Summer is here

What a lovely day it has been. I was out watering the veggies this morning. My brocolli is going very well and the artichoke has gone bonkers. Last years 'mad' borage has started to appear again. I will move them to Jake's wildflower garden as they threatened to take over last year.

Elsewhere in the raised bed the potatoes are doing well. I have started to raise up the earth either side to encourage more shoots.

It's now 10pm and I have just come back from a slug clearing session. I picked off several of the beasties that were feasting on my potatoes, courgette, spinach and brocolli.

Bonkers

Things have been going bonkers in the garden of late. This has a lot to do with the prodigious amount of rain we've had for the last couple of weeks.

The rocket is threatening to escape from its bed and the runner beans are fighting to get away from their wigwam supports. The borage has started to flower and is attracting lots of bees and hoverflies.

At the back,what I like to call 'the wilderness', the nasturtiums have decided to climb up the trellis and have reached the top of the wall. The borage at the back has yet to flower but the leaves are massive compared its flowering brethren. Broad beans are going great guns. I'm hoping to harvest them in a week.

No more basil

I went out this morning to see how the crops were doing. The small basil plants have gone or at least that's what I though at first. Upon closer inspection the stalks are there but all the leaves have been eaten. This is odd because the plants were under a empty yoghurt pot for protection. One of the adjoining runner beans had signs of a slug trail so I guess these are to blame. I can only assume that eggs have been laid under the soil and the little tiny slugs have come up and had a feed.

At the back things aren't looking good for the borage. The two that I didn't cover have been partially eaten and the one under cover is looking rather unhealthy. My nematodes arrived last week so I think today is the day to apply them.

Raised bed...done

Like the Ramsey-esque title :-) ?

I spent around 5 hours hours on Sunday finishing off the raised bed. I lost the posts used to connect the two ends together so I had to fashion some using some offcuts of wood. Once the frame was together I had a hard time man-handling the whole structure to the bottom of the garden.

I didn't realised quite how steep the slope is at the back. The front end of the bed is almost level with the surrounding soil. I had to build up the other end to get it nice and level. The good news is that it is all done now. The next step is to double dig the bed and add some nice manure.

The broad beans are doing very well with lots of flowers emerging from their stalks. The borage has been attacked by slugs so I shall need to apply some more nematodes. The chili is also blooming...literally. It now has three lovely white flowers. I wonder when the young chili pods will emerge?