being completely off, I’ll talk about weather endlessly, Dear Reader, because it is getting so hard to plan or predict anything, I have tomatoes that have grown super tall, but are just now flowering while they hit the roof, literally, and there are no side shoots, just big awkward plants. The eggplants are growing well, they must be just your bog standard eggplant, but there plant seems to want to hit the roof too and is still flowering. The potatoes started to flower again in places, but are starting to go back. All the things I can’t eat are fine, Dear Reader, I just hope the things I can eat will be too. The garden is wild in places and full of life so I’m happy with that. I’ll be back again later, Dear Reader, perhaps with even more squash, here’s hoping at least. Until then stay safe and take care.

Wild strawberries and a few later types.

It really is pretty, wish I had more rockery like spaces.

When did I last plant a pansy?

I have three round types and no clue which this is.

Another naples long.

Everything is on the go at once.

Old rose in the front is back.

Passiflora making a return.

Everyone loves the seaholly.

It’s chaotic right now.

Mercifully despite the damp there is no powdery mildew.

Bees and all flying insects are welcome.

Mixing my own soil worked out, even the weeds aren’t an issue.

Oldest rhubarb is way thicker, I think the younger would’ve benefitted from years of no picking. Hard to say really.

That’s the last, bonus onion I just popped up while raking the bed. It tastes so, so good, better than the store stuff it grew from by a coutry mile.

Yo, Dear Reader, we’re still not really seeing a Summer, but thankfully it is warm with intermittent sun, lots of rain, but with the heat that is pushing growth. It’s far from ideal, but I’m making use of it as best I can. I took up the last of the garlic, these were the store cloves, because with the rain I could end up with more damaged garlic and after just five months I had fully formed bulbs, nicely sized too, whatever they did to this garlic it really is made to grow fast and likely twice a year. I could and may save some of my own or I may just grab it from the shops as it did the best of all.

I just stuck expired seeds down and weee?

Slower right now, but the roses are lovely.

For a plant that grew itself it is one of the most useful.

Such a fun shape.

I forgot how fast they swell.

First ever jasmine flower on this, it smells so much stronger than you’d imagine.

Eggplants are pollinated at least.

Huh, raspberries are thriving and I didn’t plant them where they’re having a growth spurt.

A little wild does everything good.

Enchanter’s Nightshade, sure it’s messy, but good for insects.

Tomatoes are slow to flower this year, no cuurtting back until I’m sure where the flowers are.

Maybe should’ve looked up how big eggplants get before leaving it to grow through the staging.

I don’t have much to tell, I bought the last of a set of rain barrels a local store had for the cheapest price anywhere, I’ll miss these kinds of things as time goes on, already am really. I had a really old, older than me, barrel at the far back where the wild blackberries are, but the tap always flowed too slow due to the shape and I think it was damaged somehow so that now becomes another strawberry barrel, likely with rhubarb.There isn’t anything that’ll grow quite as well as the strawberries and I’m not buying plug plants yearly just so I can make it fancy. The garden is full of bees due to the work I put in to get it flower as much as possible each season. This is a much better use of money and time. Like I say, Dear Reader, things are steady, but dull right now. I’ll be back again later, hopefully with more exciting stories, until then stay safe and take care.

Took up woundwort, woundwort didn’t care and is flowering.

Rain knocks the lilies back faster sadly, but they are lovely.

The second of the outdoor seeded squash is growing so fast, you can just barely see the true leaf now.

They were expiring so I figured I’ll chance my arm and plant late.

Funnily when they all grow together the weeds stand no chance.

Stayed open most of the day so I wouldn’t miss it I’m sure.

Strawberry barrel take three.

Lovely to step out of the front door and see bees.

Never saw a lime butterfly before.

Buddleia can be a problem, but most of the land around here is sprayed to death so eh.

I pollinated just one flower on the passiflora.

First basil harvest, took ages to get the right weather, I’d like to have snipped carefully as t was budding again, but I had other things to do.

Any day you see a bee is a good day.

They don’t last as long these days, too wet sadly.

Even the pinks are lovely.

Lilies are tough and easy to grow.

He hung in there despite the high winds.

Coffee cup lids are back in use.

