Catching up

Mixed old shrub roses ....

Catching up, both with the blog and with the garden, after a trip away.  Things are looking very lush, very green and romantically flowery (at least in certain corners).  The roses are all out (or, in the case of the yellow pimpinellifolia, been and gone); they've done well this year - obviously my pruning paid dividends this time.  A jugful of them is on the table at the moment.  Recent cut flowers have all been from the garden - roses, peonies, and earlier, a jug of sweet william, pinks and lady's mantle (the pinks have also flowered well).  The aquilegias are over, but there are some good foxgloves down in the bottom border (and a rather less good self-sown mullein, complete with very impressive mullein moth caterpillars).  The annuals were planted out, or put out in mixed pots, before we went away; the odd cosmos has flowered but the main show is still to come.  I'm pleased with the pink ipomoea, though; they grew on well, no damping off, and are now flowering successfully in the big pot at the bottom of the garden, with a blue penstemon for company.  The windowbox needs replanting; the current incumbents, a pair of blue violas from the garden centre and some of last year's calendulas - a lovely bright pairing when in full flow - are looking very sad now.

... and sweet william with pinks

In the veg plot, some batch sowings of beans are getting underway, and the courgette plants are managing well enough for the moment.  The two winter squash plants have both died; I'm not doing well with those!  The lettuces have done well, however, in their fleece tent.  In the greenhouse, the neighbours' ministrations kept the tomatoes and aubergines, in their growbags, settling in nicely, and flower trusses are now setting.

This year I've got at the green gooseberries early, and have made jam; there are still quite a few to pick, but I'm more relaxed now about the blackbirds going in there.  The red ones are still colouring up, as are the blackcurrants; I've put a fleece tent around one of the blackcurrant bushes, which I hope will keep the birds off!

The robins' brood seems to have fledged and gone; before we left there were three quite friendly little ones about, but no sign of them now, and the adults are singing lustily, suggesting that they're back on the nest.  The blackbirds are feeding quite large fledgelings, and the sparrows and starlings are also taking food away; and there were two little thrushes following a parent around the other day.  Various finches are about too, a nuthatch was pecking about in the big ash tree one day and young woodpeckers have been coming to the peanuts.  The jay has been back (and was scared off), and also the red kite; the latter was hunting quite low over the garden last week.

Weather has varied from wet to warm and sunny, with a thunderstorm thrown in.  The latter didn't deter a hedgehog which was snuffling around the cold frame, apparently quite oblivious to the lightning.  After a warm and dry week we're now back in the heavy showers phase.