Busy day

The picture is of my yellow Chilli (variety unknown) which currently has four tiny fruits on it. It's still in a 5" pot. Chilli Trifetti on the other hand is still only at the flowering stage but had to be potted on into 8" pots today because it's getting rather tall. I think it might have to go outside after all if it carries on growing at this rate.

Yesterday I picked the first four ripe Strawberries - they were soon gobbled down by my granddaughter!

I've been busy today. I potted on the three Physallis into 8" pots and noticed I have two fruits already. The three Tomato Micro plants were also potted on into 8" pots but there is no sign yet of any of the fruits ripening. The Box cutting I took a couple of years ago is doing really well. It's a nice healthy ball about 8" in diameter and I decided to pot it up today into a 10" pot before it became root-bound. The Sunflower seedlings went into 5" pots and one (the biggest) has been left outside to see if it can resist slug/snail attack. If not then I'll leave the rest in the greenhouse for a while longer. I pricked out the Milk Thistle and Tree Spinach seedlings too.

On the flower side I was very surprised to see that one of my Schizostylis is in flower again. This plant normally flowers from about September to December! The first flower on Digitalis Tinkerbell has opened and there is some colour showing on the Dutch Irises and the Lychnis versuvius. The Rue, Ox-eye Daisies and Alliums have all taken a bit of a battering with the heavy rainfall but I'm hoing that they will recover. And the first of my Eucomis has appeared above the gravel in its pot.

In terms of wildlife the garden is full of bumble bees busy on the Aquilegia, Sage and Dicentra. The tadpoles spend all day under the pond weed so there is no chance of taking a picture but I know I still have some because I see the odd one when I top up the water feature with rain water. I found one Lily Beetle (now crushed), one Rosemary Beetle (on the Purple Sage !) which I left alone and joy of joys one Ladybird larva.

Georgie