Yo, Dear Reader, we’re out of a mini heatwave, all I heard was complaints that it is too hot and now it is too wet and I’d have settled for hallucinating in the heat as long as the garden grew. By some miracle things are doing better, there were squash I just threw down as they were seedlings dying in the cold, tried transplanting several in the cold and they died in days, somehow some have survived and started to grow rapidly. Two outdoor seeded squash are growing, later than most, but that’s okay and the rest are flowering and fruiting. Already a tangle of vine all interwove and indistinguishable from each other. I’ll count nothing yet, Dear Reader, but it’s heartening to see.

I think there may be pollinated flowers, I saw the flowers drop but the stems stayed in places.

St John’s Wort, growing in a crack in the concrete. Cures depression which is why no one is depressed now.

I like everything just growing alongside and occasionally inside each other.

Such a nice flower, grown from a cutting years ago.

Can’t eat most of what’s growing in the greenhouse.

These stay away from the cabbages thankfully.

Old rose is back again.

I get one flower a year that lasts a day. Pretty though.

I’ve started using my own garlic and no word of a lie my sense of taste is better, I just think the blandness of store bought produce is so bad my mind is blanking, I’ve had to cut down on so much that at this stage I’d rather just take a magical pill and skip eating, but the fresh food from the garden is giving me pause. I used the bolted onions I froze along with the fresh garlic and the curry I made was the same as always, but so much more flavourful. I have two drawers of fruit to figure out, I’m trying to figure the best use for them with as little sugar as possible, I may make the classic Peanut Butter Cookies and just make a microwave Compote, I don’t eat much outside of meals bar frozen fruit and a few nuts, just don’t have the interest these days. Hard to explain to people just how draining this diet remains, every year that passes the harder it gets as more gets excluded. The garden helps, I swear, Dear Reader I nearly cried when I used the first of this year’s Basil Sauce.

Wild strawberries from seed and a later flowering one.

I rushed in to get the camera, all the way through he garden and it stayed there for half an hour after.

I miss the heat.

Roses are still blooming.

I made sure not to take a cutting from that rose, I have three, two are clones, and now I have four I guess.

Peas have gone way above the frame and are smushed together due to wind.

A year for mint it seems. No idea where I got this one.

Last year’s woundwort stuck it in the wall plater and these are runners I guess? Came out of teeny holes.

I hope they naturalise there it’d be amazing.

Clematis and no cut roses are a great combo.

Another oldie.

I have no idea where the weather is heading,m seems to be staying away from killing cold at least. I still have garlic to lift, just getting droopy now as it was planted much later from store cloves, I saw a tip for starting cloves where you leave the whole bulb in a tray of water and am testing it out. The stuff I bought specifically didn’t fare well at all, softneck is just no good here, so I figure I’ll use whatever works. Between that and gathering wild plants I’m just doing my own thing, funnily I went to weed the cabbage bed and it was almost all woundwort, seems to keep the weeds down. I’m saving it as I go, hoping some more takes. I’m just here for the bees and insects right now and it’s working out well. I’ll be back again later, Dear Reader, until then stay safe and take care.

Threw the expired seeds down and this other one started, hasn’t been eaten and has a true leaf now. Yeah I’m late posting.


Back again.

Smaller daisies are out.

You can smell these halfway across the garden.

They’re grabbing everything, even themselves.

Funnily the tree lilies never get any taller.
Cape gooseberry flower.

Creeping Jenny, it went to nothing after being cut and I just waited it out.

Astilbe has grown fine ever since the firs took off, took years to get one to grow funnily enough.

Seaholly that started way later than the other, also a wild strawberry or a yellow one, they have naturalised here and are everywhere.

More yellow poppies, Welsh I think, stared from a piece of root.

Roses are doing fine.

The Rambler is blooming again, I’m gathering all the dead heads for composting.

Mini hosta is pretty.

First flush of flowers is past, always a waste as it either all male or all female, now I’ll see what will start.

Everlasting sweetpeas, I forgot to put a frame up, but they’re okay.

Yo, Dear Reader, I need to stop letting these photos pile up, but there are a reminder that even while things aren’t great in regards the weather, no sign of any real Summer yet, there is a lot growing. I was out today, yesterday was so wet and windy I couldn’t even look out, and there was so much life in the garden, some of it on me, flies were flying at me and I realised I was carrying seeds on my tee-shirt somehow. I’m still picking strawberries and tayberries, I haven’t ever harvested so many of each, I have a freezer that is now two drawers of just fruit. The blackberries, both wild and domesticated…yeah, that’s right but sounds like I herded up wild blackberries and tamed them…anyway, they’re still coming yet.

