A Bowlful of Sunshine

At last - harvest!

No maintenance gardening

Considering the amount of time I have spent gardening this year (none), it is a miracle that I have any fruit on my tomato plants at all. But nature is amazing and this is the proof. No feeding, hardly any watering. I didn't even pinch out side shoots and kept forgetting to tie the plants in. Now they just need to ripen - fingers crossed for a few more sunny days and then we will have tomato salad.

Sunny Sunday

View from my spot in the corner of the garden.

Another glorious day. The sun is beating down and all the colours are sort of amplified. This morning I sat in the garden and from my corner all I could see was blues and greens. And as a reminder that it is actually autumn, a cobweb suspended between the tomato plants and our neighbours' apple tree.

The other night I went for a walk around North London, I was on the way to dinner at some friends house. The evening light that hit the tops of buildings and trees and was the most amazing golden honey colour. I took deep breaths as if to inhale that light, to store it in my belly. Charging up before the dark months ahead.

Exotic harvest

This is a dream come true - ripe figs in my own garden! 

I won't be making jam and chutney any time soon as I only have a few fruit, but I am so pleased about this first harvest as it means the fig is in a position sunny and sheltered enough for the figs to ripen. I will pick them at them at the weekend and enjoy them on their own in a ceremonial way.

Love and Peas

It is a funny year for gardens. Things just don't seem to be behaving as expected. With the cold and the wet, I guess you can't expect them too. Plants are living things that may not do what it says on the back of the seed packet in with the most perfect conditions.

One of my favourite things in the world is growing sweet peas, watching them climb up my bamboo canes and eventually cut all the stems off at once, then dot the house with little bunches here and there and get high on that delicious scent. This year, my sweet sweet peas have simply not happened. I understand from listening to an expert on Gardener's World that it is not just me - sweet peas really  have suffered this year. Oh well. Let's not dwell on it. I am already thinking about next year when I am going to have buckets full!

At first it seemed that my real peas (the ones you eat) were going to have the same destiny. I sowed them months ago and seedlings did appear, but just as quickly they were gone, devoured by snails or perhaps put off enough by the rain to simply give up. One side effect of the bad weather is that I just haven't been outside as much and my usual daily snail patrol has been reduced to an occasional check. But I decided to have another go with the peas, and now there are plenty of strong, healthy plants making their way up a wigwam.

So the point of this is I am having to repeat my gardening motto of less stress, more fun and focusing on the good things. And I do love peas!

The Queen

So here she is - Queen of Sweden, the first rose to enter my garden. And I have to say it is quite special to watch those buds swell and unfurl. The petals are the softest pink, tightly packed together. One day soon I am going to cut one and take it into the house so I can look at it up close.

Status Update

Time for annual poppies.

Geum and Alchemilla Mollis.

The Lavender is looking good.

Off the wall

How about this - a poppy seed has found it's way into a crack in the wall and decided to grow there. Pretty amazing!

Give me a couple of months and we will have tomatoes

Yesterday we had a lovely sunny day before it started raining late in the afternoon. It hasn't stopped since. I made the most of the sunshine while it lasted, spent a few hours in the garden and got one of the most fun jobs done: planting tomatoes.

This year I have gone for four different varieties. First out is classic cherry tomato Gardener's Delight which I have grown every year since I started. Tasty and reliable. Alicante is a medium sized sweet tomato which worked well last time I tried it. I am not sure if I have had Golden Sunrise before or not...looks good in any case, just hope it tastes nice too. Finally there is Moneymaker which is a standard variety that has been popular for many years. This is the first time it makes an appearance in my garden, and I hope it lives up it's reputation.