Litle bit of this, little bit of that from the garden makes a salad

Out with friends today so I cooked some small lentils yesterday evening. This morning I went into the garden and got some rocket, chives, broad beans, swiss chard and my first (two, very tiny) tomatoes, cucumbers and some raddish seeds and made a really nice salad.

I added some oil from a sundried tomato jar and some olives.

I forgot I had some basil in a pot in the conservatory as I would have added some leaves of that!

The cucumbers are Iznik greenhouse cucumbers from the Organic Gardening catalogue, at their best when only 7-10cm long. I have two outside and two inside the conservatory. Will definitely get these again for next year.

My friends and I had our packed lunches sitting in the garden by Waltham Abbey alongside long flower beds full of cornfield flowers. It was a very pretty show, and the bees and hoverflies were taking full advantage of it.

log store overflow

Here is the log store with the extra pile at the front of it!

I hope a cat doesn't want to climb it - it'll all come down!

I've put some opened out thick plastic sacks over the front pile, weighted down with broken clay roof tiles. I hope they survive the wind forecast for Friday night/

I will look for a small tarpaulin at the DIY store. And I will also keep my eye out for a medium-sized pallet.

logs are hard work!

I had a day off last week and I had arranged a log delivery from a tree surgeon. The 30 bags of logs were due to arrive between 11.00 and 1.00. At 1.00 I rang to see what had happened to them. I was rung back at 2.00 to be told the guys on the lorry had the morning work down for the afternoon!

New delivery time 4.30 to 6.30. They rung at 5.45 to be tell me they were so far behind they could not deliver that day.

I had today off work so arranged a new delivery time in the afternoon as I had the osteopath in the morning - 1.00 to 4.00. I arrive home just before midday today to find the front garden full of logs!

It took me 5 1/2 hours to get them through the house and stacked (3 trips per sack - 30 sacks).

I knew my new log store wasn't going to take as many logs as the pallet I used to use, but thought the sides would mean no sloping sides so more logs for the ground space. Was disappointed with how much I couldn't fit it. I had some metal grids I use to protect the vegetable beds from cats and foxes, and put those on bricks in front of the store and loaded logs on them.

I will load the picture of the log pile on another post as having problems adding it here!

Hover flies in a poppy

Three hover flies in one of the last opium poppies this morning.

The opium poppy is in a strawberry planter. All the strawberry plants survived the winter in one planter and they all died in this one!

Every year I scatter seeds in the flower beds and every next year they pop up in the vegetable beds and a few here and there - and rarely ever in the flower bed

Courgette plants way behind this year

There's been talk recently of the early spring and early summer bringing on an early autumn. But my courgette plants are way behind.

 

The (smaller) courgette on the right was one of 6 seeds I sowed in doors in pots on 6 May - the only one that properly germinated. The courgette on the left is one of 4 seeds I started off on damp kitchen towel on 5 June, transferring them to pots and then the 3 which grew being put outside last weekend.

In 2008 I picked my first courgette on 25 June - I doubt I'll get my first this year by 25 July!

Medlar/quince mystery

Years ago my friend Maureen gave me two fruit tree seedlings she'd grown herself. For a couple of years neither did well, but one survived and is now bursting its pot. Then last week I spotted a fruit (see above).

It doesn't look like a medlar, which is what I thought I had! I wondered whether it was an apple-shaped quince. I asked Maureen, but she says she didn't give it to me. If it wasn't her, I can't work out who it was - it was definitely someone local.

I haven't been able to find a picture of either a quince tree's leaves or a medlar tree's leaves.

I remember walking with a friend in Greenwich and we passed a tree. Robert, having recently been on a guided walk in the area, asked me what a tree we were passing was. To his surprise, I knew it was a medlar. I believe I recognised it because the leaves looked like those on my tree.

Something badly wrong with my memory!

Still exciting to get a fruit - no plums, and all my figs have dropped off.

Being a good neighbour - lending a knitting needle!

I've just lent a knitting needle to the guy living 2 doors up. He fell down the stairs, broke his arm and has a terrible itch under the plaster. He remembered I had mentioned I knit so came to beg for the loan of a knitting needle!

Community in action!