Rose cutting is budding, ajuga is from the back, the spreading big variety.

Started late, but they’ll hopefully seed there for the future.

Back rose is in bloom, hard to imagine this is July.

They’re past the danger stage, but you never know these days.

Looks like cotton candy.

Happy bee.

Clematis started to flower in May, stopped and is back now.

Eggplant is flowering, but no idea if it’ll set fruit.

I planted purple potatoes two years ago, maybe three?, and found a few mini ones on this plant, I’ll grow and regrow for fun.

The squash are avoiding the powdery mildew, despite all the damp, thankfully, and if I hadn’t started them in that freak heat in May I have had no luck at all. I’m pigheaded and with no seasons I’m trying whatever works, I have one I started directly much later, growing beside one that almost died in the cold, whoops?, a few other seeds are down din the pots, but they may not survive. I have more started and more starting. Whatever rules I could follow are long gone, how I started growing and what I have to contend with now are so very different, Dear Reader. I’m taking what I can, today I checked the garlic and most are curing fine, but some had moisture issues so the necks rotted still, so I took them, took all the viable cloves instead of just tossing. From here on I waste nothing, ugly, weird whatever is fine as long as it’s edible and pesticide free.

Jasmine has survived being stuck in the honeysuckle and when I cut a piece by mistake, I just stuck it in the ground months ago and yeah it’s rooted.

Directly planted in May and look at it now. I couldn’t get them to stay alive inside last month.

Cabbages look good, I’d move that net, but when I did a butterflies flew directly in and got stuck.

Could be seeded or an old plant tossed in there.

Strongest of the front roses.

They’re actually keeping the nettles and knotweed down.

I’ve been taking more cuttings, collecting seeds and have more mint on the way, I have a lot, but the bees love the flowers and it is so handy. I saw these football training cones in the shops and had an idea, sadly someone busted the rest so I can’t get more right now, but I have hooks to hang, they actually have four holes at just the right places, and chain ready on the walls, just need that mint. They’re way cheaper than the small pots I used to get cheap and deeper than most, fun too, I’m told that that’s what this is all about. Doesn’t feel like that at times, Dear Reader, it feels dispiriting far too often these days.

The later stuff is the shop garlic, hardneck too.

Irises in the back sink.

I though high frames were overkill, but nope.

More cabbages in the bath.

Such a nice mix of colours.

Did I plant that there…?

Queen Ann’s Lace I think, in a wall planter next to gorse and woundwort.

Tomatoes aren’t flowering much, but there aren’t many suckers either so I’ll leave ’em before pruning.

Better weather is promised at least.

What always makes me laugh is how true it is about the weed thriving in concrete whereas the pampered flowers can’t survive any hardship. I have a plant, just a common yellow flowering shrub, I can’t recall the name and forgot to take a photo, that is growing huge berries in a crack in the house wall, whereas the potted one is smaller and has meagre fruit. They’re inedible, to us at least. I have a hart’s tongue fern I split that is growing in another crack in the wall and hope to stick on the wall in a planter, or a cone. I’m gathering Woundwort, currently in the spuds, yearly and red campion foxglove, aquilegia seeds are coming in slow but steady, sadly last years that I gathered got wet and most didn’t do much. The seaholly was fine and even a few poppies made it.

Ajuja is all over there, stop weeds, but lets things grow.

A lot of poppies seeds died off, but some are here.

Spuds are tall this year.

Annoying how rain damages the buds.

A lit is being debated about certain plants and I’ll plant a mix of wild and cultivated and do more than all those debating will.

Lily in the Secret Garden.

Wild blackberries have more flowers.

I’m still brewing my weed tea, which I credit as the reason so much is growing just fine with much sun or heat, in an ideal world I’d have access to more like seaweed or comfrey, but I do have several wormeries, annoying after the storm I lost the bucket under the hotbin and never knew it was dripping, I lost feed that way, but have set up another and and collecting now. The wormery designs are terrible as they let in rain, but that makes the light worm tea so it’s handy when you make it work for you. Today i started emptying the tall compost bin, awful design as I don’t ever unseal the door and it was bad even when I did, it was free though, and planted carrots in the amended pots, the soil is still pretty rich, but I haven’t had luck with carrots this year bar one pot. I have bolted onions to remove and garlic still to come up too so I’ll be planting whatever root vegetables I have seeds for and won’t worry about the seasons. I’ve been chatty today, Dear Reader, so I’ll vanish again for a while and come back even chattier. Until later, stay safe and take care.

