Sunday 27 May

• I've decanted the fig whisky - I will now wait another 9 months before drinking. I put it in one of the fancy bottles I have. Found 2 plastic stoppers that fit various sized bottle necks  and one of those worked fine. Would be useful to have some more of theses stoppers but can't remember where I got them!
• I've put a few 3-cornered leek in a pot to see if I can control them that way. I don't use huge amounts so a pot full will probably be about right for me.
• To Cornwall to stay with my mother for last weekend. She had potted up 4 mints - Moroccan, eau de cologne, chocolate and basil for me. Got them safely home by tube and train. My ordinary mint that I have had for years doesn't appear to have survived the winter. I like Pimms but don't like all the extras, but I do add a bit of mint.
• This week swifts above garden (though seen them earlier elsewhere), Have only seen 2, so hope one of each sex!
• Got home mid afternoon yesterday to find north facing conservatory really hot and raisin tomatoes collapsed. one still very sick today when I put out cucumbers (except one which will stay in the conservatory), courgettes and tomatoes.
• First wild strawberry - from a plant self-sown in a pot.where I have a little oak tree seedling.

Monday 7 May

• One of the sad things about being an adult is how much of one's time is spent thinking about getting stuff dry! So this weekend has been a good one. I was working Friday evening so had the morning off and got the duvet and the sleeping bag I have open under my fleecy under-blanket to the laundrette and then dry on the rotary dryer. Saturday normal weekly wash and also dried on the rotary dryer. Yesterday, I did the coverlet and the fleecy under-blanker. Today I have 4 jumpers drying outside.
• Until the last 10 minutes when one person came with his washing, I was the only one in the laundrette. Once the current owners give up then I am sure it will become something else which will cause problems - but for me only once a year.
• Twice this week I came home and took a cup of herb tea and book outside in the garden and sat for a while. 
• Two hour ride on my bike on Saturday. Out of the house 8.45 but the tow path already busy with walkers, joggers and cyclists. Down to Victoria Park - both east and west bits. - then a detour round Wick Wood (lots of cow parsley/sweet Cecily with side of the path on the north).
• Rhubarb crumble again today.
• Found French marigolds in shop around the corner so got them and potted them into pots for deterring greenfly in the conservatory. Also got basil from the supermarket which I put in a bigger pot for the conservatory.
• I pulled up 3-corned leek yesterday. I've recently read, and my friend in Cardiff I was staying with last weekend confirmed, that it was very invasive. The patch was definitely spreading and there are clumps of it elsewhere in the garden. Still bulbs of it in the earth, but I am ready fot it to take a few years to get rid of.
• Wisteria is looking lovely along the fence. 
• Several butterflies in the garden today, but only seen 2 bees.

Another "small" garden my garden would be lost in!

The May issue of The Simple Things has an article about a "small garden in Kent: proof that you don't need masses of space to have a productive patch."

It is a 150 foot plot - so well over twice as long as mine. Mine is a thin garden, presumably this garden is wider as if it was a long ribbon of a garden it would, I think, be mentioned. So the house is obviously wider and probably detached.

The only guide to real small gardens I've come across is "Big Gardens in Small Spaces" by Martyn Cox which I got when I visited his garden when it was open here in Waltham Forest - and it is less than half the size of mine.