The lettuces

The bottom of Mum and Dad's garden.

The sweet peas

I don't know how mum got them so tall?!

Garden envy

The shock of my parents' newly painted, bright lilac bathroom did nothing
to diminish the enormous wave of envy that hit me when I saw their garden
and allotment at the weekend. I hadn't been home for a good few months,
and to see the seeds I'd sent them as massive, flowering tomato plants
made me exceptionally jealous. Especially when I compared them to my own, very same plants that are (although doing well) still no more than a foot tall.

Then there was the lettuce plants, the courgettes, the cabbages, the sweet
peas, the marigolds. They were all about a good month ahead of mine, and
despite Mum's protestations about it being the greenhouse that's made all
the difference, I'm certain there's more to it.

However, although I'm envious, I'm also really in awe of what they've
achieved. It looks fabulous, and I thought it would be nice to photograph
bits of it for here.

Stinking Sweaty Summer

Along with the sun comes sticky, sweaty trains, and the chore that is lugging watering cans umpteen times into my garden to water everything. Last night things didn't look too bad actually, although for the first time in two years, our olive tree was desperate for a drink and was all saggy. It looked much better this morning though, so that lifted my spirits. There have been loads of ants in and around it, and I was a little worried that they'd been munching on its roots. I guess I'll find out soon enough though - hopefully they didn't take too kindly to their impromptu swimming lessons last night!

Oh, and I saw a lovely Pied Wagtail dancing around on Clapham Junction platform this morning. He obviously was from the sub-species Pied Wagtailus Trainspotterus. Very common in London apparently.

The courgettes have sprouted!

My courgettes have sprouted - and they're the most wonderful seedlings ever. No lily livered piddly cress offerings here, oh no! two enormous soft green leaves sprouting out like they want to be beanstalks. I'm really pleased that I decided to grow them as they've made me very happy.

Milo strikes a pose

Nothing to do with my garden, although he does sit and look at it most of
the day. This is milo in all his beautful Devon Rex glory. Thanks John for
taking such a lovely picture of my boy!

Evil Squirrel

Evil Squirrel
Originally uploaded by Shiny Katie.

So much for squirrel-proof feeders! Thanks to my ever present birdwatcher Katie for this one!

Our friendly woodpecker

As promised, here's the woodpecker! And our (not very) squirrel-proof bird
feeder.

Let me at 'im!

When is a soggy, mouldy ball of fatty bread not something you leave well alone for the rats? When you find one fully buried in your vegetable plot, that's when.

Whichever little monkey of a squirrel thought that it would leave me a special treat in among my leeks had better watch out - I'm a dab hand at throwing very hard stones, and I have it on great authority that we will soon be getting a very powerful waterpistol. Then it'll be sorry.

Finally, a chance to write!

It was a weekend-and-a-half for gardening. I've become determined to write more posts and take more photos, but the time always seems to fly away from me, especially when i'm on press week when I have no time at all to blog. I'll get there in the end though. Either way, this weekend proved momentous in many ways.

Katie proved her destructive worth once more in clearing even more border and cutting back the debris that engulfs our garden from the savage wasteland next door. I planted out the carrots (nice and comfortable under a little tent-like covering). I also stuck in a few Ambrosia peas that had grown nicely, although they were still quite small. Unfortunately my space is limited in the greenhouse, so I had to give them the push out into the real world. However, the plot is gradually filling up and I'm getting quite excited by it.

From the safety of my greenhouse, my French beans were savaged by some mysterious predator, but i rescued them and they're now sprouting new leaves to replace the chewed ones. I got a little distressed at the time, but I'm calming down now.

My chillis are looking a bit sorry for themselves. They look a bit sad and some of the first leaves are drooping and falling off. I don't know if I put them out in the greenhouse too soon, or whether I over watered them, but hopefully some will keep going. I really would be distraught if I had no chillis at all this year.

And then there's the new birdfeeder, a tall, sculptural thing that looks mighty impressive. We have our upstairs neighbour to thank for this, and we've already had the woodpecker return and enjoy the peanuts.

But anyway must dash once more, and plan all the other things I still have to write about.