Pulled up a piece of Elephant’s Ear Sedum by mistake and tada!

Oldest rhubarb, that leaf is huge. It seems to start earl;y, die back, no harvest at all from the younger plants, and then return months later.

You can see the raspberries inside the rose. Seems to be a theme now.

Small red bush rose has spread so much.

There is a lot of woundwort in there, I’ll gather what I can when the spuds come up.

A small start, chocolate mint to begin.

They sprawl so fast.

This is actually under the roses, the rain flattened them a bit, how they hold so much water is beyond me.

Latest store garlic, more has sprouted since.

Ga ga ga is a rare bush type, really small fruits so two went into this bag of soil I’m readying.

These are stuck in with wild daisies and happy there.

The garden smells of lilies, roses, mint and mock orange.

I have tried this a lot and it never worked.

Back rose is blooming.

Tallest rose in the garden, nearer eight feet than ever before.

Irises are popping up again.

Yo, Dear Reader, we’re out of that killing cold spell, but it isn’t exactly what you’d call Summer. Oddly there are some very productive plants, I have never seen so many strawberries and tayberries, I have my freezer filling up with fruit, trying to think of the best use as I’m trying to limit my sugar intake as much as possible, seems to be helping with the pain caused by inflammation. It’s nice to stock up for the Winter months and decide later how to use everything. I mentioned earlier about the store garlic sprouting and my planting it, not that I expect anyone to follow the winding path of the garden’s progress, and, Dear Reader, it worked too well. They’re hardneck and they grew so well, stuck down late and still came up big and perfect. A lot of rules are pointless with the way the weather is, I’ll use what I have learned going ahead, but I’m flexible.

It honestly grew that way.

They have since grown another half foot or so.

Elephants Ear Sedum, a odd plant that really is fun to watch.

That hint of yellow is so lovely.

Yarrow I grew from seed years back.

Lost a good bit of the ones I bought, terrible year last year for seed garlic, but I’ll be using the shop stuff again if it sprouts.

That spot came together so well with no real planning.

I had trouble getting the replace squash to start, too cold at first, generally not great even when I put down never squash, so I stuck down two remaining seeds, they were clearance stock, and low and behold they started outside. This worked with the uchiki kuri seed and it’s partly that the ground is warmer than usual, honestly it’s still up in the air what’ll grow, but when I was taking up the garlic, more is yet to droop so I can lift, I had a lot of weeds and now have two weed tea barrels on the go, likely leaving the second ready too, so I can at least feed the squash as much as I want to help them grow. I’ve described the garden as a circle, everything goes around and back and that circle is getting more and more rings, everything is helping everything else.

Roses slow, but don’t stop.

After three years or so my railway line blackberry cuttings are flowering!

Really old rose is flowering again, so delicate.

I’ve hardly let onions flower, but you know you’d be as well to buy cheap sets and let them bolt for bees and butterflies.

This strawberry grew under the frame lid and didn’t burst, just grew flat.

Attached these pots to the strawberry barrels to catch runners, and I pin them with old U nails I got in an old shed yonks back.

It’s all at an in-between stage right now, die back and new growth all coming at once, some plants are struggling a bit, but it’s mostly the weather being so erratic, I see some mould and the likes popping up in odd places, not on the spuds funnily and thankfully, which are covered in flowers and so tall. The peas have hit over the poles, so over seven feet or more. If I had the weather I could grow anything, Dear Reader as is I grow what I can and that’s still a lot. I have a few projects in the works, slow to come to fruition, but it’ll mean for for the insects and animals in the garden and that’s never something I mind waiting on. Right now I’m just waiting on a basil harvest, but I’ll want sun for that so it can regrow fast. Really I’m waiting for a heatwave, I can dream, can’t I, Dear Reader? Until later, stay safe and take care.

I bought a lot of that Zucca Beretta as they cost a Euro a pack and it is a tough, strong seed. No idea if I’ll use these yet, I tossed more squash seeds down where the line of garlic was too.

The blackberries are both twined in among other plants, the wild here has thorns that’ll shred you, while the cultivated is smooth. Much later flowering on the wild, even later than wild ones growing all over the town.

So tree kale regrows from the stem, neat.

Late started cabbages, usually it’d be too late and too hot, but no seasons means I try whatever.

I was worried they were all leaf, but thankfully no.

This one will grow for next year’s flowering now.

Gifted rose is blooming.

I have big hands and it always has big blooms.

Weeds take and weeds give back and make everything stronger.

The lilies I grew from damaged bulbs are back!

Tomatoes are just now flowering, stalled for a while.

So pretty.

Partly by chance, I just wanted a support for the rose.

Yo, Dear Reader, I’ve been sitting on some of these photos and I am currently helping st up another garden, also being reminded that breakneck pace and rapid fire ideas aren’t the norm, but hey, I wrapped the garden in a path, used flooring tiles and old tyres and I had to remember this isn’t my garden. The owner is ecstatic at least. The heat is back, not the brilliant sunshine of summer, but that unnatural cold is gone, the weed tea is proving to be of the greatest worth, I have bought cheap draw string laundry bags and a paint strainer cap for buckets as I will be making a lot of it. I also found that the compost stirrer, looks like a long corkscrew, can wind up sticky-weed (Cleaver, properly) like spaghetti. Stuck it under the huge rose and all it took was that and garterweed (Properly bindweed which isn’t as good a name).

You can’t ever tire of this.

That little rose really suited the back area.

I thought this was it and nope, I’ll get anew photo again.

Bees really like it and I do too.

Grown for spite, the original is long dead.

Living bouquet.

Perennial snapdragon, the second that is.

Just a wee sippy.

Almost lost them all.

Never been so profuse.

Last year was really awful, but I fed it as if it would be better and this year I am hauling in bowls of berries daily. I can’t ever remember having so many strawberries. The oldest tayberry is so prolific it’s like the raspberries were, which are returning, I almost lost them, many did last year, funnily the young shoots have thorns, which I can’t recall if that’s the norm. Well, nothing is normal anyway, Dear Reader, and the various new raspberry plants that grew from seed are even better. Taking care even when they aren’t productive is key, also not paying for costly feed. Even the yellow raspberries, which have managed to spread across to the pots with the currants, hence how I know they’re seeding, and they’re full of golden fruit that is so, so delicate and sweet. A pain to pick and a joy to eat.

Every day when it’s warm the greenhouse smells of fruit and basil.

Store garlic is bad, but good for growing I guess.

Cape gooseberry growing so fast now.

Even the pinks are stunning.

Lily season is starting.

Spuds flower more these years. Peas are so long already.

This rose now has a big raspberry plant growing alongside it.

What of the squash I hear you ask, I tell you Dear Reader, I was angry at everything while they struggled, I had seedlings die that were growing just fine for months, I tried transplanting and they died with a day with cold and shock. I replaced two when the heat came and they are fine, the others have started to grow larger, funnily the slower tomatoes are flying it too, even the potted seedlings, hoping the elephant garlic comes up so I can use the pots for a few extra tomatoes.A lot of the garlic took a hit, but there is a lot that seems fine, too wt and cold when they need heat and dry weather sadly. I found out the stores tuff I grew because it refused to stop sprouting is a hard-neck so I had few scapes as a surprise gift. I stuck a bunch of early started cloves in shredded paper and left them in the growhouse, live or die they’ll have a chance o be garlic or compost. No waste.

Honeysuckle is huge and great for the bees.

I had bowls for days and more are coming. Even the jostaberry cuttings I grew are putting out a few.

Tree mallow is back.

Clematis twining through.

Garlic is dying, garlic is growing too early, everything is chaos so I can do whatever.

No powdery mildew thankfully.

In time it’ll spread over the laurel.

I’m actually at the stage I need to go take even more photos, I know, I know, the Hydrangea has somehow turned a brighter shade of pink, I assumed that when the acidity dropped it’d just revert to the pale pink, but nah, near neon right now. The Rambler has produced more roses that ever before and as a bonus it turns out the bees love them, must be full of pollen and handy as they have a slightly close centre so no loss in rain. I had a new tip regarding the bolting onions, seems to be a given these days, that you can cut the bulb and just chop and freeze. It’s silly to toss it in the compost, I was guilty of that I admit, so I’m doing that and taking the hard stems and using them to make spray for the cabbage while I’ll test if the flowers still bloom when cut and left in water. Yes, for the bees, nearly everything is, Dear Reader. I’ll be back again later, until then stay safe and take care.

These cost 1.50 years ago which is nuts to think on.

I wish I could go back and get more.

Turns out this isn’t a rose, just a slow growing ash. Whoops?

Colour everywhere.

Woundwort I dug and grew is back. Found more again, will be a lot when I harvest the spuds.

May was so hot this was started as a seed outside.

Hope this is a self-pollinating eggplant.

Never removing this from the greenhouse.

Raspberry to the left.

The seaholly is so big already.

The roses really got pushed forward, they’re all tangled.

My purple rose, so beautiful.

Okay, Torpedo is probably the last mask. Three different masks made him.

These raspberries are from a seed, likely my own, that a bird must’ve dropped, or a berry I tossed, and after a few years is bearing the sweetest fruit…inside the huge rose.

The smell of passion fruit and basil is wonderful.

There are two kinds of people in this world, be like Cheerful Bill and smell the roses.

Yo, Dear Reader, there’s a joke that really good weather hits when the leaving cert, final exam for students before college or leaving school, and this year it is just dark and wet. We aren’t going to accept that none of this is how it was, the seasons have gradually collapsed. This year I am getting fruits, though rain is ruining a lot of them, but the extreme heat and drought knocked out nearly all of my apples. It’s just dispiriting that the reason this is all happening is all the different flavours of evil. We could have a beautiful world, Dear Reader, I’m still fighting for my little patch. I may be wrong, but I can’t help but feel this is the most roses I have seen, no spraying for years has made them the healthiest plants ever. Birds and hoverflies take care of the aphids, funnily there is one rose full of near perfect circular holes which means the leafcutter bee is about. Natural beats all and this way no expensive feeds or sprays are just washing into the ground.

Okay, that too was nearly dead.

People were talking about how hard it is for the bees to get flowers at this time of year and that’s on you…I’m doing it.

There are now two clematis winding through The Rambler along with a dog rose and a blackberry.

The honeysuckle is so plain, but flowers profusely.

Yanked out of a garden years ago.

It’s a tangle, but so pretty.

Last of the pinks due to heat.

Weed tea works is all I’m saying.

I’ve been doing what I can around the garden, feels like the weeds are popping up as fast as ever, they get made into feed so i joke about them being harvested instead of pulled. At least with the weed tea I can just not dilute if everything is too saturated. We’ve had our blight warnings, not surprising as rain is a huge trigger, I just used the milk, bicarb and cinnamon with the natural soap mix I use everywhere it’s needed, which is very rarely these days funnily. I could never get a straight answer about the copper spraying, which in soil helps with fungal issues, so I just left it out,, never stopped blight anyway. I don’t think anything does, Dear Reader, you just hope it won’t take hold.

Peas are flowering and climbing finally.

This all cost so little and took so little work and if I did it anywhere else it’d probably fail top match up.

I got this hosta, which I guess is a miniature, years ago, they bought it and threw it to me, and just spotted it in a corner alongside he now naturalised yellow strawberries, they even grow in the cracks of concrete, and the ever present aquilegia.

Gifted sec…third, purple rose is a little beaten down, but this is the first year.

I think those are the wilder type of raspberry, slow to fruit, no idea if I can get them…this is yet another raspberry in a rose. They’re related so I guess t works.

Super old, super pretty.

Deadnettle is easy remove so I’ll let it flower or the bees.

I’ve been busy as I can, I have to get out because I can’t face the Winter without this time in the garden, which feels too much like the dead Winter at times, ended up stoning the garden again, a layer of finer stones as I was lucky to come into some money and this has been on my mind a lot. The older stones where free, but cheap and slippery. I say a lot that I may not look like much, but I am in the best condition I have been, my diet has been pared down a lot, but retains all the good, it’s miserable at times I can’t deny, but it works, I hauled a ton of stones in a few hours and wasn’t winded. I put all my efforts towards the garden, if the weather cooperated it’d be even better, but even I, who is so used to it, have to stop and look at all there is. So much was junk, thrown way plants, neglected plants, and every year they get better and better. Here’s hoping the weather will too, Dear Reader. I’ll be back later, until then stay safe and take care.

Russian and Ukrainian peas from the heirloom shop, they both grow well over two metres. Why you’d want a short plant that hardly produces is beyond me, I have a free standing pea I was gifted the seeds of and it is pointlessly small.

Wineberry buds.

Wee bushy rose is now at the wall’s edge. Took years.

Top strawberry is the newer type, rubbery and redder, the bottom is the really old super delicate and sweet kind.

As the weather cooled the yellow came back.

Glad it survived all the exposure and all that putty that rained down while the greenhouse was out of commission.

One of the clematis tangled in The Rambler.