Tardy Courgettes

This morning I recorded in my perpetual diary my first loganberries (4) and saw that on 25 June 2008 (ie 4 years ago yesterday) I picked my first courgette. The only courgette this year that has survived the snails and slugs is still small, leaves not big enough or tough enough to put off slugs and snails if they get over the slug collars. And they have managed this for the other 2 courgettes and the pumpkin, which are now just stalks! We've had the rain, but not much warmth. Hopefully as time passes everything will catch up and we won't have early frosts to shorten the growing season the other end!

Robin Hood herb walk

This afternoon I went on a herb walk in a small community garden in Clapton near the Lea Navigation. The Robin Hood Community Garden has not been going very long (2 years, I think)but it already has a lot in it. The "walk" was led by Elsa Hamaz, a medical herbalist, and it was very interesting. We looked at both the medicinal herbs that had been planted in the garden and the medicinal weeds. We must have looked at several dozen, sheltering under the elder and talking about the uses of its flowers and berries during the shower. It was interesting to hear how many herbs are anti-allergic, considering how many allergies people seem to have nowadays. Also,what I thought was sow thistle is actually wild lettuce. I have checked my wild flower book and both the sow thistles do look more thistley. We were invited by two people who help look after the garden to take samples of anything of interest, and I took a handful of mugwort leaves which is supposed to give you vivid dreams that you remember. I'll make a tea later and test it out!

Elderflower Champagne started at last

The elders came into flower late this year, and then we had wet weather on the wrong days. Last Sunday would have been a good day to pick some blossom but as the weather forecast was for heavy showers I hadn't brought any lemons. Friday I got lemons and I picked the blossom on the way back from kayaking with the clouds looking threathening. Luckily I was only needing 5/6 heads for elderflower champagne rather than a lot for elderflower cordial as there were not many heads still in full bloom. I realised after I had poured the hot water onto the sugar that usually I make half the amount of the recipe. Luckily I've collected over this last year more of the Lorina Sicilian lemonade bottles (with the wired on caps), so if I treat myself to another bottle on Monday I should have enough. You need to leave plenty of room in the bottles otherwise they explode. The lemonade bottles are 75ml and I'll put about a pint in.

Bee flowers not bee hives

I have thought it strange that in the face of the problems bees are facing we are often encouraged to start keeping bees. I thought this would increase the competition bees faced finding food. I thought growing more flowers that beeds liked would be a far better thing to do (and am delighted with how many bees and other insects I have feeding in my garden between the showers). In the Evening Standard today there was an article telling how "Too many hives mean not enough food and falling honey yields". So my logic was right! If you look carefully you can see a bumble bee's bottom! Apologies - there must be a trick to getting the photo to appear it the right place!

First strawberry

My grandmother's birthday was 13 June and we always had strawberries for her birthday tea. Sometimes just 2 or 3 strawberries each, sometimes a bowlful each. So I always judge whether strawberries are early or late by whether they ripen before or after Grandma's birthday. Yesterday, 13 June, I ate my first strawberry, from one of the new plants in the blue-glazed strawberry planter. Not particularly tasty so I probably won't set up my green-glazed planter with runners from these plants. (I am planning 3, each a different colour, so I know which pot has first year, which has second year, and which has third year strawberries.) I also had 8 autumn raspberries. Lots of fruit on the loganberries, but a long way from ripening yet.

Getting ready for winter

Getting ready for winter doesn't seem out of place when I wearing a thick woolly jumper on a cool, dull June day. I had my logs delivered this afternoon. I only got about half way down the log pile as the winter was so mild - several nights when putting on my double-layered man's fleece jacket was all I needed to keep warm. So this year only 10 bags instead of 30. It took me over two hours to get them through the house and stacked.

London Green Fair

On monday I missed the Redbridge Green Fair because I was out with friends. This afternoon I went to the London Green Fair in Regents Park. As it was not local(ish) I didn't see anyone I knew, whereas at Redbridge Green Fair I would expect to meet quite a few. There were masses of food stalls, so I treated myself to a vegan burger Chose this as I don't cook burgers at home so it was a real treat. I got some vipers bugloss at the River of Flowers stall. I've never heard of this plant before but apparently bees love it and it flowers late June and early July when I will be needing bee/insect food. River of Flowers supports the creation of wildflower meadows in the form of 'floral stepping stones' that flow through the urban landscape like 'rivers' of flowers. www.riverofflowers.org At another stall I got a yarrow - also for insects, and at yet another stall a corriander (for me). I got 3 second hand books, a necklace of second hand cornelian beads and a poncho that looked like it was made of wool but was made from recycled plastic bottles. It is very light and won't take up much room in a bag, so just right for a cool morning that will warm up, or a warm day that will lead into a cool evening. It rained, though not heavily, on the journey home, but stopped so I could plant out the yarrow and vipers bugloss and put the corriander into a bigger pot. My garden was really buzzing this morning, I haven't had as many bumblebees for some years, so I am really pleased with myself.

Lovely evening amongst the bees

Cool but otherwise a lovely evening which I spent potting up seedlings on my bench and other quick chores in the garden. Seen my largest number of bumble bees so far this year - and other insects too. The foxgloves are proving very popular, and the sage, just in flower, is a hit as well. The plants I know as "Grandmothers' bonnets" are going to seed now, so I am cutting them down as they selfseed like weeds! They were oopular with the bees when out. Here are pictures of the garden which unfortunately don't show how colourful it is at the moment. Met a friend today who has a garden in Sudbury. She tries to grow wildflowers in her front garden and cottage garden flowers in the back. She has had trouble getting foxgloves to grow from seed to last year I gave her 3 first year plants from my garden which are flowering this year. I forgot I was planning to give her some more this year so all the ones in the way in the vegetable beds ended up either in the compost bin or the womery. But found several tiny plants in the corners of the bed (there are advantages to not being tidy) so able to put those in some soil in a plastic mushroom tray and give them to her.

Mammals lose out, insects benefit

This has been a glorious sight for over a week now on my cycle route to the Lea Valley: It is a small stretch between a path and the Ruckholt Relief Road (now officially "Orient Way"). Orient Way runs between Ruckholt Road (A106)and Leabridge Road (A104). For years it has been some small trees with scrub underneath. Then last year they cleared all the scrub - Olympic clear-up work, I think. On the one hand I was pleased as the brambles tend to grow out onto the path making cycling along it difficult, and risky for my cuycling jacket, and usually means I had to ring the Council to get them cut back. On the other hand it was rather worrying that all that habitat for small mammals, etc, had been taken away (a feature of a lot of the Olympic clear-up work it seems). I didn't see any insects while I was taking the photos, but hopefully a lot are taking advantage of all these wonderful flowers. Hopefully too, they will be allowed to seed, then cut and removed, so we can have this again next year even though the Olympics will all be over by then.

First frog found!

Yesterday one of my courgettes had a leaf nibbled. Could not see how a snail or slug had reached it, but I put a twig in to stand the plant more upright. I went out this morning in the drizzle to check on it when I disturbed a frog in the low-lying seddum around the pond. This is the first frog I've seen the garden this year. I had been worried that the cats had killed them all, so very pleased to see it.