End of June

Just a reminder of what part of the garden looked like at the end of May

... and how it looked at the end of June

I am really pleased with how the 5cm plugs have grown especially as they aren't in the most luscious soil.  I have high hopes for a good show of flowers in late summer and a properly knitted together border next year if they survive a Scottish winter.

The herbs are slow to take off but to be fair they don't get a lot of sun at the top end of the garden (north facing)  For the amount I use they are doing just fine.  I tended to replace most if not all of them each year even when I was growing them in ideal conditions.  The woody ones like rosemary and thyme go woody (surprise!!) and the softer ones are never as lush as they are in year one.

The 'play' veggie area has produced enough radishes to keep the neighbours fed never mind us.  I didn't bother successional sowing as I grew them really just to show my grandson, so I chucked in the whole packet.  Of course when you don't care and don't bother what happens.... you get thousands of large perfect radishes.

The two patches of mixed leaves have been cut and used and they are now starting to run to seed so I will hack the leaves off, use some and chuck the rest away and give the plants a chance to grow some more new small leaves for next time round.  The watercress isn't exactly cracking on.  I said when i bought it I had my doubts.  I really wanted the American land cress.

We added a small bench in the gravelled area and it has proved to be a lovely place to while away a few minutes between chores.  The fabulous mini rose in the pot on the table was one of those supermarket last five minute jobbies but I deadheaded it and moved it outside and it is incredibly healthy and putting on more flowers.  Always worth a punt.

With faithful watering and feeding during this heatwave - yes literally a couple of months of almost unbroken record breaking heat - the pots in the south part of the garden have done really well

Ken added a couple more planting holes along the back fence for my passion flowers that were desperate to be free of their tiny pots.  They were being saved to disguise the sheds in some way but I thought they wouldn't last another month as they were.

The strawberries are late (late planting) but they are coming along at last and producing quite a lot of very pretty pink flowers.

As for the two baskets we bought from Dunbar Garden centre for ten pounds each I am very pleased with those.

This is a view of the back fence and its four climbers - two perennial sweet peas and two passion flowers.  The strawberry pots are back there because putting them in the better place for them they get filled with lawn clippings when the gardener cuts the grass.