Gardener's delight.

A day off today and how I have looked forward to it but sadly, as soon as I finished the work I'd brought home with me the rain started pounding. It stopped at two and I nipped out and used the now redundant space where the courgettes would have grown had not two of them been decimated by those pesky slugs to put in three rows of rocket. I've done an artisan veg patch whilst Luke hasn't been looking. I've got some rows going one way and some the other. Next year we may actually have a plan but this year, with building the fence we have not had lots of time to devote to the vegetable patch. In fact it's been mainly me working on it this year as once Luke put in his potatoes, onions and garlic he hasn't had much time for himself. I spoke to my Mum at long last today and we chatted about her onions. They seem to have onion mould which I'd seen on Gardener's World this month. It's not about veg-husbandry because even the very experienced gardeners have fallen foul to it this year. It does mean that you can't use the same ground for onions for four years although it is fine for most other vegetables. Thankfully, our onions are looking resplendent in their beige or scarlet jackets.

The beetroot, spinach, ornamental cabbages and pak choi are all coming up now. I'm just waiting for the parsley to start emerging. Soon the delicate lavender flowers of the beans will turn to shards of green bean but I'm not very hopeful for the sweetcorn which doesn't like being planted out so late.

In the greenhouse, huge marigolds threaten to take over the place, coming up way past waist height. The glossy fruits of our aubergines are looking magnificent but the tomatoes have yet to ripen into cherry bright fruits. Love apple is the old name for tomatoes, I read that 35 years ago in an old girl's annual and have never forgotten it. I even won a quiz with it once - that and being able to spell omelette. You see, my year of training in catering came in handy for something!

I've also transplanted six strawberry plants which I'd had in a pot. They grow much better from runners than they do from seed and now is a good time to divide and space out so once I'd moved a couple of decorative plants to admittedly temporary homes I had some extra space by the red currant to put in another small bed of strawberries.

We've been enjoying the fruits of our labour recently with the enormous Polka raspberries, picked straight from the cane, rubbed half heartedly in a pretence to clean away any wasp and fly trace and then popped straight in the mouth. Put like that it sounds mightily unhygenic but that's the gardener's delight – to be able to snack as he or she works.
Here is a bee enjoying itself on the verbena.