Beautiful weather

It's been a very warm and sunny weekend with just a shower last night so I've taken full advantage of it and spent most of the time in the garden. The photo is of a common Poppy which opened today.

Wildlife

I have spotted lots of insects this week, thankfully most of the them 'friends' (although I had to squish a couple of Lily Beetles). I'm getting a little bit better at identifying things now, like the Rosemary beetle in my last post. I was delighted to see a lacewing near the Lonicera, Ladybird larvae on Raspberries and Strawberries, a fair number of buff-tailed bumble bees on the Rue, a host of different hoverflies all around the garden, more large red damselflies and a very pretty little moth which has been identified as a small magpie. But sadly still no butterflies to speak of yet. That said, the buds on the Buddleia are colouring up and there are the first signs of flower buds on the Verbena Bonariensis so hopefully that will bring them in.

Edibles

I'm picking a fair few Strawberries each day and pegging down some of the runners into small pots for next year's stock. There are lots of flower buds on the Courgettes and plenty of flowers out on the Tomatoes, Chillies and Physallis. And joy of joys, I have the first bean pod forming on the Broadies. The Cucumbers are still in the greenhouse to protect them from the snails for as long as possible and I've run out of Radish and forgotten to sow any more! Most of the herbs are doing well but I do wish the slugs/snails would leave them alone. They seem to love the Parsley and Thyme at the moment and have pretty much finished off the Pineapple Sage. I've moved the latter to a 'safer haven' in the hope that it will recover and taken a couple of cuttings just in case.

Ornamentals

I'm continuing to empty out containers of spring bulbs and have six remaining to sort out. As I do this I'm able to pot on other plants for the summer display but it's very time consuming bagging up all the spent compost and drying off the bulbs etc and also quite tiring lugging the pots around. Still, I've got quite a few of the annuals out now (although some will still need potting on into their final containers).

I am determined to get on top of powdery mildew this year and have been spraying the affected plants with a bicarbonate of soda solution every few days. So far it seems to be working and the Monarda, Ajuga and Pulmonaria are looking a lot better for it.

I mowed and edged the lawn then tackled some serious pruning in the tiny front garden. I also weeded the driveway again and as I did so I was pleased to see that the containers are looking good with a number of the broadcast seeds coming up, Lychnis in bloom and flower buds on the Borage. They are going to be a riot of colour at this rate and I can't wait!

Georgie