The start of June marks the beginning of summer and the joy of seeing flowers and fruits coming alive around us makes all our hard work worth it.
During one of the tv gardening programmes we saw a segment about growing loofahs (although the spelling seemed to be slightly different everywhere I looked). The plants looked amazing and the resulting fruit and dried loofah sponges were incredible. A few weeks later and we had our first loofah or luffa seedlings.
One of our Trollius plants was munched by deer or rabbits but an upside down hanging basket protected the other one and hey presto we had a beautiful bright orange bloom. These plants like wet conditions so it is very happy at the wet end of daffodil walk.
Another plant we saw on TV was the Camassia which is woodland plant which comes in a variety of blues and white. I was able to plant some white ones with a variegated leaf in the white garden. I was a little sceptical as to whether they would become deer food but in the end we had some beautiful flowers.
Despite it being June we were still allowing the last of the daffodils to die back before mowing the whole area. Sadly it always looks a bit messy until we can tidy it up a bit. In the meantime M got the mower out and cut either side of the daffodil beds. We needed to weed around the shrubs but that was a task for another day.
We have no idea who laid this egg but it must have been painful! The egg on the left is the normal size for our chooks and the one on the right was huge.
It turned out that the massive egg was a double yoker, our first one and extremely tasty.
As we have been trying to keep a record of how things are growing and changing I have been attempting to take regular photos from approximately the same spot. The orchard looked great just after M had been active with the mower again.
We inherited a shrub in the garden which covers the wall dividing us from the chicken yard. We have always assumed it was a clematis of some kind. No matter what variety it is the abundance of flowers and beautiful scent astounds us each year.
For some reason we have never been particularly successful when it comes to growing roses. There were about 5 in the garden and they all looked pretty dreadful despite our mulching, feeding and pruning regime. However, occasionally we were rewarded with a gorgeous bloom.
Earlier in the year we chipped and laid paths through some areas of the woods. By June the weeds had begun to grow through and M battled through on the tractor. It looked so much better and saved Jess from walking through the nettles.
We were amazed to find this little fellow hiding under the matting around one of the orchard trees. Thankfully M was on hand to escort him back to a safe place.
With the long sunny days the temperatures in the greenhouse were soaring and in recent years we have only shaded the south facing side of the greenhouse. this year I decided to fix some shading to the west side of the greenhouse to reduce the scorching effect of the sun on my little plants. It was surprisingly really effective.
The winter weather took it's toll on the green bench. Well that was my excuse for the fact that it collapsed under my weight or perhaps it was when Jess jumped up to join me. Either way it required a serious makeover, M put his diy skills into action and hey presto a new (and safe) bench in our afternoon woodland suntrap.
We inherited these vegetables shelters from my aunt last year and decided to try them over the sweetcorn. One was particularly wonky but seemed up to the job nonetheless, at least it was some protection from the hungry rabbits and deer.
Our local garden nursery was a wonderful find and results in a car full of plants. The latest trip found us buying 3 more rhododendron a coupe of hydrangeas and a few shrubs for the white garden.
The new rhododendrons planted up.
A new rhododendron added near to the ones we planted over the last few years.
A little blue hydrangea.
A climbing white hydrangea for the white garden.
We planted some Cornus Candensis (ground cover), Solomons Seal, Astrantia, Hollyhock, Buddleia, Viburnum and Campanula. They looked very young and immature but we were hopeful that they would grow strongly over the summer. A wonderful end to a month of hard work.
We grew all our tomato plants in growbags in the greenhouse after the trial polytunnel ones performed very poorly, suffering from various ailments. They were planted up in mid May and by the middle of June they had lots of healthy new green growth.
We had planted some broad beans in the polytunnel at the end of autumn last year and were rewarded with a lovely early harvest.
The pots and hanging baskets were beginning to fill out and enjoying the long sunny days, our main task was trying to keep them watered and fed.
I thought I'd finish with a little photo of M's collection of Hostas. This was only their second year, they appeared to be staving off any slug attacks and were putting on lots of green foliage. Just lovely and possibly the start of another obsession!
