Summer progresses ...

with the arrival of the Blackberries. I couldn't resist picking just a few ...I wish the brambly apple tree had done a bit more this year



The lottie is bursting with wildlife. I've been having a tidy up today as the wildflower garden has got totally overgrown and the Ox Eye Daisy's, having blown over and lolled over everything else, have now finally died back. I read recently that cut flowers are excellent fodder for the compost heap, so it is now bursting at the seams.

I know that slugs and snails are the gardeners enemy, but I can't bring myself to squish them - hopefully my froggies will find them.



I may have to revise my view of spiders - I have never, ever seen a pink one ! It looked even more sweet, as it looked for somewhere to roll its beautiful pastel blue egg sack.



It was good to see lots of butterflies flitting about today, as well as the usual cabbage whites I saw a couple of peacocks and managed to capture these:

I think this one is a Gatekeeper:





I think this is a Speckled Wood:



I'm not sure what this one is:


I had lots of crickets chirruping around the lottie in the sunshine today:


There were various varieties of bees, wasps & flies buzzing over the thistles and wildflower garden:







I had to rescue another froggie from one of the waterbutts. He was kind enough to pose for a photo:



and the pond is rippling with baby frogs:



Although all of my tomato plants are small, they do look nice and strong and finally have some tomatoes. Some of the varieties are not what it says on the label however. This is definitely a Tigerella.



This is definitely not Roma ! It looks like Marmande ... next year I need a more robust seedling starter LOL.



This is definitely a Marmande:


This is a Shirley:



My Roma look fantastic and I shall definitely grow them again next year (even though I haven't tasted them yet !) Four of the Sweet Olive Plum have ripened - the vines are covered in tiny fruits - I didn't realise that they were so much smaller than Roma.

Hmm, this is supposed to be my melon ! I thought it was just my tomato labelling that had gone awry. Oh well, looks like I'll have some cucumbers yet !



I have baby beans .. I know in a couple of weeks I'll be so over the excitment, but for now I'm very pleased to see them just forming - these are Scarlett Emerald:



and this is my first Borlotti ! It looks very promising:



my top bed of sweetcorn is now flowering - the plants look really strong. I can see the baby cobs just forming.



I've heard that we have blight on our lottie site, but I'm peased to say that mine all look extremely strong and green:


These are about the sum total of my Blueberry crop. I'm not sure if its something I've done, or if the blossom didn't set earlier in the year. I've heard they do better if they have a companion, so I think I definitely need to buy another one for next season:



We've eaten loads of Artichokes and the plants are still going strong - they have got lots of new heads:



The Leeks are still in full flower .. I have a feelng I'm going to miss the seeds ! But they look very pretty: