Just playing around with the Pan option on my camera and captured these slightly obscure images of a lush green lotti, I realized that if the dog moved quickly enough he could be in the shot a number of times. This is the creative aspect that I love about gardening . . . lol
I left off in the spring still with the fence to finish off which it now is. I am glad to report that other than a few birds coming in and eating the strawberries I have not lost everything to the wildlife this year. After being at the Permaculture Scotland event at Craigtoun park, I am trying to incorporate as many flowers around the beds and up the chicken wire fencing, companion planting and encouraging beneficial wildlife into the garden.
The sunflowers were planted quite a number of weeks ago and are just starting to go into their flower now. I have lots of nasturtiums climbing a few feet up the chicken wire and the sweet peas, although slow to establish themselves, have done well in terms of growing tall and producing lots of flowers. There was a really pretty red one in the mix that I had which I am going to collect seeds from for next year.
I had really good crop of beetroot this year which produced fist sized beets, this then meant I had to think of a variety of ways to use all that beetroot ! Soup/ Beetroot hummus/ roast beetroot/ grated on salads . . . .
As you see in the pics there is clover being left and encouraged to colonise bare soil. I also bought some of the red clover variety and popped the seeds around to help. I heard that not only is it pretty, it was a good for the soil and the bees love it.
Have had a glut of peas over the last few weeks even though I did a bit of spacing out a few weeks apart. I planted lots of marigold alongside them which I think helped to keep the pigeon off the young shoots. Have since come to know that while we love eating the peas from the pods Garbo (the dog) loves to eat the pods which must be a good thing.
Beans on the other had were a bit of a disaster. We planted lots which then only a fraction of them broke through the earth and the ones that did were small sickly looking specimens. Till now broadbeans have always been a bit of a bullet proof crop for me.
And to finish – a happy harvest of both garlic and red onions strung up and french plaited in the shed.