25th May

25^th May

We were out all of Saturday and had guests yesterday so thanks to it being bank holiday today it was a welcomed day at home and, against British tradition, we had a scorching day for it. It was so hot that I pottered gently in the garden for a while then went and sat in the shade to cool off, so work was slow but I accomplished what I set out to do. First of all, I planted out the 5 year old’s sunflowers. I broke one off at the base but still planted it – you never know (well actually, I do know – the slugs will get it before I ever see any sprouting) and one had its stem snapped, but 3 made it to the border, were protected with a sawn of milk carton, watered heavily and laced with coffee grounds inside the container to deter slugs. I set up 3 wigwams each of 3 bamboo canes and planted out 6 sweet pea plants to each wigwam and tied up supporting string. The varieties were all mixed up – including one variety (supreme mix which is a mixture anyway) as I want these wigwams to be a mass of different colours, not like the fence panels which I want to be sections of one colour each. As the plants grow up these supports I will put horizontal canes across from the tops of the wigwams so that the plants can grow across as well – just to add to the colour effect. I had 6 cupani and 5 swan lake plants left over so I planted them up into a container for each colour and I will place them out in the front garden – after I’ve done some weeding there! The leftover plants will go to the allotment. Having planted all the sweet peas I was going to, I then went round tying in the ones that needed to be, as well as snipping off the lesser shoots so that they concentrate energy in sending a good strong stem skywards – to where we’ll see the blooms.

Someone we know has given us a self-supporting hammock and we erected that for the first time yesterday. Due to the heat today, I spent some time out on it, in the shade of course. From that restful position and the new angle at which you look at the garden I was able to appreciate the swifts swooping across the sky pretty much all the day. I also saw a blue tit fly in and out of a small hole at the end of our fascia board at the eve of the back of the house. I could actually hear chirping from inside the loft when the bird was out – definitely a nest there, it’s quite exciting and obviously my loft is a more desirable a location to raise a family than the purpose built nesting box I put up the autumn before last which I saw being inspected but not inhabited. The place was also buzzing with bees and a fair few different species of bees as well which is encouraging given the bee crisis we are facing. Apart from that, a tortoise shell butterfly kept visiting a plant throughout the day, much to the relief of our 5 year old who has been watching cocoons at school and seen butterflies emerge and be released – to his hysterical distress (he thought they had left him for ever) – but now he believes that one of the freed butterflies has sought him out and come to live near us so that he can see him again. I chose not to burst the illusion. As long as the butterflies stay off my developing brassicas, I’m happy too.

In the cool of the evening, it was time to give the garden a good drenching with water, especially to the newly planted items. Job done.